Foundation Annual Reports

BILL & MELINDA GATES FOUNDATION

P.O. Box 23350
Seattle, Wash. 98102
(206) 709-3100
http://www.gatesfoundation.org

Period covered: Year ending December 31, 2003.

Purpose and areas of support: The foundation was established in January 2000 through the merger of the Gates Learning Foundation, which sought to expand access to technology, and the William H. Gates Foundation, which focused on enhancing global public health. Both funds had been endowed by Bill Gates, the chairman and chief software architect of the Microsoft Corporation, and his wife, Melinda French Gates.

The Gateses made donations to the foundation totaling $16-billion in 1999, along with subsequent gifts. Most recently, the couple announced on July 20 that they plan to donate the proceeds from a special Microsoft stock dividend, valued at approximately $3-billion. The foundation is the wealthiest in the world, and, once it receives this most recent infusion of funds, will have assets of some $30-billion.

The foundation’s grant making concentrates on four program areas: global health, which received $576.6-million in 2003, compared with $507.0-million the preceding year; education, $531.1-million, compared with $413.6-million; the Pacific Northwest, $44.4-million, compared with $121.8-million; and libraries, $16.2-million, compared with $45.0-million. The foundation also paid out grants totaling $13.6-million for special projects, compared with $70.1-million in 2002.

The program on global health works to reduce health inequities that disproportionately affect people in developing countries and to ensure that lifesaving advances are created and shared with those who need them most. To this end, the program emphasizes efforts related to infectious disease and vaccines, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, and reproductive and child health.

Noteworthy grants included $100-million to Path-the Program for Appropriate Technology in Health, in Seattle, to continue and expand the Malaria Vaccine Initiative, and $60-million to the International Partnership for Microbicides, in Silver Spring, Md., to accelerate the development and accessibility of these products. Microbicides are gels or creams that women can use to protect themselves from HIV transmission, even if their partners refuse to wear condoms.

The foundation doubled its commitment to Avahan, the India AIDS Initiative, pledging an additional $100-million to this New Delhi group that works to prevent the spread of HIV in India. Avahan made its first round of grants, which totaled $67.5-million.

The education program has two primary goals: reducing financial barriers to higher education, and helping high schools better prepare students for college, employment, and civic participation. In the fall of 2003, more than 150 new or revamped public high schools supported by the foundation opened in 22 states nationwide. These schools were designed to provide students with a rigorous curriculum, more-relevant coursework, and lower student-to-teacher ratios.

Education grants made in 2003 included $13.6-million to help 10,000 Boston students receive high-quality, college-preparatory educations; $11-million to transform three large San Diego high schools into 18 smaller schools; and $7.6-million to finance 12 new, small high schools in Chicago.

Grants to benefit Pacific Northwest residents go primarily to groups in Oregon and Washington State that assist at-risk youths, provide technology training to disadvantaged people, or expand housing and support services for families on the verge of homelessness.

Through its libraries program, the foundation works to close the “digital divide” by joining with public libraries in the United States, Canada, and other countries to expand access to computer technology to people who have traditionally not had it. The largest award made through this program in 2003 was $2,700,357 to the Navajo Nation, in Window Rock, Ariz., to expand computer and Internet access in Navajo tribal communities.

Application procedure: The foundation awards the majority of its grants to organizations selected by its program teams. It accepts letters of inquiry for the global-health program, community-oriented grants under the Pacific Northwest program, and the Community Access to Technology focus under the libraries program. Potential applicants for grants in those three areas should review the program guidelines on the foundation’s Web site before submitting a letter. The foundation does not accept unsolicited proposals.

Key officials: Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates, co-founders; William H. Gates Sr., co-chair; Patty Stonesifer, co-chair and president; Allan C. Golston, chief financial and administrative officer; Richard D. Klausner, executive director, global health; Sylvia Mathews, chief operating officer and executive director, global libraries,Pacific Northwest, and special projects; Tom Vander Ark, executive director, education.

WILLIAM T. GRANT FOUNDATION

570 Lexington Avenue, 18th Floor
New York, N.Y. 10022
(212) 752-0071
http://www.wtgrantfoundation.org

Period covered: Year ending December 31, 2003.

Purpose and areas of support: The foundation was created in 1936 by William T. Grant, a businessman who built a chain of more than 1,200 stores that sold household goods. Mr. Grant died in 1972 at the age of 96.

The foundation primarily allocates grants for research relevant to the optimal psychological and social development of individuals from late childhood through early adulthood. This research focuses on how external factors such as families, programs, and policies affect youths; how those factors can be improved; and how scientific evidence affects influential policy makers and other adults. Projects are evidence-based, often interdisciplinary, and usually deal with an issue that affects a large number of 8- to 25-year-olds or a population of particularly at-risk young people in this age group in the United States.

Approximately 80 percent of the foundation’s grant-making budget goes to support research; 15 percent to support the William T. Grant Scholars program and related activities; and 5 percent to support projects in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut that directly serve young people.

Grants are made in three program areas: youth development, systems that affect youths, and the public’s perception of young people.

The youth-development program awarded 54 percent of total grant dollars in 2003. Grant making emphasized projects on the effects of laws and policies on young people; the successfulness of “interventions”; ways to expand positive youth participation and civic engagement; the influence of culture and diversity on youths; and improving transitions from middle childhood to adolescence and from adolescence to early adulthood.

Allocations included $356,519 over three years to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for a research project on mental health and cultural adaptation among Latino adolescents.

Grants to improve the various systems that affect young people included several grants examining school reform and after-school programs.

In July 2003, Robert C. Granger, formerly senior vice president for program, succeeded Karen Hein as the foundation’s president.

Application procedure: The foundation has no printed application form. Prospective applicants should either submit a letter of inquiry by mail or through the foundation’s Web site. If the foundation determines that the project falls within its current program interests and priorities, a full proposal will be requested for further consideration. More information on application procedures is available on the foundation’s Web site.

Key officials: Robert C. Granger, president; Edward Seidman, senior vice president, program; Lawrence J. Gianinno, vice president, strategic communications; Lawrence D. Moreland, vice president, finance and administration and assistant treasurer; Thomas S. Weisner and Brian L. Wilcox, senior program associates; Sharon Brewster, Irene A. Mohamed, and Nancy Rivera-Torres, grants-services coordinators; Kenneth S. Rolland, chair of the Board of Trustees.

HENRY LUCE FOUNDATION

111 West 50th Street, Suite 4601
New York, N.Y. 10020
(212) 489-7700
http://www.hluce.org

Period covered: Two years ending December 31, 2003. (Financial data are for the year ending December 31, 2003.)

Purpose and areas of support: The foundation was established in 1936 by Henry R. Luce (1898-1967), co-founder and editor in chief of Time Inc. Mr. Luce envisioned the foundation as a “living memorial” to his parents, who had served as missionaries and educators in China. Most of the foundation’s endowment is derived from stock donated by Mr. Luce through his will.

Grant making reflects the interests of four generations of Luce family members, and currently focuses on five areas: American art, East Asia, higher education, public policy and the environment, and theology.

The foundation also makes some grants for projects outside those program areas and administers the Clare Boothe Luce Program, which provides support to women seeking to study and teach engineering or science.

The American art program primarily supports exhibitions, publications, and doctoral and other research related to American artists in the fields of architecture, the decorative arts, drawing, painting, print making, photography, and sculpture. Allocations included $150,000 to the Portland Museum of Art, in Maine, to reinstall and reinterpret its collection of American art.

The program on East Asia currently has two areas of emphasis: the Luce Scholars Program, which provides young American leaders with professional internships in Asia, and Asia Project Grants, which support various humanities and social-sciences activities on East and Southeast Asia. The foundation’s largest grant made in 2002 and 2003 was a $3-million award to Columbia University, in New York, to endow a professorship and program in modern Tibetan studies.

The Luce Fund for Asian Studies, a $12-million program to strengthen undergraduate study of Asia in the United States, made its fourth and final round of grants in 2002. All told, 38 new faculty positions were created at selected liberal-arts colleges.

Following a two-year study, the foundation’s board decided in 2003 to phase out the Henry R. Luce Professorships, which had been a major component of its higher-education program.

With the exception of one grant for an orientation seminar for new members of Congress, all awards made through the public policy and the environment program focused on environmental issues. This environmental component is limited to 55 higher-education institutions and 49 nongovernmental organizations that have been invited to apply for grants.

Awards included $700,000 to Oberlin College, in Ohio, for the International Perspectives in Environmental Studies Program, and $250,000 to Environmental Defense, in New York, to protect Cuba’s coral-reef ecosystems from commercial development.

The theology program seeks to advance religious leadership and understanding, primarily through grants for theological education and research.

In late 2002, John W. Cook, who had served as president since 1992, announced his retirement. He was succeeded by Michael Gilligan, director of the foundation’s theology program.

Application procedure: No special forms are required, although separate guidelines and deadlines exist for each program and special initiative. Letters of inquiry may be sent to the appropriate staff member to determine whether a project falls within the foundation’s guidelines. More-detailed information is available at the foundation’s Web site.

Key officials: Michael Gilligan, president; Terrill E. Lautz, vice president and secretary and program director for Asia and higher education; John P. Daley, vice president for administration and finance; Helene E. Redell, vice president and program director for the Luce Scholars Program; Suzanne W. Neuman, grants manager and special-projects director; Margaret Boles Fitzgerald, chair of the Board of Directors; Henry Luce III, chairman emeritus.

Program directors: Jane Zimmer Daniels (Clare Boothe Luce Program), Ellen Holtzman (arts), H. Christopher Luce (public policy and the environment), and Lynn Szwaja (theology).