Foundation Annual Reports

ANDREW W. MELLON FOUNDATION
140 East 62nd Street
New York, N.Y. 10021
(212) 838-8400
http://www.mellon.org

Period covered: Year ending December 31, 2003.

Purpose and areas of support: This foundation was created in 1969 through the consolidation of the Avalon Foundation, established in 1940 by Ailsa Mellon Bruce, daughter of Andrew W. Mellon, and the Old Dominion Foundation, established in 1941 by her brother, Paul Mellon. Andrew W. Mellon (1855-1937) helped found Alcoa, Gulf Oil, and other companies, and served as U.S. secretary of the treasury from 1921 to 1932.

In 2003, the foundation allocated grants totaling $181,490,975 in six program areas: higher education and scholarship, which received $132,231,975; performing arts, $16,540,000; museums and art conservation, $15,836,000; conservation and the environment, $12,213,000; population, $3,620,000; and public affairs, $1,050,000. Although the foundation primarily supports domestic programs, it makes some grants to groups in other countries.

The program in higher education and scholarship emphasizes support for minority students, research universities, liberal-arts colleges, centers for advanced study, libraries, research and humanistic scholarship, scholarly communications, and teaching and technology. It also provides support for scholars in the humanities at various stages in their careers. In 2003 the foundation initiated a fellowship program for professors emeritus.

After a period of development and administration by the foundation, two digital-based programs — ARTstor and Ithaka — were established as independent, nonprofit entities. ARTstor is building a searchable digital repository of images and scholarly materials related to art, architecture, and other fields in the humanities. Ithaka is a joint effort with the William and Flora Hewlett and Stavros S. Niarchos Foundations to spur the effective adoption of information technology in ways that benefit scholars worldwide.

Performing-arts grants support dance, music, opera, and theater programs, with an emphasis on artistic and organizational development.

Grants for museums and art conservation focus on curatorial scholarship, the role of science in art conservation, postdoctoral programs for young art historians, and scholarly exchanges. For example, the Cleveland Museum of Art received $20,500 for a project that introduces Chinese museum professionals to American museum practices and protocols.

The foundation continued to phase out its program on population and forced migration, with new awards down sharply from $22,485,000 the previous year.

Application procedure: The foundation rarely accepts unsolicited proposals. Prospective applicants are encouraged to submit a one-page letter of inquiry to the appropriate program officer. Detailed information is available on the foundation’s Web site.

Key officials: William G. Bowen, president; Harriet Zuckerman, senior vice president; John E. Hull, financial vice president and chief investment officer; Ira H. Fuchs, vice president for research in information technology; Patricia L. Irvin, vice president for operations and planning; Mary Patterson McPherson, vice president; Michele S. Warman, general counsel and secretary; Eileen M. Scott, treasurer; James Shulman, executive director, ARTstor; Kevin M. Guthrie, president, Ithaka; Anne M. Tatlock, chairman of the Board of Trustees.

Program officers: Lydia L. English, Saul Fisher, Ira H. Fuchs, Krista L. House, Suzanne M. Lodato, Catherine Maciariello, Joseph S. Meisel, Danielle Carr Ramdath, William Robertson IV, Angelica Z. Rudenstine, and Donald J. Waters.

DAVID AND LUCILE PACKARD FOUNDATION
300 Second Street, Suite 200
Los Altos, Calif. 94022
(650) 948-7658
http://www.packard.org

Period covered: Year ending December 31, 2003.

Purpose and areas of support: The foundation was created in 1964 by David Packard (1912-1996), co-founder of the Hewlett-Packard company, and his wife, Lucile Salter Packard (1914-1987). Mr. Packard also participated in various civic, educational, and professional organizations and served as deputy secretary of defense from 1969 to 1972. The foundation was the beneficiary of a major portion of Mr. Packard’s estate, ultimately receiving stocks that, at the time, more than doubled its endowment.

In 2003, the foundation allocated 661 grants totaling $213,591,412, primarily in the following program areas: science and conservation, which received 139 grants totaling $91,684,076; children, families, and communities, 119 grants totaling $52,185,896; population, 74 grants totaling $35,827,522; special opportunities and capacity-building funds, 209 grants totaling $28,389,118; and the arts and local area funds, 120 grants totaling $5,504,800. The median grant award was $50,000.

In 2002, the foundation merged its previously separate conservation and science programs into a single entity. Grant making currently focuses on three priorities: the conservation of oceans and coastal regions; the atmosphere, with a focus on reducing greenhouse-gas emissions that cause climate change through support for revised energy policies in the United States and China; and the Packard Fellowships for Science and Engineering, which support university researchers who are at early stages of their careers.

Grants to restore oceans and coasts seek to revamp the fisheries and seafood industries; to promote sustainability in coastal systems, with an emphasis on the California coast, the Gulf of California, and the western Pacific Ocean; and to support scientific activities that advance the ecosystem-based management of coastal marine systems.

The program on children, families, and communities focuses most of its activities in California, but also supports some nationally oriented activities that jibe with its program goals. In California, the program pursues measures to ensure that all 3- and 4-year-olds have access to publicly financed, high-quality preschools; to guarantee that all children have access to health insurance and appropriate health care; and to provide after-school programs for children at elementary and middle schools.

Through the program, the foundation made a $30-million allocation to the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health, as part of a $230-million grant made to the institution in 2001.

The population program seeks to lower the rate of global population growth, to expand reproductive-health options available to poor women and their families, and to support reproductive rights. Geographically, the foundation currently limits its grant making outside the United States to nonprofit activities in Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, and the Philippines.

The foundation’s 2004 grants budget of $200-million is the same as its 2003 budget; this marked the first time in four years that the foundation’s annual grants budget was not reduced because of difficult economic times.

Carol S. Larson, the foundation’s former vice president and director of programs, became its fourth president. She succeeded Richard T. Schlosberg III, who retired after leading the foundation for five years.

Application procedure: Detailed guidelines on application procedures and grant-making programs, lists of recent grants, and annual reports are available on the foundation’s Web site.

The foundation recommends that potential applicants carefully review the guidelines and geographic limitations for their specific program interest before preparing any letter of inquiry or proposal. Staff members review letters of inquiry and proposals year-round.

Key officials: Carol S. Larson, president and chief executive officer; George Vera, vice president and chief financial officer; Barbara Wright, secretary and general counsel; Mary Anne Rodgers, foundation counsel; Chris DeCardy, director of communications and program services; Mindy Roberts, grants manager; Susan Packard Orr, chairman of the Board of Trustees.

Key program officials: Sarah Clark, director, population program; Nancy Glaze, director, arts and the Los Altos Community Fund; James P. Leape, director, conservation and science program; Stephanie McAuliffe, director, organizational effectiveness; Lois Salisbury, director, children, families, and communities program; Mary Shipsey Gunn, program manager, Pueblo, Colo., program.

WILLIAM PENN FOUNDATION

2 Logan Square, 11th Floor
100 North 18th Street
Philadelphia, Pa. 19103
(215) 988-1830
http://www.williampennfoundation.org

Period covered: Year ending December 31, 2003.

Purpose and areas of support: The foundation, initially known as the Phoebe Waterman Foundation, was created in 1945 by Otto Haas, a co-founder of the chemical company Rohm and Haas, and his wife, Phoebe, an astronomer. Mr. Haas died in 1960, leaving the bulk of his estate to the foundation, and Mrs. Haas made regular donations to it until her death in 1967.

The foundation is directed by a corporation composed of members of the Haas family and by a board made up of family members and others. In the 1970s, the family renamed the foundation after the 17th-century Quaker leader who established Philadelphia as “the City of Brotherly Love.”

Geographically, the foundation’s grant making focuses on efforts to benefit residents of the metropolitan Philadelphia area, including Pennsylvania’s Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, and Philadelphia Counties and New Jersey’s Camden County.

In 2003, the foundation made 205 new grants totaling $61,218,660. The theme of economic revitalization “underpins and unifies” the work of the foundation’s three grant-making programs: children, youth, and families, which received $20,077,742; environment and communities, $13,889,070; and the arts and culture, $9,380,563. The remaining money went for special purposes, including grants made through the foundation’s Opportunity Fund.

Grants made through the children, youth, and families program stress activities that help children and teenagers become “capable adults and productive citizens.” Special emphasis is placed on child care, early-childhood development, school readiness, education reform, and adolescence.

For example, the Philadelphia Youth Network received a two-year, $2,200,000 grant for its Summer Career Exploration Program, and Family Care Solutions, in Philadelphia, received $82,500 to provide child-care assistance to low-income parents attending college courses.

The environment and communities program seeks to protect and restore watersheds and related ecosystems, to revitalize and stabilize selected neighborhoods, and to ensure sustainable regional development. Community-revitalization grants are limited to targeted neighborhoods in Philadelphia and Camden, N.J. Grants related to watersheds and ecosystems are made for projects in an expanded region that includes portions of the Delaware, Schuylkill, and Chesapeake Bay watersheds.

The arts and culture program emphasizes strengthening the role of the arts in education, increasing public access to the arts, boosting arts groups’ organizational capacity, and advancing the work of regional artists. Grants included $76,450 to Rennie Harris Puremovement to develop a strategic business plan for this Philadelphia hip-hop dance company.

Application procedure: Potential applicants should review the “What We Fund” and “Eligibility Guidelines” sections pertinent to each of the foundation’s programs; this information is available on the foundation’s Web site. The foundation employs a two-step application process through which prospective applicants should first submit a letter of inquiry. If the letter of inquiry indicates a potential fit with the foundation’s grant-making criteria, applicants may be invited to submit a more formal, detailed proposal.

Key officials: Kathryn J. Engebretson, president; Louise Foster, chief financial officer; Ronnie L. Bloom, director, children, youth, and families; Olive Mosier, director, arts and culture; Helen Davis Picher, director, evaluation and research; Barbara A. Scace, director, information systems and grants administration; Brent Thompson, director, communications; Geraldine Wang, director, environment and communities; Janet Haas, chair of the corporation; David Haas, chair of the Board of Directors.