Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation

The Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation, a private charitable foundation, has made over $150 million dollars in grants to a variety of charities across Central Indiana since 1968. Richard M. Fairbanks Jr., the son of a prominent lawyer and grandson of Theodore Roosevelt’s vice president, Charles Warren Fairbanks, built a successful national media empire. He also invested successfully in real estate. He owned part of the Indiana Pacers, a professional basketball team, as well as a share in Carnegie Hall.

In 1986, Fairbanks created a charitable foundation. As he sold radio and television stations from his portfolio, he deposited proceeds into the Foundation.

Fairbanks, who led the organization until his death in 2000, focused his generosity on the city where he gained success. He insisted that foundation directors have a close connection to Indianapolis and that funded projects benefit the city. After his estate closed, an additional $132 million dollars moved into the Foundation.

The Foundation has supported a wide variety of community organizations. During its first two decades, it made small grants to many local organizations along with a few large, multi-year commitments to support capital projects undertaken by organizations the fund already supported. Gifts funded development at schools, such as the creation of the Fairbanks Center for Communications at Butler University, and at cultural institutions, including major construction at the Indianapolis Museum of Art and the Indianapolis Zoo. The Foundation gave $2.5 million in 1999 to create a burn center at Wishard Hospital.

Over time, the Foundation came to favor opportunities that allowed it to leverage philanthropic gifts to foster larger economic growth in the community. In 2010, for example, the Foundation committed $20 million to make possible the development of the Fairbanks School of Public Health on the IUPUI campus. This gift made the university competitive for large federal research grants and other philanthropic funds it could not otherwise receive. Building the school, which opened in 2018, also brought new, high-paying jobs to the community. 

The Fairbanks Foundation held assets exceeding $300 million in 2020. The Foundation continues to focus on initiatives designed to support education, health, and the general vitality of the city of Indianapolis. It has funded the Indiana University (IU) Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health (named in Fairbank’s honor), the IU School of Medicine’s Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute, the Polis Center at IUPUI for its SAVI Enhanced Health Database, United Way of Central Indiana, 100 Black Men of Indianapolis, 16 Tech Community Corporation, and many other Indianapolis organizations.