Alex C. Walker Foundation

Founded in Pittsburgh in 1968 under the will of Alex C. Walker, the Foundation is structured as a charitable trust under Pennsylvania Law.

The Alex C. Walker Educational and Charitable Foundation has filled a unique niche among grant-giving institutions in that it addresses issues related to the causes of market imbalances, the exploration of market-based solutions, protection of the free enterprise system, and the dissemination of such information. The trust operates as a family foundation with Dr. Thomas Walker, Jr. and Barrett P. Walker serving as family trustees and PNC Bank serving as the corporate trustee.

Recent Grant Reports

Economic Distortions & The Pebble Mine: Protecting Alaska’s World Class Salmon & Brown Bears
The proposed Pebble mine threatens the largest sockeye salmon fishery in the world as well as the highest concentration of brown bears on the planet. This project will address the economic imbalances in the permitting system that push risk and pollution onto Alas...

Catalyzing market-based solutions for Henderson Island’s “tragic plastics” to stop marine litter at the “root cause”
The goals of this grant are as follows: 1. Provide initial support for a 2020 return site visit to Henderson Island to complete work that was not accomplished in 2019. 2. Support efforts related to collaborations around “circular economy” solutions for what do...

Creating Economic Tools to Address Debris & Plastic Pollution in Vietnam
To prepare for building out the capacity of Anecdata.org to meet the growing needs of citizen science projects around the world, we are adding a language translation feature. Anecdata already has many valuable features including mapping, photo uploading, and data...

A Market-Based Private Revenue Stream to Support Coral Reefs
Working with Richard Thaler and the University of Chicago, we will set the stage to pilot and test a new market-based model for generating private revenues to support coral reefs. The new private stream is needed to co-finance long-term agreements under an emerg...

Defending Against Eminent Domain Abuse and Nuisance by Fossil Fuel Industry
Lawyers representing affected Texas landowners asked us to assist in litigation strategy against the proposed Kinder Morgan Permian Highway Pipeline ("PHP"), 430-miles from the Waha, Texas, area to the Gulf Coast and Mexico markets. We are now working on three se...

Fossil Fuel Risk Bonds
Fossil fuel risk bond programs provide a way to ramp up the funding necessary to put scores of people to work – including displaced oil, gas, and coal workers – while ramping down fossil fuel consumption, decommissioning obsolete fossil fuel infrastructure, and i...

Policies to Assist Coal Workers and Their Communities – Part 2
In this project, Brookings scholar Adele Morris worked with the Partnership for Responsible Growth (PRG) on their field-based listening sessions with community development and economic transition leaders in coal-reliant communities. She also conducted research a...

More Grant Reports