Type: Private Family Foundation
The Stephen Harold Schimmel Foundation is a California-based, private, tax-exempt entity founded in 1995. According to its tax filings, the president, secretary, and treasurer of the Foundation is Rosalba Schimmel, the wife of millionaire Stephen Harold Schimmel. There is little other publicly available information about the Schimmels’ or the Foundation. Between 2014 and 2016, the Foundation’s tax filings listed a single grantee — the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) — to whom it donated more than $1 million. CBN is a powerful amplifier of anti-Muslim conspiracies and lies, with founder Pat Robertson repeatedly calling Islam a “violent religion” and a “political ideology.”
Although CBN has been the fund’s primary beneficiary in recent years, historically, the Schimmel Foundation has funded a larger network of Christian organizations, networks, and churches across the country. In the early 2000s, the Schimmel Foundation served as a regular donor to the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, located in Sarasota, Florida.
