Foundation Annual Reports

LILLY ENDOWMENT
2801 North Meridian Street
P.O. Box 88068
Indianapolis, Ind. 46208
(317) 924-5471
http://www.lillyendowment.org

Period covered: Year ending December 31, 2005.

Purpose and areas of support: This private foundation was established in 1937 by J.K. Lilly Sr. and his sons Eli and J.K. Jr. and endowed through gifts of stock in the family’s pharmaceutical business, Eli Lilly and Company. Although Lilly stock remains the “financial bedrock” of its fiscal portfolio, the endowment is completely distinct from the company, with a separate governing board, staff, and location.

In accordance with the directives of the three founders, the endowment awards grants through three program divisions: community development, education, and religion. Within this framework, grant making emphasizes projects that benefit young people and that advance leadership education and financial responsibility at nonprofit groups.

In 2005 the endowment approved grants totaling $468.8-million to 783 grantees, of which 307 were first-time recipients of Lilly Endowment support. As in previous years, the education division garnered the most money — $237.2-million, or 56 percent of total dollars awarded — followed by the religion division, which received $100.6-million, or 24 percent, and the community-development division, which received $84.5-million, or 20 percent. Those percentages were commensurate with the previous year’s grant making.

The great majority of grant dollars — 74 percent — continued to be made to nonprofit organizations located in Indiana, with groups in Indianapolis and Marion County receiving grants totaling $65.5-million, and grantees elsewhere in the state receiving $281.5-million.

The education division has the overarching goal of improving education in Indiana. It places special priority on higher education and on programs designed to boost the number of minority and other Indiana residents who have completed college. Also in 2005, the endowment made 34 matching grants totaling $96.5-million to Indiana colleges and universities as part of an effort to promote philanthropic support from alumni, faculty and staff members, parents, and students.

Other awards included $150,000 to Encouragement Services, in Bloomington, Ind., for the Indiana Pathways to College network, and $649,430 to the University of Evansville for the Middle Grades Reading Network. The Hispanic Scholarship Fund, in San Francisco, also received $12,330,000 for regional programs and collaborative partnerships with higher-education institutions.

Religion grants seek “to deepen and enrich the religious lives of American Christians,” principally through projects that support theological education and inquiry, attract and retain talented young people to ministry as a vocation, or provide sabbatical and other programs for current pastors. For example, the National Clergy Renewal Grants Program made 124 grants that collectively amounted to $4,963,830 to “strengthen congregations by supporting reflection and renewal periods for [their] pastors.”

Other grants included $456,426 to Yale University, in New Haven, Conn., to study church-state legal relations in America, and $1,076,639 to Union Theological Seminary & Presbyterian School of Christian Education, in Richmond, Va., for continued support of the “Resourcing Christianity” Web site.

The community-development division stresses efforts that can benefit Indianapolis residents in the areas of the arts and culture, human and societal needs, inner-city and neighborhood revitalization, and low-income housing. On a statewide level, for the past16 years the foundation has supported the GIFT (Giving Indiana Funds for Tomorrow) Initiative, which has led to the creation of community foundations in each of Indiana’s 92 counties that collectively have assets totaling more than $1-billion.

Other grants included $1.5-million to the Indianapolis Museum of Art for the “Roman Art Masterworks from the Louvre” exhibit, and $5.3-million to the Indianapolis Neighborhood Housing Partnership for programs, administrative costs, and other activities.

As part of the division, the foundation also supports amateur athletics and fitness organizations,facilities, and programs that can help advance economic development and recreational opportunities in Indianapolis. For example, the Indiana-World Skating Academy, in Indianapolis, received a $250,000 grant for general operating support.

Application procedure: Charitable organizations with projects and requests that fit the endowment’s guidelines may submit a preliminary letter of no more than two pages that provides information about the organization, the proposed project, and the amount of money to be requested. Correspondence should be directed to the Program Office at the address above. The endowment responds in writing to all preliminary inquiries and will request a full proposal from those organizations whose projects it feels warrant further consideration. The endowment does not accept e-mailed or faxed proposals. The grant-review process takes three to six months, and all grant seekers receive written notification of the endowment’s decisions. Additional information is available on the endowment’s Web site.

Key officials: N. Clay Robbins, president; David D. Biber, secretary and treasurer; Sara B. Cobb, vice president, education; Craig Dykstra, senior vice president, religion; William M. Goodwin, vice president, community development; Thomas M. Lofton, chairman of the Board of Directors.

MOODY FOUNDATION
2302 Postoffice Street, Suite 704
Galveston, Tex. 77550
(409) 797-1500
http://www.moodyf.org

Period covered: Two years ending December 31, 2005.

Purpose and areas of support: The foundation was endowed in 1942 by William Lewis (W.L.) Moody Jr. (1865-1954) and his wife, Libbie Shearn Moody, both residents of Galveston, Tex. The couple’s business interests included banks, hotels, newspapers, ranches, and the American National Insurance Company, which Mr. Moody founded in 1905. The foundation’s current Board of Trustees is made up of three members of the Moody family.

The foundation’s grant making initially focused on local charities in Galveston and later on programs in Texas that emphasized education, the arts, health, and community and social services. In the 1960s, for instance, the foundation created the Moody Scholars Program, which continues to help Galveston County students attend the Texas college of their choice.

In the 1980s, the foundation undertook two large-scale projects: the Transitional Learning Center at Galveston, a research and rehabilitation facility that focuses on helping people recover from traumatic brain injury, and Moody Gardens, a complex in Galveston that includes a convention center, a large aquarium, an enclosed one-acre rainforest, an IMAX theater, a white-sand beach and water park, a hotel and spa, and therapeutic programs for disabled people.

The fund’s commitment to Moody Gardens — which stands at more than $250-million — has accounted for the bulk of the fund’s grant making in recent years. The fourth phase of development at Moody Gardens is nearing completion, and plans for additional phases are being considered. Although no precise timetable for further development has been announced, it is likely that for several more years a substantial portion of the foundation’s resources will be devoted to Moody Gardens and to the Transitional Learning Center and its facilities for the rehabilitation of persons with brain injuries.

In 2004 and 2005, the foundation made five grants totaling $6,631,661 to Moody Gardens, while the Transitional Learning Center received $28,109,459 over the same period.

The foundation also makes approximately 20 to 30 grant awards each year to other institutions, with an emphasis on support for the arts, education, and social services in Austin, Dallas, and Galveston.

Grants included $20,000 to the Texas Ballet Theater, in Fort Worth, to expand in-school ballet instruction in underserved elementary schools in Dallas and Fort Worth, and $100,000 to the OneStar Foundation, in Austin, for the Texas Round-Up program, which encourages Texans to develop healthier, more-active lifestyles.

Application procedure: The foundation’s grant making is restricted to 501(c)(3) organizations based in Texas. Application guidelines may be requested by writing a one-page inquiry letter to the foundation’s grants director at the address given or by calling the foundation.

Key officials: Frances Moody-Dahlberg, executive director; Peter M. Moore, grants director; Harold C. MacDonald, comptroller; Gerald J. Smith, program officer; E. Douglas McLeod, director of development; Allan Matthews, director of scholarship programs; Jamie G. Williams, Dallas regional grants director; Bernice Collins Torregrossa, grants analyst; Robert L. Moody Sr., chairman of the Board of Trustees.

SKOLL FOUNDATION
250 University Avenue, Suite 200
Palo Alto, Calif. 94301
(650) 331-1031
http://www.skollfoundation.org

Period covered: Year ending June 30, 2005.

Purpose and areas of support: The foundation was established by Jeffrey S. Skoll, the first full-time employee and first president of eBay. It comprises two separate entities: the Skoll Fund, a public charity and supporting organization associated with the Community Foundation Silicon Valley that was established in 1999, and the Skoll Foundation, a private foundation created in 2002. The two entities share administrative, grant-making, and program resources, but are governed by separate boards.

During the 2005 fiscal year, Mr. Skoll contributed additional money to the foundation’s endowment, expanding it by approximately 38 percent.

The foundation’s main grant-making mechanism is the Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship program. In 2005, some grants were made through the Skoll Awards for Innovation in Silicon Valley and the Skoll Social Sector Program. However, all awards are now vetted through the social-entrepreneurship program.

In addition, the foundation has identified six critical issues that will underpin its future grant making: economic and social equity, environmental sustainability, health, institutional responsibility, peace and security, and tolerance and human rights. It also places emphasis on geographic regions where those issues face the gravest threats and the greatest potential for long-term change.

The Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship support “established organizations led by social entrepreneurs who are applying innovative and effective approaches to resolve critical social issues around the world.” In the 2005 cycle, 317 organizations submitted initial applications. Of these, 29 were invited to submit final proposals and 13 received awards, which provide three-year grants for core support.

Recipients included EcoLogic Finance, in Cambridge, Mass., which supports sustainable agriculture and fisheries, wild-harvested products, ecotourism, and other rural-based businesses that foster environmental conservation. The organization received $465,000 over three years and a $1-million program-related investment to expand its operations in Latin America and East Africa.

The foundation supported The New Heroes, a four-part documentary broadcast on public television that profiled 12 individuals working to achieve social change. It also created a second film project in which the award-winning film Gandhi was dubbed in Arabic and shown throughout the Palestinian Territories.

The foundation also sponsors Social Edge, an online forum where “social entrepreneurs, nonprofit professionals, philanthropists, and other practitioners of the social sector connect to network, learn, inspire, and share resources.” According to the annual report, traffic to the site increased 300 percent during fiscal 2005.

Application procedure: Detailed information is available on the foundation’s Web site.

Key officials: Sally Osberg, president and chief executive officer; Richard Fahey, chief operating officer; Sandy Herz, vice president, marketing and communications; Ed Diener, counsel; Andria de Witt and Pamela Lawrence, program coordinators; Christy Chin and Ruth Norris, senior program officers; Victor d’Allant, executive director, Social Edge; Terry Nagel, communications officer; Laura Vais, marketing director; Cristina Yoon, grants administrator; Jeffrey S. Skoll, founder and chairman.