Carol Bernstein Ferry

The DJB Foundation was founded by Daniel Bernstein in 1946. Rather than creating this foundation for philanthropic causes, Mr. Bernstein created it simply as a way to keep the inheritance he received from his father safe until he could decide what to do with it.[3] Mr. Bernstein and his wife Carol used money from the DJB Foundation for various small expenses over the course of their marriage; but it wasn't until the start of the Vietnam War, which Mr. Bernstein vehemently opposed, that the foundation found its niche in the world of leftist politics. Unfortunately, Mr. Bernstein was not able to bring the war to an end by buying up whole-page ads in local and national newspapers that gave people his informed perspective on the war.[3]

By the time Mr. Bernstein died of leukemia in 1970, six million dollars remained in the DJB Foundation, and his widow decided that it was time to spend all the money. Ms. Bernstein Ferry says, “So, in 1970 I started trying to shovel [the money] out, with not very much success because I just didn’t know what I was doing.”[3] When she discovered how little she knew about being a successful philanthropist, Ms. Bernstein brought three other people into the mix: Steve Abrams, the Bernstein's long-time personal and business accountant, Robert S. Browne, a black economist interested in the fight against AIDS and in economic recovery programs for black farmers, and W. H. “Ping” Ferry, who had worked for the Ford Foundation and who would later become Carol Bernstein's second husband.[3]

Rather than creating a foundation that would last into perpetuity, this team of four decided that they were going to spend all the money. The goal was to be out of money in ten years, but the money was spent in about four and a half. In an interview, Ms. Bernstein Ferry says that she wanted to spend all the money because they could know the needs of the present but not of the future and because she simply felt better as more of the money disappeared.[3]

Thus began the interesting way in which the Ferrys, as many would later refer to them, gave out money. Rather than writing checks to major organizations for thousands of dollars, the DJB Foundation focused on “the empowering of small groups [and] individual people” by giving out smaller amounts to individuals and to grassroots organizations. The idea behind this style of giving was that a large sum of money can “corrupt and distort” the goals of an organization, but all it takes to get something started or to keep it going is a few hundred dollars.[1]

Throughout the five years of foundation giving, the four philanthropists focused on human rights, economic recovery, and the anti-war effort.[1] The foundation gave money to many large groups who were covers for “dissenters and resistors,” and when the Foundation could not give more money to the political lobbying groups because of non-profit giving restrictions, Carol Bernstein – later with the help of her husband W.H. "Ping" Ferry – wrote personal checks for what she called “regular money.”

Although DJB Foundation focused mainly on smaller groups and smaller checks, it did regularly support a few larger efforts with larger amounts of money. These groups included the Inter-Religious Foundation for Community Organization, the Youth Project, and San Francisco's Young Adult Projects.[1]

For the most part, Mr. and Mrs. Ferry followed the same pattern with their personal giving as with their foundation giving: they tended to give small amounts to grassroots organizations. One difference, though, was that the couple wrote many checks for the general living expenses of individuals and organizations. In an oral history, Carol states that this was because it is typically difficult for organizations to raise money for basic expenses instead of major projects.[3]

Throughout the duration of their personal giving, the Ferrys focused largely on the same types of organizations – and many of exactly the same organizations – that had been the focus of the DJB Foundation. Their giving went to many left-wing political groups and many groups who were seeking to do some specific good in their communities or the world at large. The Ferrys also gave some funds to education, the arts, and animal rights, although they did not focus on these areas as much since these organizations usually had no trouble raising funds.[1]

The Ferrys said that they often spent time skimming newspaper articles for noteworthy organizations or individuals who needed money, and they would often write checks without being asked. For instance, the Ferrys once supported a doctor in a small, poor, all-black neighborhood who was running his own clinic there; the doctor had never even heard of the Ferrys when until he received their first check, and they continued to support him for several years.[3]

Although the Ferrys rarely wrote checks for more than two or three thousand dollars at a time, they gave larger amounts – sometimes more than $25,000 a year – to major companies who were doing work the Ferrys considered very important. Another prerequisite for these large checks was that the company had to have a large enough budget that the Ferrys' money would help without creating a situation in which leadership could be corrupted by a huge new influx of funds. Some of the organizations the Ferrys continually supported include:

• The Africa Fund
• The American Civil Liberties Union Foundation
• The Center for Constitutional Rights
• The Emergency Land Fund
• The Twenty-First Century Foundation
• The Fund for Peace

The Ferrys supported hundreds of individuals and organizations over the years, and after Ping's death in 1995, Carol continued writing checks, although the numbers and amounts dwindled over the years as the Ferrys’ personal funds ran down. After Ping's death, Mrs. Bernstein Ferry continued to support organizations such as the Advocacy Institute; the Agape Foundation, which sought for non-violent social change; the Albany, NY Friends Foundation; the Aleph Alliance for Jewish Renewal; the Westchester Rutman Special Olympics; and the Alternatives to Violence Project.[1]