Overview: Connected by their commitment to agriculture and seed diversity, Amy Goldman Fowler and Cary Fowler have been steady donors to the Democrats. The pair have given exclusively to liberal candidates and causes going back several election cycles, and Amy in particular likes to spread donations to Democrats in a variety of races around the country.
Location: Rhinebeck, NY
Total Donated (2016-2020): $5,267,700 (between the two)
Top Recipients: Planned Parenthood Votes, DSCC
Key Issues: Women’s Health
Largest Donation to Date: $1 million to Strategic Victory Fund PAC
Profile: Coming from a successful real estate family in New York, Amy Goldman Fowler dedicated her career to agriculture. Known for growing heirloom vegetables, Goldman Fowler has written several books and is vice chairman of the New York Botanical Garden’s board of directors. She also advises the board of Seed Savers Exchange, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving seed variety in agriculture. She shares this passion with her husband, Cary Fowler, who launched the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, which preserves seeds in case disaster hits a particular region and devastates crop diversity. Fowler’s career in agriculture includes conducting the United Nations’ first global crop diversity assessment.
The couple serve on multiple charitable boards, but their most influential gifts are political. Goldman Fowler consistently writes six-figure checks to Planned Parenthood Votes, the political arm of the women’s health organization. The pair have exclusively given to Democrats over the past couple decades, favoring a wide variety of candidates around the country each election cycle, along with making large gifts to party funds both at the state level and nationally. Amy’s donor record, notably longer than Cary’s, includes a rare billionaire donation to progressive Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in 2018—in fairness, Goldman Fowler also donated to incumbent Joe Crowley, likely indicative of her wide-net approach to candidate donations. So far this cycle, they’ve given about $1.1 million to Joe Biden’s campaign PACs and cut more modest checks to DSCC, the DNC, and other funds like Strategic Victory Fund Super PAC and Unite the Country.
Ideological Vibe: Solidly liberal. The couple’s political donations have gone exclusively to Democrats and liberal causes. While Goldman Fowler has a habit of spreading her donations across the board each election cycle, she’s notably less shy than her fellow big-money donors about helping out challengers and party newcomers.
Hits and Misses: Goldman Fowler’s scattershot giving strategy means she gives max individual donations to a variety of winners and losers each election cycle. She and her husband gave relatively modest gifts to the Clinton campaign ahead of the 2016 election, and they rarely get involved in ballot measure fights.
Looking Forward: The couple have not stated many political goals publicly, and considering they don’t have much history trying to influence policy outside of elections, it’s unclear how they’ll wield their wealth moving forward. Expect them at least to keep giving to Democrats and their PACs.
Relationships: Lillian Goldman Charitable Trust and the Amy P. Goldman Foundation—Amy Goldman Fowler—Trustee; Svalbard Global Seed Vault—Cary Fowler—Founder
Contact Information: N/A