Foundation Annual Reports

CALIFORNIA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION

445 South Figueroa Street, Suite 3400
Los Angeles, Calif. 90071
(213) 413-4130
http://www.calfund.org

Period covered: Year ending June 30, 2005.

Purpose and areas of support: This foundation was established in 1915 by Joseph Sartori, president of Security Pacific Bank, and hired its first full-time staff member in 1946. It awards discretionary, donor-advised, and field-of-interest grants to nonprofit organizations that primarily benefit people living in Los Angeles County. During the foundation’s 2005 fiscal year, donors opened 125 new funds, bringing to 1,300 the total number it administers.

Most unrestricted grant making revolves around the Nurturing Neighborhoods/Building Community program, which emphasizes four areas: employment opportunities that place adults in jobs that pay a decent wage or offer the potential for career growth, exemplary education models for children attending preschool through eighth grade, expanded access to primary health-care services for uninsured and poor people, and efforts to develop or rehabilitate affordable housing and public green spaces while building community leadership. As a cross-cutting issue, the foundation also stresses programs that help people learn English-language skills.

Grants included $120,000 to the Venice Family Clinic for its asthma care and management program for adults, and $150,000 to Hollygrove Children and Family Services, in Los Angeles, for a literacy program for abused children and adolescents with learning disabilities or other special needs.

Through its Visual Arts Initiative, the foundation made grants totaling $977,211 to 24 arts groups and small theater companies and awarded $15,000 fellowships to 13 emerging and mid-career artists.

The foundation allocated more than $1.5-million through the Pets and Partners Initiative, a one-time-only program created using the assets of four field-of-interest funds focused on animal welfare. For example, Canine Support Teams, in Temecula, received $84,000 to train and place dogs as service animals for people with long-term disabilities other than blindness.

Also that year, Jay and Linda Sandrich, a Beverly Hills couple who worked in the television industry, teamed with the foundation to create the Secure Seniors Fund, which makes grants to charities that serve low-income senior citizens. The fund is supported by unneeded Social Security checks from people like the Sandriches, along with other contributions.

The annual report, entitled “Wall of Dreams,” features photographs of the many murals found throughout Los Angeles County.

Application procedure: For the most current information on the foundation’s grant programs and application procedures, call the foundation or visit its Web site. The Web site includes guidelines for all current grant programs, as well as application materials that can be downloaded.

Key officials: Antonia Hernández, president and chief executive officer; Joseph Lumarda, executive vice president and chief operating officer; Steve Cobb, vice president and chief financial officer; Alvertha Penny, vice president of programs; Mary Chambers, director of community relations; Peter Dunn, director of gift planning; Amy Fackelmann, director of donor services; Silvana Miller, director of administration; Catherine Stringer, director of communications; Vera de Vera, Laurel A. Fowler, and Pamela Rubin, program officers; Dorothy Avila Courtney, chair of the Board of Governors; Jane G. Pisano, chair emeritus.

MEADOWS FOUNDATION

Wilson Historic District
3003 Swiss Avenue
Dallas, Tex. 75204
(800) 826-9431
http://www.mfi.org

Period covered: Year ending December 31, 2004.

Purpose and areas of support: Algur H. Meadows, an oil-company founder, and his wife, Virginia, endowed the foundation in 1948. In accordance with the couple’s wishes, three generations of family members have subsequently overseen the foundation’s activities. As stipulated by its charter, the foundation distributes grants only to qualified public entities and tax-exempt charities that directly serve Texas residents.

In 2004, the foundation made grants totaling $25,259,668 in five program areas: health, which received 32 percent of grant dollars; human services, 23 percent; education, 19 percent; arts and culture, 16 percent; and civic and public affairs, 10 percent.

Nearly 90 percent of health-related grant dollars went to provide health-care services and mental-health counseling and treatment to disadvantaged Texans. For example, the Center for Success and Independence, in Houston, received $150,000 to expand a residential treatment facility for adolescents with psychological and substance-abuse problems.

The human-services program continued to emphasize support for basic needs, child and residential care, child and youth development, employment and job training, housing, and legal assistance. Awards included $212,300 to Community Hope Projects, in McAllen, to construct 12 low-cost housing units in rural Hidalgo County, and $70,000 to the YWCA of Fort Worth and Tarrant County to open a Ben & Jerry’s affiliate that will provide job training for disadvantaged teenagers.

More than half of the foundation’s education grant dollars went to benefit early-childhood development and primary-level education. The largest award was $515,000 to the Foundation for Community Empowerment, in Dallas, to expand the number of young children from low-income families who participate in a research-based curriculum that emphasizes language development and literacy.

Arts grants are made in five fields: arts education, historic preservation, the performing arts, the visual and decorative arts, and museums, collections, and exhibits. Awards included $131,000 to the Lubbock Regional Arts Center for renovations needed to increase space for cultural exhibitions and performances, and $18,800 to the Children’s Prison Arts Project, in Houston, to expand a theater program for young people who are incarcerated.

Civic- and public-affairs grant making focuses on economic and community development; citizenship; nonprofit organizations; the relationship between built and natural environments; and energy, plant, water, and wildlife conservation and research. For instance, the Texas Committee on Natural Resources, in Austin, received $80,000 for a public-education campaign advocating conservation strategies needed to help meet future water needs in the Dallas-Fort Worth region.

Application procedure: The foundation accepts grant applications throughout the year and there are no formal application forms. Any given organization is limited to one application within a one-year period. Applications are usually processed within three to four months. Prospective applicants should review the foundation’s grant guidelines, which are available in both English and Spanish on its Web site.

Key officials: Linda P. Evans, president and chief executive officer; Bruce H. Esterline, vice president for grants; Paula Herring, vice president and treasurer; Michael E. Patrick, vice president and chief investment officer; Bob Weiss, vice president for administration; Carol A. Stabler, director of communications; Luis M. Casanova, Michael K. McCoy, Cindy M. Patrick, Adrianna Cuéllar Rojas, and Kathy Smith, senior program officers; Cynthia Cass, grants operation manager; Robert A. Meadows, chairman of the Board of Trustees.

CHARLES STEWART MOTT FOUNDATION

503 South Saginaw Street
Suite 1200
Flint, Mich. 48502
(810) 238-5651
http://www.mott.org

Period covered: Year ending December 31, 2004.

Purpose and areas of support: The foundation was incorporated in 1926 by Charles Stewart Mott (1875-1973), an industrialist affiliated with General Motors. Mr. Mott also served three terms as mayor of Flint, Mich., and was active in local charitable organizations.

Although the foundation’s grant making initially focused on Flint, it has expanded over the years to include the rest of the United States. It also encompasses international projects, with an emphasis on Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, and South Africa. Almost 30 percent of the foundation’s grants benefit international causes.

Last year the foundation made grants totaling approximately $97,200,000 in its five program areas: “pathways out of poverty,” which received $38,885,000, or 39.4 percent of total dollars; civil society, $26,661,000, or 27.0 percent; the Flint area, $16,455,000, or 16.7 percent; the environment, $13,894,000, or 14.1 percent; and exploratory and special projects, $1,340,000, or 1.3 percent. In addition, matching and trustee-initiated grants totaled $1,484,000, or 1.5 percent. Those figures were commensurate with the previous year’s grant making.

The “pathways out of poverty” program’s mission is to identify, test, and maintain projects that can help low-income families and communities move from persistent poverty to long-term stability. Specifically, it supports high-quality extracurricular and in-school education for poor children; policies and programs that help increase the economic self-reliance of low-income Americans; efforts that enable poor people to gain marketable skills, stay employed, and advance in their careers; and projects that strengthen community organizing on these issues.

For example, the foundation made grants of $50,000 each to the Center for Employment Opportunities, in New York, and five other groups nationwide for projects to mitigate poverty among low-income, noncustodial fathers under the age of 30.

The civil-society program has three broad themes: “strengthening the nonprofit sector; promoting rights, responsibilities, and participation; and improving race and ethnic relations.” The program’s geographic scope encompasses Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, South Africa, and the United States.

Awards included $75,000 to the Aspen Institute, in Washington, for its Project on Race and Community Revitalization, and $150,000 to the Film Resource Unit, in New Town, South Africa, to produce a documentary based on a play about South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Awards to organizations in the Flint area continued to emphasize arts and culture, civic engagement, children and families, community revitalization, economic development, education, philanthropy and nonprofit groups, and race relations.

Environmental grants stress activities to conserve freshwater ecosystems in North America, restructure international finance and trade institutions and policies, and special opportunities to promote environmental protection in the United States and elsewhere. Allocations included $101,000 to Peregrine Environmental Consulting, in Takoma Park, Md., to establish new benchmarks for the global environmental standards of international financial institutions and private-sector lending in developing countries.

Application procedure: The foundation does not have an official application form. Letters of inquiry, with a brief description of the project and the range of financial support needed, are encouraged for initial contact. The foundation requests proposals from organizations with which it has been in contact, sends out occasional requests for proposals that deal with a specific issue or area of interest, and accepts unsolicited proposals for projects that fall within its program priorities and guidelines. More-detailed information, including specific guidelines on writing letters of inquiry, is available on the foundation’s Web site.

Key officials: William S. White, president, chief executive officer, and chairman of the Board of Trustees; Maureen H. Smyth, senior vice president for programs and communications; Marilyn Stein LeFeber, vice president for communications; Phillip H. Peters, vice president for the administrative group, secretary, and treasurer; Robert E. Swaney Jr., vice president for investments and chief investment officer; Jimmy L. Krause, director of grants administration and assistant treasurer; Lois R. DeBacker, associate vice president for programs (civil society and environment); Kevin F. Walker, associate vice president for programs (Flint area and pathways out of poverty); Shannon L. Lawder, regional director, Central and Eastern Europe and Russia; Russell T. Ally, director, South Africa office.