Foundation Annual Reports

DUKE ENDOWMENT
100 North Tryon Street,
Suite 3500
Charlotte, N.C. 28202
(704) 376-0291
http://www.dukeendowment.org

Period covered: Year ending December 31, 2005.

Purpose and areas of support: The Duke Endowment was established in 1924 by James Buchanan (Buck) Duke, a North Carolina industrialist whose fortune originated with a small tobacco business. In 1884, along with his older brother, Benjamin Newton Duke, Buck Duke began investing in the mechanized mass production of cigarettes. The small business eventually evolved into the American Tobacco Company, and the Dukes also diversified their portfolio, investing in hydroelectric power and the textile industry.

The endowment’s four grant-making divisions benefit specific institutions and causes in North and South Carolina stipulated by Mr. Duke. However, he also gave the endowment’s trustees latitude to make grants for similar charitable purposes.

In 2005, the endowment allocated grants totaling $124,865,599 as follows: the education division received $53,116,968; the health-care division, $41,523,164; the child-care division, $13,484,164; the rural-churches division, $11,- 467,762; and endowment-wide programs, $5,273,413.

Per its indenture, the endowment makes education grants to only four institutions. As in previous years, Duke University, in Durham, N.C., received the majority of grant dollars — $38,820,054. Furman University, in Greenville, S.C., and Davidson College, in Davidson, N.C., each received $5,546,787; and Johnson C. Smith University, in Charlotte, N.C., received $3,2033,340.

The endowment announced its largest grant ever, $75-million over three years, to Duke University toward its campaign to raise $300-million for need-based financial aid.

Health-care grants support nonprofit hospitals and health-care organizations in North Carolina and South Carolina. There are four areas of emphasis: reimbursing hospitals for care provided to poor patients; preventing and treating chronic and long-term illnesses; expanding access to preventive and other comprehensive health-care services; and strengthening and improving hospital programs.

For example, $100,000 went to the University of North Carolina Hospitals, in Chapel Hill, to expand the Center for Acquisition of Spoken Language Through Listening Enrichment (Castle) program, which trains teachers and family members to help hearing-impaired children learn to hear sounds and speak.

Other awards included $42,830 to the Cape Fear Valley Health System, in Fayetteville, N.C., to develop a respiratory-care program for children with asthma, and $165,000 to Bon Secours St. Francis Health System, in Greenville, S.C., to establish a free medical clinic.

The child-care division makes grants to benefit child-welfare organizations in North Carolina and South Carolina that assist children who are orphans or who have been separated from their families because of abuse, neglect, or behavioral disorders.

It also supports agencies and nonprofit groups that seek to preserve families and protect children from the “loss of a supportive home environment.”

Under this rubric, the endowment stresses collaborative programs, early-intervention and family-preservation programs, general operating support, organizational effectiveness, and training and education. Grants included $69,670 to the Foothills Alliance, in Anderson, S.C., to estab- lish a network of church-based parent-support groups, and $250,000 to Eckerd Youth Alternatives, in Clearwater, Fla., to establish classrooms at seven wilderness camps in North Carolina.

The child-care and health-care divisions continued to reduce support for unsolicited projects and to place increased emphasis on grants that build on prior successes. Child-care grants emphasize after-school programs, efforts to reduce child abuse and neglect, training for staff members at children’s homes, and the overall well-being of children in foster care. Health-care grants focus on child health, computerized health-information systems, domestic violence, the nursing work force, and patient safety.

The rural-churches division provides capital and program support to United Methodist churches in rural regions of North Carolina, the Duke University Divinity School, the two North Carolina conferences of the United Methodist Church, and selected retired ministers of the United Methodist Church in North Carolina and their surviving dependents.

Awards included $20,000 to Christ Community United Methodist Church, in Clayton, for outreach and worship services tailored to the region’s burgeoning Latino population.

Application procedure: After reviewing the endowment’s guidelines, potential applicants may send an e-mail message describing the proposed project to the president, at info@tde.org. Eligible inquiries will be forwarded to the appropriate program officer, who may request a full proposal, including a description of the project, a budget, a list of sources of grants, a list of board members, and other pertinent materials. Detailed information on the endowment’s guidelines and application process is available on its Web site.

Key officials: Eugene W. Cochrane Jr., president; J. Porter Durham Jr., staff counsel and director of the education division; Rhett N. Mabry, director of the child-care division; W. Joseph Mann, director of the rural-churches division; Mary L. Piepenbring, director of the health-care division; Stephanie S. Lynch, chief investment officer; Charity L. Perkins, director of communications; Karen H. Rogers, treasurer; Toni L. Freeman, director of project research and evaluation; Russell M. Robinson II, chairman of the Board of Trustees.

MCKNIGHT FOUNDATION
710 South Second Street,
Suite 400
Minneapolis, Minn. 55401
(612) 333-4220
http://www.mcknight.org

Period covered: Year ending December 31, 2005.

Purpose and areas of support: William L. McKnight, a president and chief executive officer of the 3M Company, and his wife, Maude, endowed the foundation in 1953. Shortly after his wife’s death, in 1974, Mr. Mc- Knight asked the couple’s only child, Virginia McKnight Binger, to lead the foundation. Mrs. Binger worked with Russell Ewald, the fund’s first executive director, to initiate its formal grant-making program. Erika L. Binger, a great-granddaughter of the founders, has served as chair since 2004.

Last year, the foundation paid out 816 grants totaling $90,710,176 in these program areas: region and communities, which received 25 percent of grant dollars; children and families, 22 percent; the environment, 15 percent; the Minnesota Initiative Foundations, 10 percent; the arts, 10 percent; research, 8 percent; international programs, 3 percent; and other, 7 percent. Those figures were commensurate with the previous year’s payments.

Geographically, 37 percent of grant dollars went to organizations in Minneapolis and St. Paul; 37 percent went to groups elsewhere in Minnesota and to statewide programs; 19 percent went to groups in other states; and 7 percent went to international groups.

The foundation committed nearly $20-million in grants and other assistance to the Family Housing Fund, in Minneapolis, and the Greater Minnesota Housing Fund, in St. Paul, for their work to develop and preserve affordable housing in the Twin Cities and elsewhere in the state.

Other awards made through the region and communities program included $100,000 to the East Side Neighborhood Development Corporation, in St. Paul, to redevelop the Old Swedish Bank Building.

Grants to benefit children and families included $75,000 to Child Trends Incorporated, in Washington, to create a system for rating the quality of early-childhood programs in Minnesota.

The foundation approved a grant of $20-million over four years to the Energy Foundation, in San Francisco, for the Upper Midwest Clean Energy Initiative, which encourages harnessing wind power and developing transportation fuels from crops such as prairie grasses and corn stalks.

Grants in other program areas included $50,000 to the Chinese American Association of Minnesota, in St. Paul, for the Chinese Dance Theater, and $25,000 to Computer Aid International, in London, for a program that provides refurbished computers and technical training to women’s groups in Uganda.

The foundation’s Board of Directors recently announced the selection of Kathryn Wolford, president of Lutheran World Relief, to serve as the foundation’s fourth president, effective in December. She will succeed Peggy J. Birk, a board member who has served as interim president since August 2005.

Application procedure: Application guidelines for individual program areas are available on the foundation’s Web site.

Key officials: Kathryn Wolford, president; Bernadette Christiansen, vice president of human resources and administration; Rick Scott, vice president of finance and compliance; Neal I. Cuthbert, program director and interim vice president of program; Daniel M. Bartholomay, Gretchen Bonfert, and Christine Ganzlin, program directors; Kathleen Rysted, director of information technology and research programs; Tim Hanrahan, communications director; Therese Simmons, controller; Stephanie Duffy, grants-administration manager; Erika L. Binger, chair of the Board of Directors.

RHODE ISLAND FOUNDATION
1 Union Station
Providence, R.I. 02903
(401) 274-4564
http://www.rifoundation.org

Period covered: Year ending December 31, 2005.

Purpose and areas of support: Created in 1916 by 11 Rhode Island leaders, this community foundation makes designated, donor-advised, field-of-interest, and unrestricted grants to benefit residents of the state. It currently comprises more than 900 funds endowed by individuals, companies, and others.

In 2005, the foundation distributed grants totaling $20.5-million to more than 1,268 nonprofit organizations. Most donor-advised and designated grants went toward general support, while discretionary grants awarded through unrestricted and field-of-interest funds emphasized “attaining vibrant communities.”

Within this framework, the foundation maintained several grant-making opportunities, including the Basic Human Needs program, which awards up to $5,000 annually to social-services organizations that provide food, clothing, rent, and other emergency assistance to needy Rhode Islanders, and the Expansion Arts program, which provides up to $5,000 each to small arts groups that serve ethnic communities.

Through the third year of its Strategy Grants program, the foundation awarded a total of $3,486,547 to 87 projects that focused on advocacy services for disadvantaged children and families, community development and affordable housing, employment opportunities, and environmental conservation and protection.

For example, $42,500 went to Brown University’s Center for Environmental Studies, in Providence, to enable Farm Fresh Rhode Island to increase the production and consumption of locally grown foods, and $55,000 went to Crossroads Rhode Island, also in Providence, to operate a copy center that trains homeless people for entry-level positions in the publishing industry.

Also that year, the foundation led the HousingWorks RI campaign, which seeks to guarantee safe, affordable homes for all state residents; monitored public policies that affect low-income older adults; provided scholarships totaling nearly $1-million to 750 students; and initiated a “no strings attached” fellowship program for composers, visual artists, and writers in Rhode Island.

Application procedure: Detailed information, including a list of upcoming grant-proposal deadlines, is available on the foundation’s Web site.

Key officials: Ronald V. Gallo, president and chief executive officer; Carol Golden, executive vice president and chief operating officer; Karen Voci, senior vice president for program; Michael Jenkinson, senior vice president for finance and administration and chief financial officer; Kimberly M. Butler, vice president for philanthropic services; David Karoff, vice president for grant making; Rick Schwartz, vice president for communications; Ari A. Matusiak, director of strategy; Tina Donate, grants administrator; George Graboys, chairman of the Board of Directors.