History

In 1999-2000, the Glaser Progress Foundation in partnership with the University of Washington Evans School of Public Affairs created The Progress Project: Rethinking Progress and Human Development, a multi-disciplinary exploration of the concept of progress and its relationship to public decision making. The centerpiece of the project was a lecture series featuring Jane Goodall, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Paul Hawken, Vandana Shiva, Ralph Nader, Jimmy Carter, George Mitchell, Doug Engelbart, Amory Lovins and others. These public lectures served to engage scholars, policymakers, business leaders, and the public in serious discussion regarding how we measure progress globally and in the US.

In April 1999, Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic confiscated the radio transmitter of Radio B92 in former Yugoslavia. Glaser Progress Foundation provided urgent relocation support to B92 and other independent journalists caught in the Kosovo crisis, which enabled these journalists to move from Kosovo and Montenegro to safe harbors in Amsterdam, Macedonia, Vienna, and Budapest. Equipped with new hardware and equipment from RealNetworks and support from the Foundation, these journalists were able to resume broadcasting on the internet, informing the citizens of Yugoslavia and the world about what was taking place, and help bring down Milosevic’s authoritarian regime.

Glaser Progress Foundation partnered with Yale economist William Nordhaus to launch a ten-year program to better measure and incorporate nonmarket outcomes into Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The eventual Program on Nonmarket Accounts helped create environmental nonmarket accounts in the areas of forestry and pollution, and developed a blueprint for constructing social nonmarket accounts in health and education. In partnership with the National Academy of Sciences, the program documented and published its work in a book entitled “Beyond the Market: Designing Nonmarket Accounts for the US.” The Foundation contributed over $2.7 million to this program.

GPF/RPF began supporting Democracy Now! in 2001 and has awarded the non-profit news organization over $1.2M over more than two decades. When we began supporting the organization, it was broadcast on 40 radio stations and 70 television stations around the country. Today it airs on over 1,500 TV and radio stations, in over 40 countries, and reaches a global audience of millions each month through it’s website, podcasts and social media platforms – making it one of the leading independent daily news hours in the world.

In 2001, GPF’s Rob Glaser and Columbia University Earth Institute’s Jeffrey Sachs created and launched the Access Project to strengthen health systems for countries in Africa and the Caribbean.  The program accomplished this by providing hands-on strategic planning and support to obtain and effectively deploy resources from the newly formed Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria (Global Fund). The Project funded teams of experts who ultimately helped 11 African and Caribbean countries draft successful proposals to the Global Fund. For an initial investment of $600K, these governments were able to access $1.4 billion in funding from the Global Fund. The Project’s work from 2001 to 2013 significantly increased the number of lives saved and victims treated.

The Foundation partnered with Bard college to help create the Milosovich Trial Public Archive, an 1,800-hour video document of the entire trial of Slobodan Milosovich in the Hague. The coverage stemmed from the beginning of his trial on February 12, 2002 and ended with his death on March 11, 2006. The original archive, which was available online via RealPlayer, is currently being re-digitized in partnership with the Internet Archive, and support of the National Endowment for the Humanities. 

Rob Glaser and the Foundation hosted Rwandan President Paul Kagame and his Cabinet in Seattle. Kagame’s visit included a series of speeches and events, marking the 10-year anniversary of the Rwandan genocide. During his Seattle visit, the Foundation announced a $1.5 million donation to support an estimated half-million people living with HIV-AIDS in Rwanda.

Starbucks initiated a campaign that included quotes from celebrities and business leaders on their paper cups. When asked to participate, Rob Glaser provided the following quote: “Seven million innocent European Jews were killed in the 1940s, and we rightly called it The Holocaust.  Eleven million innocent Africans have died of AIDS so far this decade because they were unable to get the drugs that would save their lives. What do we call that? Make a difference. Act now.”

Glaser Progress Foundation helped convene and organize a hearing before the Subcommittee on Interstate Commerce, Trade, and Tourism, chaired by Senator Byron Dorgan, entitled “Rethinking the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as a Measurement of National Strength.”  At the same time, the Foundation produced and launched a video, featuring Robert F. Kennedy’s critique of GDP in his famous speech in 1968 at the University of Kansas.

The Foundation provided seed funding to create and establish Yale University’s Global Health Leadership Institute (GHLI). The GHLI develops leadership through education and research programs that strengthen health systems and promote health equity and quality of care around the world. 

Glaser Progress Foundation, in partnership with the Center for American Progress launched a program to explore the history and public understanding of progressivism in America. This included a multi-year effort to increase public understanding of what it means to be progressive given our nation’s history and the challenges we face. The first part of the campaign worked to define progressivism in the public’s mind through a series of four distinct advertisements that explained the movement’s core values, historical accomplishments, and philosophical differences with conservatives. The ads measurably increased the number of people who said they were familiar with the term progressive, viewed progressivism favorably, and self-identified as progressive. The project laid the groundwork for the modern progressive brand.

2009 marked the beginning of a period of significant grantmaking from the RealNetworks Foundation. Over the years, the foundation has given over $19 million to charitable causes. Some of the largest recipients of these gifts include the American Red Cross, NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Seattle Children’s Hospital, and the Urban League

Glaser Progress Foundation funded Mother Jones journalist Shane Bauer, who exposed the horrible conditions inside the for-profit prison industry. Bauer applied for a position with Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and went undercover for four months in a Louisiana state prison. The investigation featured a published exposé and a 6-part video series, revealing the horrendous, dehumanizing impact of the for-profit prison industry on the lives of guards and prisoners. The reporting won several awards and coincided with the Obama Administration’s decision to ban for-profit federal prisons. The following year Mother Jones won Magazine of the Year. 

Continuing its long history of stepping up in times of emergency (earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis), the RealNetworks Foundation gave over $1,000,000 in urgent funding to Puget Sound nonprofits addressing the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Grants were made to a number of organizations, including City Harvest, International Community Health Services, Seattle Children’s Hospital, Solid Ground and YWCA of Seattle.

The RealNetworks Foundation has historically encouraged civic engagement of RealNetworks employees, by matching their donations to local nonprofits that are addressing critical needs in the Puget Sound Area. In 2023, the foundation celebrated reaching a total of $5,000,000 in cumulative matching gifts of its employees – marking over $10,000,000 given to build stronger communities in the region.