Fieldstead and Company

What Fieldstead and Company does

Fieldstead and Company, Inc. is a private family philanthropy founded in 1979 by Howard F. Ahmanson Jr., headquartered in Irvine, California, and operating with 11–50 employees. The foundation is the primary grant-making vehicle for Howard and Roberta Ahmanson and their son David, focusing on relief and development work (domestic and international), religious liberty, arts and culture, education, journalism, housing and land-use policy, and life issues. It is closely associated with, but legally distinct from, The Ahmanson Foundation, for which Howard Ahmanson serves as a trustee.

The organization operates not as a product or technology company but as a programmatic philanthropy. Its activities include direct grant-making to nonprofit organizations, academic institutions, scholars, and artists; sponsorship of conferences and lecture series (notably the Chadwick-Oden Lecture Series at St. Michael's Abbey and a local government conference series at Chapman University); art collection and exhibition programming (visible on its website through 2025); music commissions; and curated travel experiences. Distribution is direct: the foundation does not accept unsolicited proposals and identifies grantees through its own network.

The business model is non-commercial. Fieldstead generates no product or service revenue and explicitly does not sell offerings or accept unsolicited pitches. Its operating economics depend on the endowment and capital base controlled by the Ahmanson family. There is no disclosed revenue, no pricing model, no funding rounds, no institutional investors, and no parent company beyond the individual founder-owner. The foundation is privately held, US-incorporated, and not a candidate for public-market activity.

Name

Fieldstead and Company

Legal name

Fieldstead and Company, Inc.

Website

https://fieldstead.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1979

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Fieldstead and Company is a private family philanthropy founded in 1979 by Howard F. Ahmanson Jr. that funds nonprofit organizations, scholars, and artists working on religious liberty, arts and culture, education, housing policy, and relief and development.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Private Philanthropy Foundation

NAICS

Grantmaking Foundations (813211)

akta.pro primary industry

Private Foundations (BPAGAKAA)

akta.pro secondary industries

Arts, Culture & Humanities Grantmaking Foundations (BPAGAKAJ), Education Grantmaking Foundations (BPAGAKAK), International Grantmaking & Development Foundations (BPAGAKAH)

Keywords

• Private family foundation
• Philanthropic grant making
• Religious liberty grants
• Arts culture funding
• Humanitarian relief support

Headquarters

HQ city

Irvine

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Others, Personnel, Operations

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels2 records

Core offering

Fieldstead and Company is a private family philanthropy that conducts grant-making in support of relief and development work in the United States and abroad, religious liberty issues, and cultural issues spanning the arts, education, journalism, and politics. The foundation channels funds through direct grants to nonprofit organizations, academic institutions, individual scholars, and artists, and complements this with sponsored conferences, lecture series, art exhibitions, and music commissions.

Product overview

Fieldstead and Company is a private philanthropy founded in 1979 by Howard F. Ahmanson, Jr. It is a single, unified charitable organization rather than a platform with multiple modules. The organization channels grants through various initiatives including the Ahmanson Foundation, sponsors conferences at Chapman University, supports art exhibitions and music commissions, and hosts lecture series such as the Chadwick-Oden Lecture Series. The organization focuses on deepening awareness and fostering better policy regarding issues of affordable housing, land use, religious liberty, and cultural issues.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Recent moves4 records

Expansion highlights3 records

Direct peers

• Adolph Coors Foundation: Conservative family foundation funding education, civic engagement, and cultural causes; similar size band, family-controlled structure, and issue diversity to Fieldstead.
• William E. Simon Foundation: Family foundation supporting faith-based, educational, and inner-city initiatives through grantmaking; comparable structure and operating model as a multi-issue family philanthropy.
• Diana Davis Spencer Foundation: Family foundation supporting education, religion, arts, and civic causes; similar privately-held structure and multi-issue reminitus to Fieldstead.
• The Ahmanson Foundation: The parent-generation foundation founded by Howard Ahmanson's father H.F. Ahmanson in the 1950s; Howard serves as trustee and the two organizations share principal-advisor overlap in arts, education, and religious causes, making this the closest family-affiliated peer.
• John M. Olin Foundation: Private foundation that has historically funded scholarship and policy in areas including religion, economics, and constitutional studies — closely aligned with Fieldstead's intellectual and cultural remit.
• Searle Freedom Trust: Private grantmaking trust funding policy research and cultural institutions in line with free-society themes; comparable privately-held family-aligned structure to Fieldstead.

Broad incumbents

• Lilly Endowment: Major private foundation heavily active in religion, education, and community development — directly comparable in mission pillars with Fieldstead, though vastly larger in assets.
• Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation: Large conservative-leaning family foundation supporting policy, culture, and education reform; comparable mission overlap with Fieldstead on civic culture, education, and public-policy grantmaking but operating at materially greater scale.
• Templeton Foundation: Large private foundation funding at the intersection of religion, science, and culture; overlaps with Fieldstead on arts, humanities, and religious-liberty-adjacent inquiry at much greater scale.
• Sarah Scaife Foundation: Family foundation funding policy research, civic education, and cultural institutions; an ideological and operational analog to Fieldstead with substantially larger AUM.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat2 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Fieldstead and Company