Seeded with the estates of Joseph and Stephanie Koret, whose Koret of California sportswear line was a leader in ladies’ coordinated fashion, and with a real estate portfolio wisely invested by President Tad Taube, Koret has grown into a philanthropy of more than $400 million.

Mr. Taube was a trusted family friend who took the Koret corporate helm when the diversified ladies sportswear company was on the brink of bankruptcy. Bringing savvy gained through broad business experience, he was able to turn the company around, and to negotiate a very favorable sale to Levi Strauss, Inc. Meanwhile, Mr. Taube’s real estate company had been instrumental in enriching the Korets with highly successful real estate investments both before and after the Levi sale.

Upon Stephanie Koret’s death in 1979, the philanthropic-minded Taube convinced Joseph Koret, who had no children, to activate a philanthropic foundation with Stephanie’s portion of the family wealth, for the benefit of Bay Area communities and Israel.

Joseph Koret was the foundation’s first chairman, a position he held until his death in 1982. After he died, Joe’s portion of his family’s substantial estate also flowed to the foundation, and his second wife, Susan, became board chair for life.

In August of 2004, a second corpus was generated by refinancing Koret Foundation real estate. Named the Koret Fund, this financing made more funds available for projects and programs of interest to the Koret board.

The Koret Foundation and the Koret Fund are private philanthropic organizations run by independent boards of directors. Since 1979, these boards, working with an experienced and dedicated staff, have directed nearly $350 million toward creating new philanthropic visions for the Bay Area and for Israel.