Foundation Annual Reports

THE COLORADO TRUST
1600 Sherman Street
Denver 80203-1604
(303) 837-1200
http://www.coloradotrust.org

Period covered: Year ending December 31, 1998.

Purpose and areas of support:

The trust was created and endowed in 1985 with proceeds from the sale of Presbyterian/St. Luke’s Medical Center to American Medical International. It works to improve the long-term health and well-being of Colorado residents in two major areas: promoting accessible and low-cost health care and strengthening families.

In 1998, grants totaling $13,518,437 were paid in support of 16 major initiatives, one special project, and several other distributions throughout Colorado.

The fund pledged $2.4-million over five years to “Community Voices: Health Care for the Underserved,” a joint effort with the W. K. Kellogg Foundation to improve access to health-care services for needy people in Denver. The program has three components: case-management services, public education, and a system to enroll patients in appropriate health-insurance plans.

The trust maintains eight other health-care initiatives, including the Colorado Collective for Medical Decisions, which received $478,997 to develop guidelines for appropriate end-of-life care that takes into account emotional, legal, and spiritual considerations.

The trust also allocated $1,087,586 to its five-year, $6.4-million Colorado School Health Education Initiative, which is helping more than a dozen school districts adopt and sustain effective school-based health-education programs for students.

The trust administers seven projects to strengthen Colorado families. For example, the six-year, $2.8-million Volunteers for Rural Seniors Initiative received $860,554 to create or expand volunteer-based services that help senior citizens in rural areas with household chores, transportation to shopping and appointments, home repairs, and other needs.

The foundation distributed $1,805,130 to the $10-million Assets for Colorado Youth Initiative, which was undertaken in 1996 and continues through 2002. The Search Institute, in Minneapolis, is charged with administering and evaluating the program, which focuses on providing disadvantaged youths with the education, health services, and other social and personal “assets” that they need in order to become healthy and responsible adults.

Application procedure: The trust awards grants through a “request for proposals” process and does not accept unsolicited proposals for consideration. New programs and grant opportunities are announced in trust publications and through press releases and special mailings to organizations and individuals statewide. To be added to the mailing list, call the trust at (303) 837-1200 or (888) 847-9140, or send an electronic-mail message to vannessa@coloradotrust.org.

Key officials: John R. Moran, Jr., president; Peter A. Konrad, vice-president for administration and chief financial officer; Jean D. Merrick, vice-president for programs and public information; Doug Easterling, director of research and evaluation; Carol Breslau, senior program officer; Sally Beatty and Susan Downs-Karkos, program officers; Meg A. Ryan, public-information and education officer; W. Robert Alexander, chair of the Board of Trustees.

GREATER CINCINNATI FOUNDATION

300 West Fourth Street, Suite 200
Cincinnati 45202-2603
(513) 241-2880
http://www.greatercincinnatifdn.org

Period covered: Year ending December 31, 1998.

Purpose and areas of support:

Formed in 1963, this community foundation makes direct, field-of-interest, designated, and donor-advised grants to benefit residents of the Cincinnati metropolitan area. That region comprises eight contiguous counties in three states: Ohio’s Butler, Clermont, Hamilton, and Warren Counties; Indiana’s Dearborn County; and Kentucky’s Boone, Campbell, and Kenton Counties.

In 1998, donors established 88 new funds, bringing the foundation’s number of constituent funds to 1,010. Approximately 4,300 grants totaling $17.5-million were approved. Of that, grants from donor-advised funds totaled $11.1-million; grants from unrestricted and field-of-interest funds, $3.8-million; and grants from restricted funds, $2.6-million.

Unrestricted and field-of-interest grants — which the foundation terms “responsive” grants — focused on six program areas: arts and culture, “community progress,” education, the environment, health, and human services.

The community-progress program received $497,578, the largest amount awarded any program area. Grants focused on neighborhood revitalization, low-cost housing and homeownership, employment and job training, crime prevention, small-business development, and leadership development and non-profit management. Interfaith Hospitality Network of Warren County for start-up support of social services for homeless families.

Seventeen grants totaling $365,000 were made through the arts and culture program. For example, $75,000 went to the Cincinnati Opera Association for its capital-improvement campaign, and $15,000 to Learning Through Art for its “Books Alive!” program, which uses reading to enhance art and music appreciation, writing, and other aspects of the educational curriculum for youngsters.

Grants in other areas included $10,500 to the Northern Kentucky Adult Reading Program, for building repairs, and $35,000 to the Coalition for a Drug-Free Greater Cincinnati, for second-year support.

The foundation also committed $1.5-million to Community Investment Partners, a five-year effort to provide flexible support for comprehensive community-development projects in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods. In September 1998, CIP awarded grants of up to $500,000 each to Cincinnati’s Northside, Price Hill, and Walnut Hills/East Walnut Hills neighborhoods.

Application procedure: Grant requests are accepted from organizations in metropolitan Cincinnati that are tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Potential applicants should call the foundation to discuss the organization and its proposed project or need. A member of the foundation’s program staff will provide further information about proposal guidelines.

Key officials: Kathryn E. Merchant, president and chief executive officer; Lawrence D. Graziani, vice-president for operations; E. Miles Wilson, vice-president for grants and programs; Amy L. Bick Cheney, vice-president for advancement; Michael A. Cheney, chief financial officer; William R. Burleigh, chairman of the Governing Board.

HOWARD HUGHES MEDICAL INSTITUTE

4000 Jones Bridge Road
Chevy Chase, Md. 20815-6789
(301) 215-8870
http://www.hhmi.org

Period covered: Year ending August 31, 1998.

Purpose and areas of support:

The institute was established in 1953 by the industrialist and aviator Howard Hughes. It is defined as a medical-research organization — not a private foundation — under Section 170(b) of the Internal Revenue Code.

The institute’s principal purpose is the direct conduct of biomedical research at its laboratories, which are located in academic medical centers, universities, and other scientific institutions nationwide. The institute employs investigators to carry out research in five broad areas: cell biology, genetics, immunology, neuroscience, and structural biology.

It also administers a complementary grants program that focuses on improving science education at all levels, strengthening biomedical research in the United States, educating the public about scientific and medical issues, and supporting outstanding biomedical scientists in foreign countries.

Allocations totaling $91.1-million over four years were made to 58 public and private research and doctoral universities through the institute’s Undergraduate Biomedical Sciences Education Program.

The institute will announce a new round of grants this year through its Precollege Science Education Program, which supports science-education projects for young people and their parents and teachers at museums, aquariums, botanical gardens, zoos, and other scientific institutions.

Application procedure: Grants are administered by the institute’s Office of Grants and Special Programs. The institute rarely makes grants for unsolicited proposals. For detailed information on all grant programs, write or call for a copy of the annual publication “Grants for Science Education” or visit the institute’s World-Wide Web site.

Key officials: Purnell W. Choppin, president; Stephen M. Cohen, vice-president and chief financial officer; W. Maxwell Cowan, vice-president and chief scientific officer; Joan S. Leonard, vice-president and general counsel; Joseph G. Perpich, vice-president for grants and special programs; C. F. Wolfe, vice-president and chief investment officer; Stephen A. Barkanic and Barbara Filner, senior grants program officers; Hanna H. Gray, chairman of the Board of Trustees.