The Melvin and Bren Simon Foundation is a private grantmaking organization founded by American billionaire real estate developer Melvin Simon, cofounder of Simon Property Group, and his second wife Bren Simon. The foundation supports a variety of left-of-center organizations severally associated with the Democratic Party, Clinton family, environmentalist advocacy, and civic causes in Indiana.
Background
The Melvin and Bren Simon Foundation was founded as a private grantmaking philanthropic organization in July 1998 in Carbondale, Colorado, by billionaire Melvin Simon, co-founder of the Simon Property Group, and his second wife, Bren Simon, president of MBS Associates Inc., LLC, a property management company. 27
In September 2013, the foundation made a donation to the University of California, Los Angeles to fund the establishment of the Melvin and Bren Simon Digestive Diseases Center, which focuses on gastroenterological home health programs, minimally invasive procedures, and research. 8
Other organizations that the Foundation supports include the Human Rights Foundation, Habitat for Humanity, Friends of the Earth, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Clinton Global Initiative, the University of Arkansas’s Clinton School of Public Service, the Climate Reality Project, and the Aspen Institute.