Fletcher Foundation

The Fletcher Foundation is a nonprofit foundation that supports civil rights, education, and environmental education. The foundation supports efforts to develop a more just society with more equal opportunities for more of the population primarily by leveraging the financial and non-financial contributions of Fletcher Asset Management, the Fletcher Family including New York financier and philanthropist Alphonse Fletcher, Jr., and others. Fletcher Asset Management has been accused of fraud related to its management of funds and the value of pledges Fletcher's charitable pledges are in dispute.

A 1987 graduate of Harvard University, Fletcher worked in investment banking and in 1991 founded Fletcher Asset Management. A Harvard Class Marshal, Fletcher endowed a University Professorship at his alma mater, first held by philosopher Cornel West and now held by literary critic Henry Louis Gates, Jr. In 2004, in commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court decision, Brown v. Board of Education, the Fletcher Foundation announced the creation of the Alphonse Fletcher, Sr. Fellowship program, described by foundation chair Henry Louis Gates, Jr. as "Guggenheims for race issues." The inaugural class of Fletcher Fellows, each awarded $50,000, was selected in 2005.