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Castle Rock Foundation

The Castle Rock Foundation (CRF), a major supporter of the Heritage Foundation and other rightist institutions and causes, is an outgrowth of the Adolph Coors Foundation, the philanthropic organization of the Colorado beer magnate family. The Coors Foundation, which largely restricts its funding to Colorado, allocated $36.6 million to establish Castle Rock in 1993 with the goals of promoting free enterprise, limited government, and personal responsibility.1 It claims to "encourage personal responsibility and leadership, and uphold traditional American values."2

While the Adolph Coors Foundation funds mainstream and geographically targeted causes, Castle Rock’s charitable giving more closely reflects the conservative ideology of the Coors family, which has been a key funder of the American Right since the early 1970s. Both foundations, however, are strongly under the control of the Coors family, according to the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, which reports that the “two foundations have the same executive director and board of trustees."3 Castle Rock’s politically driven agenda is evident from its charitable giving record. Major grantees have included Heritage and the Free Congress Foundation, both founded by New Right trail blazer Paul Weyrich.4

Adolph Coors Sr. founded the Coors brewing company in 1873. A century later, funds from the Adolph Coors Jr. Trust were used to create the Adolph Coors Foundation as a private family foundation. Family patriarch Joseph Coors backed Paul Weyrich's plan to establish a new conservative think tank called the Heritage Foundation in 1973. Later, Joseph Coors, who died in March 2003, also provided Weyrich with the seed money to create the Committee for the Survival of the Free Congress, now known simply as the Free Congress Foundation.5 In the mid-1990s, the Coors family received national scrutiny when an AFL-CIO boycott brought attention to homophobic, racist, and anti-labor practices and statements of the Coors Brewing Company and its owners. To improve its deteriorating public image, the company began to fund minority groups and improve worker conditions. However, the family continued to fund right-wing causes.6 According to researchers Russ Bellant and Chip Berlet, "The pattern of Coors family funding and activism stands in stark contrast to the mainstream image projected by the Coors Brewing Co., whose advertising and funding reach out to African-American, women's, and gay communities."7

Coors family members are active in many of the organizations funded by Castle Rock. Holland Coors, for example, is a board member of the Heritage Foundation and a trustee of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute; Jeffrey Coors is the director of Free Congress Research and Education and a board member of the Independence Institute.8 Over the years CRF has given $2,948,760 to the Heritage Foundation, $350,000 to the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, $1,075,000 to the Free Congress Foundation, and $575,000 to the Independence Institute.9

During fiscal year 2007, the foundation awarded $2,538,000 to a variety of organizations and institutions, including legal foundations, right-wing think tanks, Christian ministries, and educational institutions.10 2007 grantees included the Heritage Foundation, the David Horowitz Freedom Center, the Institute on Religion and Public Life, and the Manhattan Institute. 11 Top grantees since 1993 have included Heritage, Hillsdale College, the Free Congress Research and Education Foundation, Johnson & Wales University, the Adolph Coors Medical Research Foundation, the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts, the Mountain States Legal Foundation, the John Wayne Cancer Institute, the Institute for Justice, and the Pacific Legal Foundation.12

Please note: IPS Right Web neither represents nor endorses any of the individuals or groups profiled on this site.