William Volker Fund

The William Volker Fund was a charitable foundation established in 1932 by Kansas City, Missouri, businessman and home-furnishings mogul William Volker. Volker founded the fund with the purposes of aiding the needy, reforming Kansas City’s health care and educational systems, and combating the influence of machine politics in municipal governance. Following Volker’s death in 1947, Volker’s nephew, Harold W. Luhnow continued the fund’s previous mission, but also used the fund to promote and disseminate ideas on free-market economics. During Luhnow’s tenure as the fund’s primary manager, the William Volker Fund was one of the few libertarian organizations with significant amounts of money at its disposal, making it a key leader in developing the modern libertarian and conservative movements in the United States.

William Volker was born in Hanover, Germany, in 1859, and his family immigrated to the United States in 1871 and settled in Chicago in October after the Great Fire destroyed portions of the city. According to his official biography, Volker “saw the operations of a vast spontaneous system of relief supported by charitable persons from every section of the world” (23). According to family tradition, the event convinced Volker of the power of private charity. As a young man, Volker moved to Kansas City, Missouri, where he started a home furnishings business, the William Volker & Co., which sold picture frames, blinds, and other home furnishings. As his fortune increased in the early 1900s, he secretly started giving most of it away.

Because of his secret charity, locals nicknamed Volker “Mr. Anonymous” and he became an important figure in Kansas City public life. He became an important Progressive civil reformer in the city who helped create important social-welfare programs such as the Board of the Pardons and Paroles and Board of Public Welfare.

In 1932, Volker set aside half of his fortune into the William Volker Charities Fund. The fund’s articles of incorporation claimed it would “care for the sick, aged and helpless”; “provide means and facilities for the physical, mental, moral and spiritual betterment of persons”; “improve living and working conditions”; and provide “education and educational facilities” (209–210).

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