carlmfreemanfoundation.org

302-654-8500

Selbyville, DE

N. Bethesda, MD

Cover photo provided by the Brooklyn Museum.

mission

The Carl M. Freeman Foundation, a private family foundation established in 1960, commits its time, talent and treasure to facilitate, support and promote innovative community-based leadership and giving. We seek to honor our founders’ legacies and passions by endorsing excellence and leveraging resources. Generally, we limit donations to communities where the customers, employees and vendors of Carl M. Freeman Companies live, work and play.

history

Carl Freeman founded the Carl M. Freeman Foundation in 1960 and led major philanthropic efforts throughout the Greater Washington area.

Upon Mr. Freeman’s death, his son Joshua M. Freeman served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees for the Carl M. Freeman Foundation, continuing his father’s legacy of giving back to the areas

where the Carl M. Freeman Companies do business. Joshua Freeman tragically died in a helicopter accident in December 2006.

“Life is a journey, and on my journey I want to touch as many people as possible.”

Carl Freeman

The legacy of the Freeman family continues today under the leadership of Michelle Freeman. Michelle wholeheartedly leads the efforts of the Carl M. Freeman Foundation honoring the passions of Carl, Virginia and Joshua Freeman as well as leading philanthropic efforts for social change.

A message from our president & Chair

As we reflect on the past year, we are filled with pride and gratitude for the ingenuity and grit we continue to see in our grantee partners. It is with great humility that we share our 2023 Annual Impact Report, highlighting just some of the grantee partners and the incredible work that they do for our communities.

2023 marked a momentous year for the Carl M. Freeman Foundation as many large, multi-year grants were realized, and are noted later in this report. Our Foundation also made the first payment of the largest grant that this organization has ever made to the Freeman Arts Pavilion supporting the construction of its permanent performing arts venue, sure to become the areas premiere concert venue.

Continuing our family’s legacy of supporting the arts, two pieces of art owned by the Foundation were included in a

remarkable exhibit, Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons: Behold. This exhibit was first shown at the Brooklyn Museum and will travel to three additional locations before returning in 2025.

I am continually humbled by the partnerships found in this report. Together, we continue to meet the needs of our communities. We are grateful for the hope our partners bring to the places where we live, work and play. I look forward to the collaborations that lie ahead.

With gratitude,

Michelle Freeman

President & Chair

Meet our team

Investing in our community

Serving the communities where the employees, vendors and customers of the Carl M. Freeman Companies live, work and play.

The Carl M. Freeman Foundation strives to fund opportunities that provide impact in the Delmarva Peninsula and Greater DC region. We focus our contributions where the need is greatest in our communities, including social services, art, education, healthcare and environmental efforts through grants, discretionary contributions and event sponsorships.

$58.9M

Total cumulative grants & commitments since 1960

to 1,115 organizations

$5.5M

Total grants & commitments in 2023 to 156 organizations

Giving in 2023

philanthropic impact

2023 Giving Highlights

Creating places that enrich lives are the words the Carl M. Freeman Companies live by. Of equal note was our founder’s belief that to whom much is given, much is expected. Thus, in 1960, he established the Carl M. Freeman Foundation, which, via grants and guidance, assists nonprofit organizations throughout the Maryland and Delaware area.

A rendering of the future Freeman Arts Pavilion.

Dionne Warwick with Michelle Freeman at the Freeman Arts Pavilion.

literacy partnership

In May, the Foundation partnered with Literacy Delaware to host a screening of “The Truth About Reading: The Invisible Crisis Hiding in Plain Sight”. This eye-opening documentary film from Emmy-Award winning director Nick Nanton brought to light the illiteracy crisis in America, highlighting people who learned to read as adults and shared proposed solutions for working towards a future where every child learns to read proficiently.

The event began with a panel discussion of local literacy leaders and a participant of Literacy Delaware’s English classes.

The event was an eye-opening experience for attendees and highlighted the illiteracy crisis in America and in Sussex County, Delaware.

In 2021, the Carl M. Freeman Foundation purchased three artworks by Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons entitled Descending Angels 1, 2 and 3. Since then, Campos-Pons’ work has been inspiring visitors to the Foundation’s office building while her career has continued to flourish.

Magda, as she is affectionately known by those that are lucky enough to meet her, has seen a surge of excitement in her work as demonstrated by recent acquisitions of her art by the Museum of Modern Art (New York), Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington, DC) and the J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles) among many others.

In the fall of 2023, the Brooklyn Museum and J. Paul Getty Museum presented Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons: Behold, a major traveling multimedia survey of her work, the first since 2007. Two of the Descending Angels peices owned by the Foundation are a part of the exhibit. The exhibit began at the Brooklyn Museum and will travel to the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, the First Art Museum and finally the J. Paul Getty Museum.

Faces

Freeman Assists Communities with Extra Support

The FACES program is designed to find and fund the smaller, often overlooked projects in our neighborhoods. This grant program is limited to nonprofit organizations with operating budgets of $500,000 or less in Sussex County, DE or $750,000 or less in Montgomery County, MD. Nonprofit organizations can apply for a grant award of $2,500, $5,000, or $10,000. The total award fund for each county is $100,000.

FACES grants support grassroots nonprofit organizations who are making a distinct impact on the ground level in our communities. FACES utilizes a volunteer advisory board composed of community leaders who evaluate grant applications and recommend funding choices. The FACES advisory board provides a unique insight into community needs and priorities and allows us to support projects that are most important to the community.

FACES Sussex 2023 grantee representatives and Advisory Board members

FACES Montgomery 2023 grantee representatives and Advisory Board members

2023 FACES Grantees

Sussex County, Delaware

Montgomery County, Maryland

• Art Works for All
• Cancer Support Community Delaware
• Clothing Our Kids
• Engineer Early Association
• ESL at Lutheran Church of Our Savior
• Family Promise of Southern Delaware
• Historic Lewes Farmers Market
• New Hope Recreation & Development Center
• North Georgetown Elementary School
• Phillip C. Showell Elementary School
• St. Vincent de Paul Society
• SNAC Gardens Foundation
• The Rosa Health Center
• West Side New Beginnings
• Zoe Ministries
  

• American Muslim Senior Society
• Arts for the Aging
  
• Charles Koiner Center for Urban Farming
  
• Community FarmShare
  
• Court Watch Montgomery
  
• Devon C. Rubenstein Foundation
  
• Gaithersburg Beloved Community Initiative
• Gaithersburg HELP
• Leveling the Playing Field
• Spanish Speaking Community of Maryland
• Voices for Children Montgomery
  

2023 grantees

American Heart Association

American Muslim Senior Society

Anti-Defamation League

Art League of Ocean City, Inc.

Art Works for All

Arts for the Aging, Inc.

Athletes for Hope

Baltimore Animal Rescue

Barbara K. Brooks Transition House, Inc.

Beebe Medical Foundation

Bender JCC of Greater Washington

Bethany-Fenwick Area Chamber

Bigfoot Endurance Incorporated

Boys & Girls Club of Delaware

Brandywine Valley SPCA

The Brojora Foundation

Building Bridges Across the River

Byte Back

Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation

Camp Arrowhead

Camp Barnes

Camp Rehoboth

Cancer Support Community Delaware

Cape Henlopen Educational Foundation

Catholic Coalition for Special Education

Celebrate Wellness

Charles Koiner Center for Urban Living

Children's Beach House

City Dwellings

Contractors for a Cause

Court Appointed Special Advocate

Court Watch Montgomery

Crohn's & Colitis Foundation

Delaware 4-H Foundation

Delaware Adolescent Program, Inc.

Delaware Breast Cancer Coalition, Inc.

Delaware Center for the Inland Bays

Delaware Farm Bureau Foundation

Delaware Hospice, Inc.

Delaware Nature Society

Delaware Sports Commission

Delaware Technical & Community College

Delmarva Community Wellnet

Delmarva Whiskey Club Charitable Fdn.

Devon C. Rubenstein Foundation

Doctors without Borders

Engineer Early Association

ESL@LCOS

F Fentanyl, Inc

Family Promise of Southern Delaware

FIDF NY Office

First State Ballet

First Tee Greater Washington, DC

Folds of Honor

Food Bank of Delaware

Food for Montgomery Fund

Fostering Wishes Foundation

Freeman Arts Pavilion

Friends of Volta Park, Inc.

Furnish Hope DC

Gaithersburg Beloved Community Initiative

Gaithersburg HELP, Inc.

Georgetown University

Girls on the Run Delaware, Inc.

Greater DC Diaper Bank

Grow Together Snow Foundation

Halcyon House

Harry K Foundation

Hellenic Initiative

Hero Dogs Inc.

Historic Lewes Farmers Market

Holton-Arms School

Howard T. Ennis School

Humane Animal Partners

In One Accord

Interfaith Works, Inc.

James Beard Foundation

James R. Kyger, Jr. Foundation

Jewish Federation of Greater Washington

Joshua M. Freeman Foundation

Juneteenth Scotland Foundation Inc

Juvenile Diabetes Foundation

The Kennedy Center

La Esperanza

Landon School

Leadership Delaware, Inc.

Leveling the Playing Field, Inc.

Levine School of Music

Lewes Fire Department

Life With Cancer

Living Classroom Foundation

Lower Sussex Little League, Inc.

Lyme Disease Association of Delmarva

March on Washington

Mercy Health Clinic

Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra

Middleburg Film Festival

Montgomery Co. Beef 4-H Club

Montgomery College Foundation

Montgomery County Sheep & Swine 4-H Club

Mother Seton Academy

Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation

Nanticoke Indian Association

New Creation VA

New Hope Rec and Development Center, Inc.

Next Generation Southern Delaware

Nicklaus Children's Hospital

North Georgetown Elementary School

Nourish Now

Ocean View Historical Society

One-to-One Ovarian Cancer Center Support

Phillip C. Showell Elementary School

Phillips Collection

Pine Tones Chorus Association

Primeros Pasos, Inc.

Quiet Resorts Charitable Foundation

Read Aloud Delaware

Rehoboth Art League

Rehoboth Beach Film Society

Rehoboth Concert Band

River Soccer Club

Roaring Spring ARCH

Rosa Health Center

Roxana Fire Company

Saint Jude Shrine

Saint Vincent de Paul Society

Salvation Army

Santa's Letters

Selbyville Fire Company

Selbyville Public Library

Senior Softball World Series

Shepherd's Office, Inc.

Smithsonian Institution

Southern Delaware Orchestra

Southern Poverty Law Center

Southern Sussex Rotary Club

Spanish Speaking Community

Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Fdn.

Strathmore Hall Foundation, Inc.

Sussex Economic Develop Act Committee

Sussex Land Foundation

The Viva School

The Trust for the National Mall

USG Foundation - Grossberg Co.

Village Improvement Association

The Washington Ballet

Westside New Beginnings

Wilderness Leadership and Learning, Inc.

Winchester Thurston School