Herb Albert Foundation gives big, funds dwindle

Lani Hall Albert and her husband Herb Albert. Both live in Malibu, CA.

By Alfredo Santana

The Herb Albert Foundation, headed by trumpeter-businessman Herb Albert, contributed in 2013 $7,809,734 to schools and arts organizations mostly based in Los Angeles, but the Harlem School of the Arts, a quivering jazz music institute in New York City in the brink of closure received $2,100,000, becoming its largest single beneficiary for the second year in a row.

In 2012, the foundation, managed by Albert and his wife Lani Hall Albert spent $7,079,757 on charitable contributions, $3,150,000 of which landed at the cash-strapped east-coast school.

The organization operates in Santa Monica, CA., with offices located at 1414 6^th St.  It files reports with the IRS under the section 501(c)(3) as exempt private foundation.

Most of the foundation’s assets are invested in corporate stock at Northern Trust, a Chicago equity firm, and with Archipelago Partners, a Brazilian investments company.  In 2012, the investment with Northern Trust amounted to $5,994,923, while the assets with Archipelago were valued at $4,013,121.

However, in 2013, the market value of stock at Northern Trust rose to $7,595,546, but the stock with Archipelago dropped to $2,251,022.

The accounting firm of Balter, Miller King & Frazin keeps  the foundation’s books, and files its yearly income and expenses reports.

On its website www.theherbalbertfoundation.org, the philanthropist Albert said his organization has recently focused on giving to the arts, particularly to schools of jazz and their teachers. The site also indicated it spreads resources to endeavors focusing on compassionate behavior and in organizations that encourage the study of the humanities.

In 2012, Albert made a cash contribution of $46,788 to prep its finances. In 2013, he pitched in two times, the first for $6,880 and the second for $45,979. The Baby Adjani Trust donated to the foundation $450,000 the same year. In Nov. 18, 2013 the organization also received 16,000 shares of Pandora Media Inc., valued at $475,360.

The business tycoon, who rose to international fame in the 1960s with his band named “Herb Albert &The Tijuana Brass,” reported his foundation paid last year $337, 772 to Rona Sebastian, the organization’s president in 2012. Sebastian’s salary was increased to $391,532 in 2013.

In 2013 Nancee Enyart, executive assistant of the foundation received a salary of $99,083, while program officer Matthew Sterenchock earned $93,400.  In 2012, Enyart made $91,990, and Sterenchock $88,880.

In recent years the foundation has sold many of its investments, particularly high-yield stocks managed abroad, to fund programs and pay its executive employees. Although Albert and his wife don’t collect any salaries to run the foundation, the businessman’s personal contributions are crumbs compared to the charity expenses reported in these two years.

The nonprofit reported that in 2012 its assets were worth $17,229,852, while in 2013 their market value amounted to $11,535,306, including its building, office furniture and computers.  

Despite the fiscal spreadsheet of the Herb Albert Foundation is oiled by its large high-yielding stock investments, the organization’s health largely depends on how markets behave. Individual contributors are nearly zero, and the reports show a troubling lack of fundraising. Thus, Albert ought to find a way to lure wealthy cash donors to support his causes, or he’ll need to pony the foundation up with his own money, whose pockets still run deep after he and his former partner Jerry Moss sold A&M Records for about $500 millions in 1988.