Foundation Annual Reports

JOYCE FOUNDATION

70 West Madison Street,
Suite 2750
Chicago, Ill. 60602
(312) 782-2464
http://www.joycefdn.org

Period covered: Year ending December 31, 2000.

Purpose and areas of support: The foundation was established in 1948 by Beatrice Joyce Kean, a Chicago resident whose family wealth stemmed from lumber and sawmill interests.

In 2000, 254 grants totaling $55,866,743 were approved in the following program areas: education, which received $16,879,062; the environment, $12,551,861; employment, $10,555,058; gun violence, $5,621,980; money and politics, $3,838,474; culture, $1,247,000; and discretionary and interprogram grants, Joyce Millennium Initiatives, and special opportunities, $5,173,308.

In general, grant making emphasizes projects that benefit the Great Lakes region: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin. A limited number of environmental grants are made to Canadian organizations, and cultural grants are restricted to groups in the metropolitan Chicago area.

The education program supports efforts to revamp public schools and school districts in Chicago, Cleveland, and Milwaukee. Current program interests are as follows: developing and attracting diverse and qualified teachers, bolstering school and community leadership, applying technology to promote district-wide improvements, and promoting the achievement of minority students using proven strategies. Grants included $210,000 over two years to Parents United for Responsible Education, in Chicago, for its work to inform and mobilize parents in the Chicago metropolitan area about school-reform issues and to promote broader involvement in decisions affecting public schools.

The environmental program makes grants for projects to protect and improve Great Lakes water quality; to maintain a strong network of regional environmental groups; to reduce the production, use, and discharge of toxic substances in agriculture and industry; to use opportunities afforded by the restructuring of the electric-utility industry to promote more-efficient and cleaner energy sources; and to ensure that government decisions on transportation and land use take environmental concerns into account, particularly at the state level.

Employment grants focus on enhancing state job-training and welfare-to-work policies, translating lessons from effective work-force-preparation strategies into successful policies, ensuring that welfare policies incorporate adequate education and training strategies, exploring the creation of publicly financed job programs, and assessing the effects of state and federal welfare restructuring. However, the foundation does not provide operating support for direct services, such as job training and placement services.

Allocations included a $478,700, two-year grant to the Legal Assistance Foundation of Chicago to produce and publicize a study of the extent to which racial discrimination in some Chicago neighborhoods and suburbs limits job opportunities for low-income African-Americans in the retail and service industries.

The program on gun violence seeks to reduce firearms-related deaths and injuries by framing gun violence as a public-health problem. Changes in emphasis include supporting policy-relevant research by scholars and institutions; fostering efforts that lead to the treatment and regulation of guns as a consumer product, with appropriate design and safety standards; and supporting effective Midwest and national coalitions with a strong Midwest presence working on this issue.

The money and politics program promotes campaign-finance reform at the federal level and in the Midwest; the improved disclosure of, and public access to, campaign-finance records; and a “better balance between the constitutionally protected rights of citizens to raise, give, and spend campaign funds and the public’s interest in preserving the integrity of the political process.”

Application procedure: Before submitting a formal proposal, prospective applicants should send to the appropriate program officer a two- or three-page letter of inquiry that briefly describes the proposed project and its goals, how it relates to the foundation’s interests, the target audience and beneficiaries, the estimated budget and duration, and plans for evaluating and disseminating its findings. Letters of inquiry are reviewed by an appropriate program officer, who will tell the prospective applicant whether the project falls within program guidelines and should be developed into a formal proposal. Additional details and deadlines are available on the foundation’s Web site.

Key officials: Paula DiPerna, president; Lawrence N. Hansen, vice president; Deborah Gillespie, chief financial officer; Ellen S. Alberding, director of portfolio investments and program officer; Mary O’Connell, communications officer; Peter T. Mich, technology officer and program officer; John T. Anderson, chairman of the Board of Directors.

Program officers: Ellen S. Alberding, culture; Warren K. Chapman, Fausto Ramos Gómez, and Peter T. Mich, education; Kara Kellaher Mikulich, Jennifer L. Phillips, and Unmi Song, employment; Margaret H. O’Dell and James Seidita, environment; Roseanna Ander, gun violence; Lawrence N. Hansen, money and politics.

JESSIE SMITH NOYES FOUNDATION

6 East 39th Street, 12th Floor
New York, N.Y. 10016-0112
(212) 684-6577
http://www.noyes.org

Period covered: Year ending December 31, 2000.

Purpose and areas of support: Charles F. Noyes, a New York real-estate developer, created the foundation in 1947 as a memorial to his wife.

In 2000 the foundation appropriated $3.7-million to 146 groups working in the following program areas: toxics, which received 32 percent of grant dollars; reproductive rights, 22 percent; sustainable agriculture, 19 percent; the metropolitan New York environment, 10 percent; sustainable communities, 9 percent; and related interests, 8 percent.

The toxics program works to reduce threats posed by pollution and toxic substances to the environment and human health in the United States, particularly in the Southeast, Southwest, and Rocky Mountain states.

For example, $25,000 went to the Southwest Public Workers’ Union, in San Antonio, for environmental-justice work in southern Texas and along the border of the United States and Texas, countering threats to health and safety that stem from toxic substances and hazardous materials.

Reproductive-rights grants emphasize projects in the United States that involve new constituencies, support legal and policy efforts, and work to ensure that reproductive-health issues are incorporated into health-care policies and restructuring.

For instance, the Ms. Foundation for Women, in New York, received $34,000 for its Reproductive Rights Coalition Fund, which provides money, technical assistance, and networking opportunities to state, regional, and national reproductive-rights coalitions.

The foundation’s sustainable-agriculture program focuses on promoting environmentally sound and equitable practices domestically, with particular emphasis on the Northeast, the South, and Rocky Mountain states.

Metropolitan New York environment grants seek to strengthen the capacity of environmental groups, particularly those working at the community and grass-roots level; to improve public policies and the responsiveness of public agencies; and to develop effective coalitions and networks among various organizations.

The sustainable-communities program seeks to foster neighborhoods and local economies in the United States that are “environmentally sound, economically vital, and socially just.”

Grants made outside the five program areas currently focus on strengthening U.S. nonprofit organizations and on corporate accountability and responsibility.

Application procedure: Potential applicants should send a letter of inquiry of no more than three pages that includes a brief description of issues to be dealt with in the project, the history and goals of the applicant organization, and the group’s involvement with those issues; a short summary of the proposed project, including an outline of objectives and anticipated outcomes; the starting date and duration of the project; the total amount of funds needed, the amount requested from the fund, and information about other sources of support, both assured and requested. Full proposals should be submitted only upon request.

Key officials: Victor De Luca, president; Millie Buchanan, Wilma Montañez, and Kolu Zigbi, program officers; Margaret T. Segall, grants administrator and office manager; Rosemary L. Bray and Linda Singer, co-chairs of the Board of Directors.

DONALD W. REYNOLDS FOUNDATION

1701 Village Center Circle
Las Vegas, Nev. 89134-6303
(702) 804-6000
http://www.dwreynolds.org

Period covered: Year ending December 31, 2000.

Purpose and areas of support: Donald W. Reynolds, founder of Donrey Media Group, established the foundation in 1954. Upon Mr. Reynolds’s death in 1993, the foundation received a large bequest, and it now operates independently of the media company.

The foundation primarily supports nonprofit institutions in Arkansas, Nevada, and Oklahoma, states where Mr. Reynolds’s company operated newspapers. Competitive grants are awarded in those states in three categories: capital grants, community-services-center grants, and planning and technical assistance. The foundation also awards grants through two national, noncompetitive programs: aging and quality of life, and cardiovascular clinical research. Starting in mid-2002, the foundation will add a national journalism program.

Capital grants support the renovation of existing structures, new construction, or the purchase of major capital equipment. In 2000 the foundation awarded $49.4-million to seven nonprofit groups, including a $10.5-million allocation to the Nevada Museum of Art, in Reno, for a new visual-arts center that will help the museum expand its current programs, add new ones, and attract exhibitions.

The community-services-center grants program assists privately supported nonprofit groups that want to house their operations in a shared facility.

In 2000 the foundation introduced its planning and technical-assistance grant program, which helps small nonprofit groups secure comprehensive planning for specific capital projects. It awarded three grants totaling $144,750.

Through its cardiovascular-research program, the foundation awarded $24-million over four years to Stanford University, in Palo Alto, Calif., to pursue genetic links to the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of atherosclerotic heart disease.

In 2000, the foundation initiated a major program to strengthen the geriatrics training of U.S. physicians, issuing a call for proposals to academic health centers and private residency-training programs.

Application procedure: Organizations may apply for funds through the capital-grants or community-services-center programs. To be eligible for grants from either program, applicants must be located in Arkansas, Nevada, or Oklahoma and be tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Both programs are highly competitive. Planning and technical-assistance grants are made by invitation only. Visit the foundation’s Web site for additional details.

Key officials: Steven L. Anderson, president; Lynn Mosier, chief financial officer; Kathleen A. Fench, senior administrative officer; Richard S. Sharpe, executive vice president of programs; Courtney E. Latta, Phillip L. Thomas, and J. Craig Willis, senior program officers; Christian W. Kolberg, director of communication; Fred W. Smith, chairman of the Board of Trustees.