During 2023, we were very pleased to continue to invest in long lasting change by promoting student learning in the various programs we support.

In recent years, challenges to Judeo-Christian values and the principles which undergird Western Civilization have become more and more assertive. This is increasingly expressed in hostility to constitutional ideas of the Founders and the fundamental principles of our democratic republic.

The challenge of preserving what is good about this country and the West will never go away. But the Apgar Foundation will—following Martha Apgar’s wishes, the Foundation will be sunsetting in 2026. We are hopeful, however, that other funders will become supporters of the study of the institutions and traditions of Western Civilization and continue the work the Foundation has begun.

In 2023, a total of $ 1,554,500 was granted to 44 different non-profit organizations in three categories:

• eighteen programs at universities or independently operated tax-exempt entities located near campuses.
• twenty-six non-profit organizations.
• three individual sabbatical research grants.

Below, please find examples of successful campus programs in 2023 that are achieving the goals of the Apgar Foundation. They are chosen for their illustrative value:

At the University of Maryland, Apgar supported the Ed Snider Center for Enterprise and Markets. The Ed Snider Center is rooted in classical liberal values. The Center provides an alternative perspective to future leaders in business and society, develops and delivers courses and programs that help individuals a) appreciate the importance of abstract concepts related to the moral basis of free markets and b) live flourishing lives through personal application. The Center ensures the delivery of courses and co-curricular programs and ensures the integration of this new material into planned curriculum.

At the University of Louisville, Apgar Foundation supported the McConnell Center. Central to its activity this year was Tocqueville‘s Democracy in America. The Center created and published a reading guide, hosted a lecture/debate series, produced a monthly podcast that will track the reading guide to help readers think through the text, conducted a seminar series for students to explore the major themes and what is happening in 21st century America. Tocqueville’s work touches on nearly all the major concerns of 21st century American political thought from religion to mental health and from crony capitalism to the bureaucratization of American life.

The Zephyr Institute partners with faculty at Stanford University to form a community of students, scholars, and professionals with the goal of enriching the fundamental intellectual formation of Stanford undergraduate students. Apgar Foundation supported activities at Zephyr embracing three foci in young people’s study of the great ideas that shaped Western Civilization: Study of First Principles, Study of Professions and Moral Purpose, and the Stanford Civics Initiative through which Zephyr encourages the university to hire and retain excellent teachers capable of imparting to students a passion for truth, beauty, and goodness in the university’s undergraduate curriculum.