Financial Information

Please take a few minutes to explore our financial information in more detail, and don't hesitate to contact us if you have any questions. We look forward to your continuing engagement and support.

This past fiscal year, the Hertz Foundation experienced another strong fundraising year, raising $7.64 million from 367 fellows, organizations, and other friends, including 41 new donors. This marked upward growth with a $1.7 million increase in fundraising efforts from the prior fiscal year, an expanded donor base, and renewed momentum in donor participation.

Due to the incredible generosity of our donors, nine new named Hertz Fellowships and one new endowed Hertz Fellowship were established this past year. Additionally, philanthropic support from the Hertz Community helped establish the David Galas Fund for Fellows and provided support for the annual Hertz Topical Forum, held at Mont-Tremblant alongside the 2024 Hertz Summer Workshop. It is the generosity of Hertz Fellows, parents, friends, and organizations alike that allow the foundation to identify, select, and nurture our nation’s most brilliant and principled innovators who are pushing the boundaries of science and technology, tackling our greatest challenges of today and the future.

The foundation’s commitment to enhancing our nation’s security and economic vitality, while fueling its global leadership in science and technology, does not stop here. Under the thoughtful guidance and bold leadership of President Robbee Kosak, and continuing in the new year under incoming President Wendy Connors, the Hertz Foundation’s Board of Directors will continue on its path of setting and achieving ambitious goals in the pursuit of providing our nation’s top science and technology leaders with intellectual freedom, a lifelong, supportive community of like-minded peers, and synergistic opportunities for collaboration and innovation. We are incredibly grateful for your continued support.

This past year we saw an increase in donor participation, with 25% of Hertz Fellows making a gift to the foundation between July 1, 2023 and June 30, 2024, an improvement over the previous fundraising year. Despite declining donor rates nationwide across the entire nonprofit sector, support of the Hertz Foundation has remained strong, and we are hopeful that participation will continue to rise as the bold and visionary Hertz Community dares to think bigger with us.

Consistent annual giving is essential to the financial health and success of the Hertz Foundation and Hertz Fellowship program, and the collective generosity of our dedicated donor community can have an outsized impact on our Hertz Fellows. This year, Hertz Fellows and other supporters who made annual gifts under $1,000 contributed nearly $75,000 —enough to support an entire Hertz Fellowship over the course of the academic year and more than 20 Hertz Community events across the country.

Thank you to our donors who have made the foundation a philanthropic priority this past year, and we are grateful for your continued support.

The Hertz Foundation’s assets continue to grow, positioning us to raise more funds and make an even greater impact in the years to come. As treasurer of the Hertz Board of Directors, I remain cautiously optimistic about our robust financial management and the strength of our fundraising program.

As of June 30, 2024, our assets totaled $41.1 million—a 15.2% increase from 2023—and included $1.4 million in cash and cash equivalents, $4 million in pledges receivable, and $35.2 million in the investment portfolio. Net assets also increased 15.2% in 2024.

Over the last three years, we have maintained a rolling average of an accrued surplus of 7% per year, with an endowment withdrawal rate of 5.4% this past year. Our strong financial performance is crucial as we continue to secure resources to support our strategic plan.

We have kept a conservative stance in our investment portfolio—a position we embraced in late 2021 that allowed us to skirt the 2022 market losses. Recognizing that a traditional 60/40 (equities/fixed income) allocation could leave us vulnerable in the event of stock market volatility, we chose to prioritize a more cautious approach. In essence, a 60% equity exposure would subject us to more risk than equity losses.

Although we would not have expected to match the U.S. stock market performance during this particular fiscal year, we outperformed noted university endowments—such as Harvard, MIT, and Stanford, all reporting performance under 10% for the same time period. We achieved this without any allocation to illiquid investments, a stark contrast to most endowments with 15-25% allocated to such investments.

Moving forward, we plan to maintain our current allocation unless the Federal Reserve signals an easing of interest rates, in which case we may consider extending the duration of our fixed income portfolio by a year. We are committed to careful and deliberate adjustments to our financial strategy to ensure the Hertz Foundation’s continued success and stability.

We tweak, but we tweak carefully.

The Hertz Foundation is proud to be recognized with the highest rating from two of the world's top sources of information and evaluation on nonprofit organizations, indicating that donors can give with confidence knowing that their gifts will contribute meaningfully to the success of our mission.

FY2023 Philanthropy Report
FY2023 Audited Financial Report
FY2023 Form 990
FY2022 Philanthropy Report
FY2022 Audited Financial Report
FY2022 Form 990
FY2021 Philanthropy Report
FY2021 Audited Financial Report
FY2021 Form 990

The Fannie and John Hertz Foundation is a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization.

Our tax ID is 36-2411723.