Robert W. Deutsch Foundation

The Robert W. Deutsch Foundation invests in innovative people, projects, and ideas that improve the quality of life in Baltimore and beyond.

ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTIONS
The Deutsch Foundation realized that Baltimore attracts amazing young creatives. Whether working in tech, science, social justice, or the arts, the whole city’s creative economy is fueled by these individuals coming and wanting to stay. The problem? Their contributions were not being recognized and their needs were not being supported. So the foundation asked—what can we do that would have a major impact? They talked with these young creatives, asking them three questions: Why are you here? What do you need to be more successful? What would make you leave? They learned what attracts, retains, and the barriers that push them out. One big takeaway was the need for quality places to work, create, perform, and showcase what they do.

DEVELOPING THE CREATIVE ECONOMY
Creatives are often pushed out of communities once the area becomes exciting to developers. The only way to counter that is to buy, develop, and sustain facilities, but foundations don’t do that. We decided to incubate and launch BARCO, a nonprofit arts real estate development corporation. For every dollar the Deutsch Foundation puts in, BARCO raises or secures two or three, dedicated to developing the creative economy. The Deutsch Foundation sees Baltimore’s cultural sector as a creative ecosystem where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Collaboration, influence, and access allow people to come together and grow together, whether through community spaces, creative hubs, art education, public art, or more. The overall goal in funding smaller organizations and projects is to attract and retain emerging talent, for artists and activists to have jobs, and for organizations to grow and hire staff. The longer term impact is to revitalize Baltimore as a thriving, healthy, and growing creative community.

INVESTING EARLY AND TAKING A HANDS-ON APPROACH
The Robert W. Deutsch Foundation operates differently than many other philanthropic organizations. Most of our grants go for general operating support and capacity building. It’s hardest for organizations to raise money to keep the lights on as opposed to an exciting special project. We try to place as few barriers as possible in front of grantees. Additionally, many foundations will not fund newer organizations until they have several years of financials. In this context, the Deutsch Foundation decided to essentially become “Angel Investors,” and create greater access to early stage funding, technical assistance, networking opportunities, and to intellectual, financial, and collaborative resources. Our key decision-makers are deeply involved in Baltimore’s communities. We want to be able to rapidly respond when a need is dire. Since we are not limited by an overly bureaucratic process, we can be nimble, flexible, and responsive. The Deutsch Foundation stays closely engaged with the people we support, from the earliest stages to the point when they attract funding from other sources. We see great value, come in early, take the risk, and help innovators to be successful. We are determined to “go to where the silence is.”

ADDRESSING RACIAL INEQUITY
At the Deutsch Foundation, we bring a lens of racial equity—an understanding and acknowledgement of historical and ongoing racial inequities and a commitment to actions challenging those inequities—to our grant making, priority setting process, programming, and strategic planning.

Because of our commitment to a racially just and equitable Baltimore and beyond, we are working intentionally and collaboratively to:
- Build pathways to increase access to financial and human capital among organizations and communities most affected by inequities, and to amplify those voices;
- Foster ongoing dialogue through deep partnerships with anti-racist and anti-oppression practitioners to explore key concepts including cultural, structural, and institutional racism, white privilege, and racial equity, especially with regard to context of place.

Our commitment to racial equity requires ongoing reflection and action. We see emergence and adaptation as core to our approach as we encounter new perspectives and additional information; as such, this statement is "living" and will continue to evolve as we gain new understandings.

FOCUSING ON BALTIMORE
The Deutsch Foundation is hyper-local. We focus on Baltimore because the money we distribute was made here, because the needs are massive, and because Baltimore has exciting potential. The city’s history as an entrepreneurial hub and its contributions as a creative leader are significant, but our former prominence in 19th and 20th century industry has been lost. Now that we are a 21st century city, we need to participate in a new, creative economy. The Deutsch Foundation sees its role as providing seed funding to create and sustain human capital—helping the inspiring change-makers here do what they do best.

Robert W. Deutsch was born in New York City in 1924 to a family of modest means. Robert earned a degree in physics from M.I.T in 1948 and completed his doctoral degree in physics in 1953 at UC Berkeley. Florence Kadish’s family fled Poland in 1938 for New York City. Florence and Bob married in 1949. The couple settled in Baltimore in 1964. In 1968, Dr. Deutsch launched his career as an entrepreneur by founding General Physics Corporation, which would become the leading provider of training programs for operating personnel in the nation’s nuclear power plants. While most consultants would talk to the CEO, Deutsch’s approach was to roll up his sleeves, talk to those on ground level, and get suggestions from them on how to improve the company.

In 1988, Dr. Deutsch left General Physics and founded RWD Technologies, a company focused on the IT revolution that was transforming the way companies manufactured products, managed their business operations, and communicated with their suppliers and customers.

Throughout his career, Dr. Deutsch remained true to his commitment to invest in the education, training, and development of people, and to promote innovative thinking and solutions for complex problems in the workplace.

Formed in 1991, the Deutsch Foundation was quite small for its first 15 years, but grew tenfold following the sale of the family-owned business. The Foundation looked at what it could contribute significantly to the vitality and revitalization of Baltimore—assets in which others were not investing. It became clear that investing in the emerging innovation, arts, and creative economy in Baltimore would have the greatest impact.

Florence and Robert were extraordinarily generous in a very private and unassuming way. While much has changed over the years, their vision and values are still embedded in the heart of the foundation.