Foundation Annual Reports

CALIFORNIA ENDOWMENT

21650 Oxnard Street, Suite 1200
Woodland Hills, Calif. 91367
(800) 449-4149
http://www.calendow.org

Period covered: Year ending February 28, 2003.

Purpose and areas of support: This health-conversion foundation was created in 1996 when Blue Cross of California, a nonprofit organization, became WellPoint Health Networks, a for-profit corporation. The endowment’s mission is to expand access to low-cost, high-quality health care for underserved California residents and communities and to promote significant improvements in the health status of all Californians.

During fiscal 2003, the endowment allocated 852 grants totaling $159-million in support of its four program areas — access to health services, cultural competence, disparities in health, and work-force diversity — and its two special programs on mental health and the health of agricultural workers.

The endowment’s major vehicle for discretionary grant making is the CommunitiesFirst program, which concentrates on three main areas: expanded access to comprehensive, coordinated health services; culturally specific activities that reduce cultural and ethnic disparities in health access and status; and projects that promote healthy behaviors, manage and prevent chronic disease and injuries, ward off communicable diseases, and protect against environmental threats to human health.

The CommunitiesFirst program awarded 157 grants totaling $54.6-million. Allocations included $457,108 to Hinds Hospice, in Fresno, for a culturally appropriate hospice program for terminally ill patients in California’s Central Valley region, and $431,619 to the Contra Costa Child Care Council, in Concord, for a nutrition-education program for disadvantaged children.

This was the first full year of the endowment’s Local Opportunities Fund, a discretionary program that provides grants of up to $50,000 to help grass-roots groups improve health conditions in their communities. The fund awarded 253 grants totaling approximately $10.5-million, and 75 percent of recipients were first-time grantees of the endowment.

The endowment announced a $45-million expansion of its Community Clinics Initiative, which focuses on improving the ability of clinics in underserved communities to meet increasing demands for high-quality health-care services as state services dwindle.

In August 2002, the endowment created the statewide Medical Leadership Council for Language Access, a collaborative effort of 25 physicians’ and medical groups seeking to improve health-related interpretation and translation services for Californians with limited English-language skills.

In addition to its headquarters in Woodland Hills, the endowment operates five regional offices in Fresno, Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Diego, and San Francisco in order to reach each of California’s 58 counties. In September 2002, the endowment announced plans to relocate its headquarters to a site adjacent to the historic Terminal Annex building in downtown Los Angeles.

Application procedure: The endowment employs various funding approaches, including the discretionary CommunitiesFirst and Local Opportunities Fund programs, special projects, and periodic requests for proposals. The endowment makes grants to nonprofit organizations, tribal government units, and public and government agencies in California. Detailed information is available on the endowment’s Web site.

Key officials: Robert K. Ross, president and chief executive officer; Irene M. Ibarra, executive vice president; Julie Tugend, senior vice president and chief operating officer; Dennis Hunt, vice president of communications and public affairs; Alicia Lara, vice president of program; Rakesh Varma, vice president and chief financial officer; Mario Gutierrez, director of strategic programs; Laura Hogan and Marion Standish, program directors; Rebecca Martin, director of grants administration; Gwen Walden, director of regional programs; Gwen Foster, Larry Gonzales, Gregory Hall, Roland Palencia, Barbara Webster, and Dianne Yamashiro-Omi, senior program officers; Laura S. Wiltz, chair of the Board of Directors.

DANFORTH FOUNDATION

1 Metropolitan Square
211 North Broadway, Suite 2390
St. Louis, Mo. 63102
(314) 588-1900

Period covered: Year ending May 31, 2003.

Purpose and areas of support: The foundation was established in 1927 by William H. Danforth, the founder of the Ralston Purina Company, and his wife, Adda. During its first 70 years of operation, the fund made grants in St. Louis and elsewhere that emphasized support for child development and precollegiate and higher education. In 1997, the foundation’s board decided to concentrate the foundation’s resources exclusively on the St. Louis metropolitan area and broadened its grant-making focus to include civic and community-development issues.

In 2002, the board once again reviewed its grant-making strategies and deliberated on how best to revitalize the St. Louis region. It determined that a major portion of the foundation’s new commitments should be in the field of plant and life sciences, capitalizing on the fact that the region houses several eminent businesses and institutions in the field, including Monsanto, Sigma-Aldrich, and the Missouri Botanical Garden.

During its fiscal year 2003, the foundation made 45 grant payments totaling $19,552,517 to projects in three program areas: economic development/plant and life sciences, neighborhood redevelopment, and the revitalization of downtown St. Louis. The foundation also provided support to a few projects in other fields that benefit St. Louis residents.

New commitments in the economic development/plant and life sciences program included $5-million for continued support of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center and $180,137 for salary support of the executive director of the Coalition for Plant and Life Sciences.

Grants to revitalize St. Louis neighborhoods and business districts included $226,000 to the St. Louis-based group Faith Beyond Walls to bring together people of different religions to collaborate on community projects, and $990,-892 to St. Louis 2004, a partnership working to improve the cultural, economic, health, and other aspects of the 12-county metropolitan area.

Other grants included $1,024,-774 to United Way of Greater St. Louis for a project to increase the availability and accessibility of high-quality child-care and educational programs for young children.

Application procedure: The foundation does not accept unsolicited proposals. Furthermore, the Board of Trustees has decided to restrict grant making through the end of 2004 solely to opportunities in the field of plant and life sciences.

Key officials: Bruce J. Anderson, president; Robert H. Koff, senior vice president; Wilma M. Wells, vice president; Kay P. Dusenbery, grants and programs manager; Laura Barlow Winter, program associate; John C. Danforth, chairman of the Board of Trustees.

NINA MASON PULLIAM CHARITABLE TRUST

135 North Pennsylvania Street Suite 1200
Indianapolis, Ind. 46204
(317) 231-6075

2201 East Camelback Road, Suite 600B
Phoenix, Ariz. 85016
(602) 955-3000
http://www.ninapulliamtrust.org

Period covered: Year ending December 31, 2002.

Purpose and areas of support: The trust was endowed in 1997 following the death of Nina Mason Pulliam, former president of Central Newspapers Inc., publisher of The Arizona Republic and The Indianapolis Star. The company was founded in 1934 by Mrs. Pulliam’s husband, Eugene, and was purchased by Gannett Newspapers in 2000.

The trust has a fixed term of 50 years subsequent to Mrs. Pulliam’s demise. In accordance with her wishes, grant making focuses on activities that benefit residents of Indiana and Arizona, with primary emphasis given to charitable groups that serve Indianapolis and Phoenix.

In 2002, the foundation allocated 193 grants totaling $15,-158,919 in its three main program areas: helping people in need, which received $12,379,019, or 81 percent of grant dollars; protecting animals and nature, $1,616,900, or 11 percent; and enriching community life, $1,163,000, or 8 percent.

The trust’s program to help people in need supports organizations that provide clothing, food, medical care, shelter, and other basic necessities; that enable elderly people to remain healthy and self-sufficient; that assist people with physical and developmental disabilities; and that offer education, health, and other services to disadvantaged children and youths and their families.

Awards included $45,000 to Breaking Free, in Indianapolis, to expand domestic-violence services for Latinos in central Indiana, and $225,000 to the East Valley Addiction Council, in Mesa, Ariz., to construct a center for homeless mothers and pregnant women with substance-abuse and mental-health problems.

The largest grant made for animal-welfare and conservation concerns was a $500,000 allocation to the Grand Canyon Trust, in Flagstaff, Ariz., for various projects of the Land Protection Plan of the Colorado Plateau, including the acquisition of Dry Lake.

The community-life grants stress programs on arts and culture, civic revitalization, and community development in Indianapolis and Phoenix. For example, the Writers’ Center of Indianapolis received $40,000 for a program serving middle- and high-school students and creative-writing teachers, and Business Volunteers for the Arts, in Phoenix, received $17,000 to expand the National Arts Marketing and Management Project.

The trust announced the second cohort of Nina Mason Pulliam Legacy Scholars. This program provides 40 college scholarships annually to nontraditional students in Indiana and Arizona, typically men and women 25 and older who have dependents; physically disabled individuals; or youths who have grown up in the child-welfare system and have no form of financial support.

Application procedure: The trust accepts proposals from organizations that are tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, with primary consideration given to charitable organizations in metropolitan Indianapolis and Phoenix and secondary consideration given to charitable organizations elsewhere in Indiana and Arizona.

On occasion, the trust may consider grant proposals from national organizations whose programs benefit Indianapolis and Phoenix, or that benefit society as a whole.

Requests for funds are limited to one request per organization per calendar year. Prospective applicants in Indiana and Arizona should send their inquiries to the respective addresses above. Detailed information on grant-making procedures is available on the trust’s Web site.

Key officials: Harriet M. Ivey, president and chief executive officer; Robert L. Lowry, chief financial and operating officer; Mary K. Price, director of grants administration and secretary to the Board of Trustees; Edmund H. Portnoy, director of grants programs, Arizona; Michael R. Twyman, director of grants programs, Indiana; Robert C. Berger and Belen K. Martinez, grants program managers, Phoenix; David A. Hillman and Lee Ann Hoy, grants program managers, Indianapolis; Frank E. Russell, chairman of the Board of Trustees.