Foundation Annual Reports

ROBERT STERLING CLARK FOUNDATION
135 East 64th Street
New York 10021
(212) 288-8900

Period covered: Year ending October 31, 1997.

Purpose and areas of support:

The foundation was established in 1952 by Robert Sterling Clark, an art collector and grandson of Edward Clark, a founder of the Singer Manufacturing Company.

In 1997, 82 grants were appropriated through the fund’s three main programs: insuring access to comprehensive reproductive-health services and education, which received 22 grants totaling $1,390,000; strengthening cultural institutions, which received 36 grants totaling $1,247,000; and improving the performance of public institutions in New York City and State, which received 24 grants totaling $1,055,000.

The foundation’s grant making in reproductive health promotes the development of laws, policies, and practices that protect women’s access to comprehensive care, including sex education, contraception, and abortion services. Projects focus on litigation, research, policy analysis, public education, and grassroots and national activities, including strategies for reducing violence and harassment at abortion clinics and research on organizations opposed to contraception, abortion, and sex education. Allocations included $25,000 to the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, in Washington, for its outreach and educational activities.

Grants to cultural institutions focus on improving the management and use of resources at New York-area arts groups, including through staff and board training and increased fund raising, marketing, and earned income. The foundation also makes a lesser number of grants for projects to defend and promote artistic expression and for arts advocacy. Grants included $35,000 to the Brooklyn Children’s Museum for an audience-research and marketing project designed to expand its base of donors.

The foundation makes awards to improve the accountability and performance of New York government institutions, with an emphasis on safeguarding and expanding services for low-income people who rely on government programs and services. For example, $30,000 went to Inside Albany, a weekly public-television show that covers state government and policy, with a particular focus on welfare reform, economic development, and state allocation of public monies.

Publications that were supported in whole or in part by grants from the foundation included the NARAL Foundation’s Who Decides? A State-by-State Review of Abortion and Reproductive Rights and the Hunger Action Network of New York State’s Faces of Welfare Reform.

Application procedure: Proposals should be addressed to Margaret C. Ayers at the address above and should include a description of the planned project, a budget for the project, precise project expectations, plans for evaluation, the background of key staff members involved, and plans for future support. Applicants should also provide information on the organization’s budgets (past, current, and projected), audited financial statements, an Internal Revenue Service letter explaining the applicant organization’s tax status, names and occupations of trustees, and examples of past organizational accomplishments. The main body of the application should not exceed 15 pages, and the inclusion of a one-page summary is also required. The board meets in January, April, July, and October; proposals are received and reviewed year-round.

Key officials: Margaret C. Ayers, executive director; Darcy Hector and Laura Wolff, program officers; Winthrop R. Munyan, president of the Board of Directors.

HOUSTON ENDOWMENT

600 Travis, Suite 6400
Houston 77002-3007
(713) 238-8100
http://www.hou-endow.org

Period covered: Year ending December 31, 1997.

Purpose and areas of support:

The foundation was endowed in 1937 by the Houston financier, commercial builder, and public servant Jesse H. Jones and his wife, Mary Gibbs Jones. Since its creation, grant making has focused on non-profit organizations and projects that serve primarily metropolitan Houston, but also other communities in Texas. Although a few grants are made to institutions outside Texas, none are made to foreign organizations.

In 1997, the foundation’s board approved 465 grants totaling $47.8-million in six program areas: higher education, which received 36 per cent of grant dollars; arts and culture, 18 per cent; health and human services, 18 per cent; community enhancement, 14 per cent; primary and secondary education, 7 per cent; and medical facilities and research, 7 per cent.

Seventy per cent of grants went to Houston-area programs, and the remaining 30 per cent went to projects elsewhere in the state or nation. By type of support, 49 per cent of grants went for operating support, 41 per cent for buildings and facilities, and 10 per cent for scholarships.

As in previous years, higher education received the largest percentage of grant dollars. Within that category, 43 per cent of grants went for buildings and facilities, 24 per cent for scholarships and fellowships, 18 per cent to endow chairs and programs, and 15 per cent for program development. Allocations included $500,000 to the South Texas College of Law, in Houston, to construct a law library, and $250,000 to St. Edwards U., in Austin, for the Migrant Scholarship Endowment Fund.

The Jesse H. Jones and Mary Gibbs Jones High School Scholarship Program provides outstanding students in Texas with $10,000 over four years for undergraduate tuition at any accredited four-year college or university. In 1997, scholarships totaling $2,070,000 were bestowed on 207 students from 83 Texas high schools.

The largest arts-related grant was a $3-million award to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. This payment was part of a $20-million commitment toward the construction of the Audrey Jones Beck Building; the facility is named after the granddaughter of Jesse and Mary Gibbs Jones, and will feature her collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artworks.

Grants in the health and human-services area emphasized disadvantaged children, health-care services, low-cost housing and homelessness, hunger and emergency relief, domestic violence, disabled people, substance abuse, mental health, and literacy. For example, $250,000 went to the Houston Food Bank for capital improvements and its operating reserves, and $40,000 went to the Rose, in Houston, to purchase imaging equipment for its breast-cancer-detection services for poor women.

Grants in the area of community enhancement focused on historic preservation and education, community development, parks and natural spaces, race relations and cultural diversity, environmental and wildlife conservation, strengthening non-profit organizations, and youth development.

Medical- and education-related grants included $30,000 to the Harris County Hospital District Foundation, in Houston, to equip a playground for pediatric patients at LBJ General Hospital, and $190,000 to the U. of Houston-Downtown for a summer program designed to reduce high-school drop-out rates and to increase college attendance among minority students.

Application procedure: Grants are made only to organizations that are tax-exempt under Sections 501(c)(3) or 170(c) of the Internal Revenue Code. The foundation does not make grants to individuals or loans of any type. Application forms are not required, but requests must be made in writing. Applications should consist of a letter and other supporting documents; specific information on what should be included is available through the foundation’s “Grant-Application Guidelines,” which are posted on its World-Wide Web site.

Key officials: H. Joe Nelson III, president; David L. Nelson, vice-president, corporate secretary, and grant director; Sheryl L. Johns, vice-president, treasurer, and chief financial officer; Claudette Y. Di Nal, Ann T. Hamilton, Anna B. Leal, Michele J. Sabino, and Donald P. Sheppard, grant officers; E. Jane Floren and Helen Hill, grant managers; Jack S. Blanton, chairman of the Board of Directors.

PEW CHARITABLE TRUSTS

2005 Market Street, Suite 1700
Philadelphia 19103-7077
(215) 575-9050
http://www.pewtrusts.com

Period covered: Year ending December 31, 1998.

Purpose and areas of support:

The seven charitable funds that make up the Pew Charitable Trusts were established between 1948 and 1979 by two sons and two daughters of Sun Oil Company founder Joseph N. Pew and his wife, Mary Anderson Pew. Because the grant-making interests of the individual trusts overlap, a single set of guidelines has been created for grant applicants.

In 1998, the trusts received 3,429 proposals, and a total of 359 grants totaling $213.5-million were appropriated as follows: the Venture Fund received $50.8-million or 24 per cent of grant dollars; health and human services, $39.5-million or 18 per cent; the environment, $38.7-million or 18 per cent; education, $30.8-million or 14 per cent; culture, $22.8-million or 11 per cent; religion, $16.6-million or 8 per cent; and public policy, $14.2-million or 7 per cent.

Geographically, grants were distributed as follows: 74 per cent went for projects nationwide; 22 per cent for projects in the Philadelphia area; and 4 per cent for foreign projects.

The Venture Fund, which was created in 1997 as the successor to the trusts’ interdisciplinary fund, continues that fund’s emphasis on flexible support for timely and innovative opportunities that fall outside the trusts’ traditional program areas. For example, $2.4-million over three years went to Duke University for “Indivisible,” an oral-history and photography project to document civic engagement in America.

The trusts have restructured their health and human-services program in response to significant challenges taking place in both health care and social services. New guidelines for the program should be available this summer; new grant proposals for national health and human-services programs are not being considered until that time.

Environmental grants focus on forest and marine protection, climate change and global warming, and pollution prevention. Awards included $770,000 over two years to the Natural Resources Defense Council, in New York, for efforts to promote proper implementation of the Food Quality Protection Act of 1996.

In the area of education, 51 per cent of grant dollars went for projects to reform higher education, 40 per cent for projects to revamp elementary and secondary education, and 9 per cent for special institutions and local programs. Awards included $1,608,000 over four years to the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, in Oakland, Cal., to develop and adopt new methods of accrediting colleges and universities.

In lieu of a traditional annual report, the trusts now publish an annual “Program Resource Guide,” a quarterly magazine entitled Trust, and other periodic publications. Extensive information about the foundation and its grant making can be found on the trusts’ World-Wide Web site.

Application procedure: Contact the foundation for a copy of its current “Program Resource Guide,” which provides guidelines, or visit the foundation’s World-Wide Web site.

Key officials: Rebecca W. Rimel, president and chief executive officer; Ronald B. Lewis, executive vice-president and general counsel; Catherine T. Murphy, chief of staff for operations; Jill C. Schiager, chief of staff for programs; Henry B. Bernstein, chief financial officer; David J. Morse, director of public affairs; Susan K. Urahn, director of planning and evaluation; Elizabeth A. W. Williams, director of operations and special projects; J. Howard Pew II, chairman of the Board of Directors.

Program directors: Maureen K. Byrnes (health and human services), Michael X. Delli Carpini (public policy), Russell Edgerton (education), Marian A. Godfrey (culture), Luis E. Lugo (religion), Donald Kimelman (the Venture Fund), and Joshua S. Reichert (environment).