Funder Spotlight: This Hollywood Thriller Director’s Foundation Supports Global Leaders
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M. Night Shyamalan and Bhavna Shyamalan pictured with Bruce Willis and Emma Heming Willis. Photo: Debby Wong/shutterstock
IP Funder Spotlights provide quick rundowns of the grantmakers that are on our radar, including a few key details on how they operate and what they’re up to right now. Today, we look at the foundation of Hollywood director M. Night Shyamalan and his wife Bhavna, whose foundation invests in leaders around the world.
What this funder cares about
The M. Night Shyamalan Foundation (MNSF) initially focused its philanthropic efforts on financial support for American families that adopted children from India. Today, MNSF has a leader-focused grantmaking model, supporting innovative changemakers and their projects around the world. Two such recent leaders, Lauren Fine and Joanna Visser Adjoian, are the co-founders and co-directors of the Youth Sentencing & Reentry Project (YSRP). YSRP uses direct service and policy advocacy to keep children out of adult jails and prisons, and to bring people home who were sentenced as children to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
In March 2021, MNSF hired its current executive director, Michelle Histand. She told us that the foundation isn’t just looking for a leader to fund, but typically a founder—someone who bootstrapped an organization and continues to run it. “A lot of leaders work in the education space. They’re also interested in criminal justice reform, including through YSRP. But that doesn’t mean it’s all we’re looking at,” she said.
Grantmaking spans across many issues, including education, human trafficking, nutrition, livelihoods and water, and more. MNSF’s partnerships often extend for several years and include work in countries like India, Tanzania, Guatemala, South Sudan, Nicaragua, Kenya and Ghana.
Overall, MNSF looks for two key qualities in the leaders it funds. First, it wants someone dedicated, and with a proven track-record of success, but also someone who hasn’t been at it for decades. There’s a sweet spot for experience here. And second, it’s looking for concentrated impact in a specific community or communities, and the ability to demonstrate that impact.
Why you should care
MNSF’s model of support for individual leaders, both in the U.S. and around the world, differs from the grantmaking norm and makes this a funder to watch. Rather than centering organizations, MNSF invests in leaders and centers them, often with longstanding support. For instance, the foundation began supporting Pardada Pardadi Educational Society (PPES) back in 2016. Founded by Indian-born Sam Singh, PPES empowers school-aged girls and adult women through education and has since expanded to include social and economic empowerment initiatives.
Where the money comes from
M. Night Shyamalan was born in India in 1970. His family moved to the United States when he was young, and he grew up in Philadelphia’s suburbs. The son of physicians, Shyamalan developed an interest in film early on and attended NYU Tisch School of the Arts, graduating in 1993. He has written and directed films like “The Sixth Sense,” “Unbreakable” and “Old,” released in the summer of 2021. Through these efforts, Shyamalan has amassed quite a bit of wealth, and is worth an estimated $50 million.
In 2001, when Shyamalan was barely into his thirties, he and his psychologist wife Bhavna established the foundation. The Shyamalans contribute annually to the foundation, but there are other donors, too, including in the entertainment industry. Some funds are raised during an annual event.
Where the money goes
In a recent fiscal year, the foundation gave away a little under $300,000 and spent nearly $475,000. MNSF’s current cohort of leaders includes four from the U.S. (including Fine and Adjoian of YSRP) as well as four more from Africa, one from India and one from Syria—more on him below. Some recent grants went to Education Bridge in South Bend, Indiana, which builds and operates schools in South Sudan that focus on helping students develop peacebuilding skills, and to African Education Program (AEP), which has worked in places like Zambia.
Open door or barbed wire?
The foundation has a website, but does not have a history of open calls for proposals. Every year, it aims to add only three or four leaders to its cohort, making funding tricky to acquire. However, Histand did say that she is open to hear from qualified leaders or people who know of them, and can be reached via info@mnsfoundation.org. Leaders can also reach out on the foundation’s Facebook and Instagram accounts, which are rather active.
Latest big moves
Recently, the foundation has backed the Syrian Emergency Task Force, an organization established to support the “Syrian people in their struggle for freedom and democracy, irrespective of ethnicity, region or background.” Bhavna Shyamalan first became involved with the cause in 2017, when she connected with Mouaz Moustafa, a Syrian American who founded the task force. A year later, she traveled with Moustafa to the Turkish-Syrian border where she met with Syrian activists, refugees, victims of Bashar al-Assad’s war crimes and members of the Syrian Civil Defense Force. Today, the foundation supports the task force as well as Wisdom House, a school for orphans in Syria. The foundation’s work here as well as in criminal justice reform should be watched.
One cool thing to know
MNSF hosts SHYAMAWEEN, a fundraising event around Halloween, which was held again in 2021 after a few years’ hiatus. The Shayamalans run and attend the event. In 2017, more than 400 guests attended and raised over $300,000.
What we hope it does next
As MNSF continues to do its work, now with a new executive director, we hope that it is a bit more accessible to grantseekers and builds out its grantmaking guidelines.
