John Rockefeller Jr. started the Sealantic Fund in 1938 to provide additional support to some of the causes he was funding personally, especially in support of liberal Protestantism. It began with an initial endowment of $23 million. Protestant theological education was its main emphasis.
Among other places, Sealantic grants went to Harvard Divinity School, New York City’s Interchurch Center, Union Theological Seminary, and the Interdenominational Theological Center. Sealantic partnered with the American Theological Library Association to develop religious libraries. To strengthen liberal seminaries and divinity schools, the fund promised them gifts if they would raise matching dollars.
In 1973, 13 years after the death of “Junior” Rockefeller, the Sealantic Fund was merged into the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.
- Account of the founding of the Interchurch Center, interchurch-center.org/history.html