3 Funds Change Focus of Grants

Three foundations — the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, in New York, the Morris Goldseker Foundation of Maryland, in Baltimore, and the Thomas L. Conlan Education Foundation, in Cincinnati — have each announced plans to change their grant-making strategies:

• Edna McConnell Clark, with roughly $700-million in assets, now intends to concentrate its money on a single cause: youth development.
• The Goldseker Fund — with assets of about $110-million- — will choose two or three neighborhoods in the Baltimore area to which it will direct nearly all of its awards. Next year, it expects to make about 10 or 15 grants totaling roughly $4-million.
• Changes at the Conlan fund include a new name: the KnowledgeWorks Foundation. The fund, which supports early-childhood-development projects and efforts to help more people go to college, will now give money to school construction and other areas. The foundation´s assets increased by $117-million, to $200-million, in May. The fund is the principal stockholder of a for-profit student-loan company that was sold.