About The Robert T. Matsui Foundation for Public Service
The Robert T. Matsui Foundation for Public Service (“The Foundation”) is a nonprofit
organization aimed at promoting careers in public service for recent college and law school
graduates. Interned by the Government as a
Throughout his career, Mr. Matsui demonstrated an unwavering commitment to public service, and he championed a wide range of issues, from protecting our Nation’s civil liberties, to promoting social services for those who need them most, to advocating for free and fair trade. In all this work, Mr. Matsui supported open debate, discourse and bipartisan compromise.
The Foundation, created shortly after his death by friends and family, aims to promote these same issues and ideals that Mr. Matsui fought for so vigorously during his life. Its aim is to provide opportunities in public service that might not otherwise be available to individuals, and, by achieving this goal, the Foundation believes it can impart some of Mr. Matsui’s commitment to public service on the future leaders of today, and tomorrow.
To further these goals, the Foundation has established the following long-term goals:
- The Foundation will establish one or two one-year fellowships, for an amount determined by and to be awarded by a committee appointed by the Board of Directors on an annual or bi-annual basis. These fellowships will be aimed at facilitating careers in public service. The fellowships or stipends will be awarded to college or law school graduates (within 1 or 2 years of graduation), who will work for a qualified nonprofit organization in either Sacramento, California or Washington, D.C.
- The Foundation will establish between one to four summer stipends, to be awarded by a committee appointed by the Board of Directors on an annual basis. These stipends will be aimed at providing college or law school students with internship opportunities in government or non-profit public interest organizations. The stipends will be awarded to rising junior or senior college students or law students following completion of their second year or immediately prior to a judicial clerkship, who will work for a qualified nonprofit organization in either Sacramento, California or Washington, D.C.
- The Foundation will help support, through grants, fundraising efforts or other aid, university programs within California that promote research, education and careers in public service as well as the issues that Mr. Matsui championed. Included within this effort, the Foundation will help preserve, research, and archive the records compiled by Mr. Matsui, so they can be used for historical and educational research into public service and public policy, so that the future leaders of today, and tomorrow, will have access to these materials.