--- alias: - John Templeton Foundation - Templeton Foundation category: Private Organization created: 2026-09-25 relations: - fn: 1 reverse: true start: 1987 type: founded with: '[[John Templeton]]' start: 1987 summary: Foundation established in 1987 by Sir John Templeton that granted Harvard's Program for Evolutionary Dynamics 1.5 million dollars in 2015 after receiving a false Jeffrey Epstein matching-funds letter. tags: - Organization - JohnTempletonFoundation - Philanthropy - MartinNowak - ProgramForEvolutionaryDynamics - JeffreyEpstein - EnhancedEducation - Harvard updated: 2026-09-25 --- The John Templeton Foundation is an American philanthropic foundation established in 1987 by the investor Sir John Templeton. In 2015 it granted 1.5 million dollars to [Harvard University](/organizations/harvard-university/)'s [Program for Evolutionary Dynamics](/organizations/program-for-evolutionary-dynamics/), directed by [Martin Nowak](/people/martin-nowak/), a member of the foundation's Board of Advisors, after [Jeffrey Epstein](/people/jeffrey-epstein/) sent the foundation a letter on the stationery of his [Virgin Islands](/places/us-virgin-islands/) foundation, Enhanced Education, stating falsely that [Enhanced Education](/organizations/jeffrey-epstein-vi-foundation/) had established a gift to the program in 2003. Harvard's 2020 review found that Nowak and the program's administrator "provided false information to the Templeton Foundation." In 2014 [Joi Ito](/people/joi-ito/) of the [MIT Media Lab](/organizations/mit-media-lab/) also invoked a possible Templeton matching gift in asking Epstein for a donation; the foundation said it had no record of any such plan.[^1][^2][^3][^4] ### The Foundation Templeton established the foundation in 1987, the year he was made a Knight Bachelor. In 2005 he gave it an additional 500 million dollars, after which it became one of the sixty largest foundations in the [United States](/places/united-states/) by assets. Its stated aspiration is "to create a world where people are curious about the wonders of the universe, free to pursue lives of meaning and purpose, and motivated by great and selfless love." Templeton died in Nassau, [Bahamas](/places/bahamas/), in 2008.[^1] The foundation is listed among the "major philanthropic supporters" of the [Foundation for American Innovation](/organizations/foundation-for-american-innovation/).[^5] ### The Harvard Grant In 2014 the Program for Evolutionary Dynamics applied to the foundation for a 3 million dollar grant. The foundation offered half and required proof that matching funds had been secured. By then Harvard had accepted no gifts from Epstein since the decision of its president, [Drew Faust](/people/drew-faust/), no later than November 2008, and Epstein's 6.5 million dollar founding gift of 2003 had been spent. The program held money from [Leon Black](/people/leon-black/) that could have served as the match, but Nowak sought a letter from Epstein. Epstein wrote to his accountant and Nowak, "im not sure if [an Epstein foundation] should sign instead," and separately to a Templeton executive vice president, "martin wants to send a letter showing funds but using my name, i thought you might have a view." The executive replied, "Sure, just send me a draft if you like."[^2] The letter, dated November 24, 2015 and sent on Enhanced Education letterhead from 6100 Red Hook Quarter, Suite B-3, [St. Thomas](/places/st-thomas/), was addressed by Epstein to Barnaby Marsh, the foundation's Executive Vice President for Strategic Initiatives and Managing Director of its Philanthropic Leadership Network:[^3] > Martin Nowak has been telling me about his proposed new research applications of evolutionary game theory to the behavioral sciences . . . I understand that the John Templeton Foundation is currently considering a project proposal, in which Enhanced Education would have the opportunity to partner with the John Templeton Foundation by providing additional funding of $1,500,328 . . . specifically from Harvard University fund 347150 that has been budgeted for this project. In 2003 Enhanced Education established a gift to the Program for Evolutionary Dynamics to support precisely this type of cutting edge research. The 1,500,328 dollars comprised 1,304,633 dollars in direct costs and 195,695 dollars in indirect costs. Enhanced Education had never funded the program. The foundation made its 1.5 million dollar grant in 2015. In 2018 the program's administrator told a researcher completing the foundation's close-out form to write, "We used a gift from Enhanced Education to Harvard University fund 347150 for the Program for Evolutionary Dynamics." Harvard's review, conducted by its Office of the General Counsel with Foley Hoag and released in May 2020, found that Nowak and the administrator "provided false information to the Templeton Foundation," and that the foundation "has no record of this statement in its files."[^2][^3] ### The MIT Proposal In late 2014 Ito, the director of the MIT Media Lab, asked Epstein for an initial donation of up to 5 million dollars to trigger a matching gift that Ito said the foundation had discussed. The foundation told the journalist Ronan Farrow that it had "no records related to any such plan," and no such gift was made. The law firm [Goodwin Procter](/organizations/goodwin-procter/) reviewed the proposal in its January 2020 report to [MIT](/organizations/massachusetts-institute-of-technology/).[^4][^6] [^1]: John Templeton Foundation, "About," foundation website, accessed September 25, 2026. https://www.templeton.org/about [^2]: Lopez, Diane E., Ara B. Gershengorn, and Martin F. Murphy. *Report Concerning Jeffrey E. Epstein's Connections to Harvard University.* Harvard University Office of the General Counsel and Foley Hoag LLP, May 2020, pp. 10-17 and n. 12, on Faust's decision, the Templeton application, Epstein's emails, the Enhanced Education letter, the 2018 close-out form, and the finding of false statements. https://ogc.harvard.edu/file_url/208 [^3]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA01102163, DataSet 9, letter from Jeffrey Epstein, Enhanced Education, to Barnaby Marsh, John Templeton Foundation, November 24, 2015. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA01102163.pdf [^4]: Farrow, Ronan. "How an Elite University Research Center Concealed Its Relationship with Jeffrey Epstein." *The New Yorker,* September 6, 2019. https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/how-an-elite-university-research-center-concealed-its-relationship-with-jeffrey-epstein [^5]: Foundation for American Innovation, "About Us," accessed September 23, 2026. https://www.thefai.org/about-us [^6]: Goodwin Procter LLP, *Report Concerning Jeffrey Epstein's Interactions with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,* January 10, 2020, pp. 32-33, 40, on the Templeton matching proposal. https://facultygovernance.mit.edu/sites/default/files/20200121GoodwinProcterReport.pdf