Foundation Annual Reports

COMMUNITY FOUNDATION SILICON VALLEY

60 South Market Street, Suite 1000
San Jose, Calif. 95113
(408) 278-2200
http://www.cfsv.org

Period covered: Year ending June 30, 2005.

Purpose and areas of support: The foundation was created in 1954 as the Community Trust of Santa Clara County, using $55,000 left over in the San Jose War Chest, money initially raised to assist in World War II efforts. It now comprises more than 650 funds established by individuals, families, corporations, and others.

During its fiscal year 2005, the foundation distributed grants and scholarships totaling $75-million to support nonprofit groups and public schools primarily located in California’s Santa Clara and southern San Mateo Counties.

Over the past 18 months, the foundation reviewed its grant-making programs, conducted a survey of its grantees, and commissioned the 2005 Santa Clara County Nonprofit Benchmark Study.

Competitive grant making now emphasizes three strategies: community-investment grants, which provide general-support awards of up to $20,000; organizational-effectiveness grants, which provide technical-assistance awards of up to $5,000; and neighborhood grants, which provide awards of up to $5,000 and other aid to resident-based groups working to improve their communities.

The foundation allocates community-investment grants to nonprofit groups working in one or more of these four program areas: the arts and cultural participation, civic engagement, education and lifelong learning, and self-reliant individuals and families.

For example, grants of $20,000 each went to the El Camino Youth Symphony, in Palo Alto; the Services, Immigrant Rights, and Education Network, in San Jose; and YES Reading, in Menlo Park.

Through its Community Catalyst Program, the foundation also operates special multiyear efforts that are often created in collaboration with other grant makers. One such program, the Advancing the Arts Initiative, is supported by the James Irvine Foundation and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. Awardees included the Abhinaya Dance Company of San Jose, which received $10,000, and the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, which received $15,000.

The foundation also administers the Young Readers-Future Leaders program, a partnership of regional early-literacy groups that has placed mobile libraries in approximately 65 communities and held workshops that advise child-care providers and low-income parents on ways to boost young children’s reading skills.

In conjunction with the Hispanic Foundation of Silicon Valley, the foundation released Familia, Fé y Comunidad, a publication that examined giving and volunteering patterns among Latinos in the region.

In honor of its 50th anniversary, the foundation received a $5-million challenge grant from the Skoll Foundation, in Palo Alto, to create the Community Investment Fund, “a savings account for current and future local needs.”

The foundation also houses several supporting organizations, including the eBay Foundation, the Steven and Michele Kirsch Foundation, the Portola Group Foundation, and the Sobrato Affordable Housing Fund.

Application procedure: The foundation has instituted new grant programs that took effect with its 2006 fiscal year. Current grant-making guidelines, descriptions of program areas, and application materials are available on the foundation’s Web site.

Key officials: Peter Hero, president; Leo Chavez, executive vice president; Nancy K. Ragey, senior adviser to the president; Jeff Sunshine, director of programs; Karen DeMers, director of administration; Eleanor Clement Glass, director of Philanthropy Incubator Silicon Valley; Barb Larson, director of donor services; Michelle McGurk, director of communications and marketing; Erica Neely, assistant to the president and manager of special projects; Mari Ellen Reynolds, director of development; Kathleen Gwynn, president and chief executive officer, Steven and Michele Kirsch Foundation; Irene Wong, executive director and chief executive officer, eBay Foundation; Greg Avis, chair of the Board of Directors.

DANA FOUNDATION

745 Fifth Avenue, Suite 900
New York, N.Y. 10151
(212) 223-4040
http://www.dana.org

Period covered: Year ending December 31, 2004.

Purpose and areas of support: The foundation was created in 1950 by Charles A. Dana, a New York state legislator, lawyer, and industrialist. Mr. Dana, who died in 1975, served as the foundation’s president from its inception until 1966.

The foundation’s grant making supports programs in science, health, and education through specifically defined objectives in each field. Science and health grants, which are awarded primarily by invitation and competitive processes, support research in neuroscience, immunology, and the effects of arts training on cognition.

Within this framework, the program focuses on brain and immuno-imaging, human immunology, neuroimmunology, and clinical neuroscience research. For example, the foundation awarded 23 grants for projects that use cellular- and molecular-imaging techniques to advance understanding of brain and immune-related diseases.

Award recipients included the University of Pittsburgh for a study to validate and simplify the use of a promising imaging technique that could become the first-choice method for diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease.

The foundation awarded $1.8-million for the Arts and Cognition Consortium, which is conducting a three-year study to determine whether early arts training has a beneficial effect on general cognitive processes. The consortium includes researchers at Dartmouth College, Harvard University, Stanford University, the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Michigan, and the University of Oregon.

The Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives, which comprises approximately 250 neuroscientists, works to increase public awareness of the potential of science to find treatments and cures for brain-related diseases and disorders.

The Dana Press, the foundation’s publishing division, produces books for educators and others, as well as periodicals that focus on trends, debates, and news in neuroscience, immunology, and arts education. In 2004, the press established the Dana Foundation Series on Neuroethics, which examines ethical issues that stem from discoveries in brain research.

The foundation awarded 20 arts-education grants, which primarily support professional-development programs designed to improve dance, drama, and music instruction at public schools in metropolitan Los Angeles, New York, and Washington.

Allocations included $25,000 to the Shakespeare Theatre, in Washington, for Classics in the Classroom, a program that helps teachers incorporate theater into the academic curriculum.

Application procedure: The foundation’s Web site provides information on grant-making priorities and application processes.

Key officials: Edward F. Rover, president; Barbara E. Gill, vice president for public affairs and executive director, Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives; Burton M. Mirsky, vice president for finance; Jane Nevins, vice president and editor in chief, the Dana Press; Barbara Rich, vice president and director, news and Internet office; William Safire, chairman of the Board of Directors.

IRGINIA G. PIPER CHARITABLE TRUST

6720 North Scottsdale Road
Suite 350
Scottsdale, Ariz. 85253
(480) 948-5853
http://www.pipertrust.org

Period covered: Two years ending March 31, 2005.

Purpose and areas of support: The trust was created in 1995 by Virginia G. Piper, whose first husband, Paul V. Galvin, founded Motorola. Mrs. Piper moved to Paradise Valley, Ariz., in 1972 and lived there until her death in June 1999. At that time, the trust received more than $500-million from her estate and officially began its work as a private foundation.

Its grant making is limited to nonprofit groups and government agencies that benefit residents of Maricopa County, Ariz. During the two fiscal years covered by the report, the trust made 531 grants totaling $59,638,058 to 281 organizations.

In fiscal year 2005, the trust awarded grants totaling $29,748,844 in its six program areas as follows: health care and medical research, which received $9,403,583, or 32 percent of total dollars; religious organizations, $8,117,076, or 27 percent; the arts and culture, $4,370,760, or 15 percent; children, $3,075,844, or 10 percent; older adults, $2,498,240, or 8 percent; and education, $1,996,516, or 7 percent. In addition, the Piper Fellows Program and miscellaneous grants received $286,825, or 1 percent.

Within this framework, the trust has selected four areas — youths, early childhood, arts and culture, and older adults — to guide its current grant making.

During the two years covered by the report, the trust allocated approximately $18-million to nonprofit groups that serve young people in Maricopa County. Grants focused on promoting academic achievement, expanding high-quality extracurricular activities, strengthening services for at-risk youths, improving health-care services, and fostering Catholic education.

Awards included $200,000 to the Arizona Museum for Youth, in Mesa, for Artville, a new permanent exhibition for children under 5, and $3-million to Saint Mary’s High School, in Phoenix, to enhance athletic facilities and to construct classrooms, a foreign-language lab, and a computer center.

Early-childhood grants totaled more than $8.5-million and emphasized support for programs that encourage the development of healthy children by educating parents, child-care providers, preschool teachers, and pediatricians. For example, the Banner Desert Medical Center, in Mesa, received $228,250 to initiate the Healthy Steps program, which monitors the subsequent development of infants who have received care in the center’s neonatal intensive-care unit.

The trust awarded nearly $6.6-million to arts and cultural organizations for efforts to encourage audience growth, increase revenue, use technology efficiently, and promote collaboration among arts-related groups.

The trust also joined with the Flinn Foundation, in Phoenix, to create the Maricopa Partnership for Arts and Culture, a new group that works to position the arts as a crucial factor in future regional community and economic development.

Also in 2004-5, the trust allocated approximately $4-million for programs that help older adults enhance their physical and emotional health, participate in “rewarding and productive” activities, and gain access to crucial services.

Grants included $307,071 to the Arizona Community Foundation, in Phoenix, to implement Benefits CheckUp Arizona, an online service that provides information on more than 1,300 federal, state, and local benefits for which people age 55 and older may be eligible.

The trust also made 13 grants as part of the Next Chapter Initiative, an effort to create innovative programs for baby boomers nearing retirement age that stress civic engagement, lifelong learning, and paid and volunteer opportunities.

Through the Piper Fellows Program, the trust provided paid sabbaticals to six nonprofit leaders working at arts, education, health, and human-services groups in Maricopa County.

Application procedure: In order to be eligible for support, organizations must serve residents of Maricopa County, Ariz., and have operated as a governmental entity or held tax-exempt status under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code for at least three years. Private foundations are not eligible.

Applicant organizations should submit a summary form and a two-page letter of inquiry. The summary form and additional information are available on the trust’s Web site.

Key officials: Judy Jolley Mohraz, president and chief executive officer; Mary Jane Rynd, executive vice president and chief financial officer; Wayne D. Parker, director of research and evaluation; Marilee L. Dal Pra and Carol A. Kratz, senior program officers; Karin H. Bishop, grants manager; Juliet Martin, director of communications; James D. Bruner, José A. Cárdenas, Paul N. Critchfield, Arthur W. DeCabooter, Laura R. Grafman, Sharon C. Harper, and Stephen J. Zabilski, trustees.