Mission Statement for the White Family Foundation:
The White Family Foundation seeks to create possibilities by providing meaningful and thoughtful support for the arts and art education programs in non-profit organizations serving our community. We are dedicated to fostering opportunity and enriching the community through the power of philanthropy.
In doing so, The Foundation is guided by the following White family values:
Community
Impact
Integrity
Opportunity
Our History
Starting in the 1990s with his family business restructured and revitalized under the leadership of his son, John Jr., John Hazen White Sr., along with his wife, Mary Tefft White (who went by her childhood nickname Happy), began to contribute significant gifts to educational institutions and arts organizations in Rhode Island. In the early 1940s, John White Sr. moved the manufacturing firm that his father started in 1920 from Connecticut to RI. Through their philanthropy, John and Happy’s intention always was to give something back to the community in their adopted state where they worked, lived and raised their family.
Over the years, their philanthropy established the John Hazen White Public Opinion Laboratory at Brown University, the John Hazen White Center for Arts and Science at Johnson and Wales University and the John Hazen White Center for Ethics and Public Policy at the University of Rhode Island. Endowed scholarship funds were established at the University of Rhode Island, the Community College of Rhode Island and Rhode Island College as well the Ballard Graduate Fellowship at the College of Oceanography at URI. John and Happy White’s passion for the Arts encouraged them to make significant investments in the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra & Music School, the Trinity Repertory Company, FirstWorks and other local arts organizations.
After John Sr.’s passing in 2001, Happy White and her son, John Hazen White, Jr., established the John & Happy White Foundation to continue the work that meant so much to the couple. The John and Happy White Foundation focused its giving on four areas: Music/Arts, Education, Healthcare and Community Service, with a fifth area of focus – the Environment – added a few years later. In the years that followed, the John and Happy White Foundation expanded the board to include legal and non-profit experts from the community and began to establish criteria to receive proposals for support directly from the non-profit community.
Happy White passed away in 2009. One year later, John Hazen White Jr. restructured the foundation and changed the name to the White Family Foundation to represent the inclusiveness of the family’s involvement and to reflect the commitment of the family business, Taco Comfort Solutions, and the White family to the betterment of the RI community. During the next seven years, under the direction of Thomas Farrell, the Foundation continued to give broadly to the non-profit sector. In 2016 the Foundation appointed Marjorie Houston executive director and in 2017, the Board undertook a strategic planning initiative to redefine its mission and focus. Following the passions of John Hazen White Sr. and Happy White, the Board decided to narrow its focus to the ARTS in all its forms. Today, the Foundation supports art programs, projects and services of non-profit community organizations in Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts. It also continues the family’s belief in the power of education by establishing the Taco/White Family Research and Innovation Laboratory at the URI College of Engineering, establishing an endowed scholarship at Wheaton College and at Community Preparatory School and continues support for a myriad of programs at St. Andrews School.
However, it is the family’s passion for the Arts that has made the broadest impact and had the greatest influence in the community at large through its support of the Providence Performing Arts Center Broadway Series, the Classical Series and the Rush Hour Series with the RI Philharmonic Orchestra, Trinity Repertory Company and many local theatre, community and social arts programs that serve youth and adults. Since 2010, the White Family Foundation’s name has become synonymous with Arts and Culture in Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts and today is the only foundation in the area that focuses the majority of its resources on strengthening the arts in the community through its support of innovative, creative, and traditional programs.