Foundation Annual Reports

BILL & MELINDA GATES FOUNDATION

P.O. Box 23350
Seattle, Wash. 98102
(206) 709-3100
http://www.gatesfoundation.org

Period covered: Year ending December 31, 2004.

Purpose and areas of support: The foundation was created in January 2000 through the merger of the Gates Learning Foundation and the William H. Gates Foundation. Both funds had been endowed by Bill Gates, the chairman and chief software architect of the Microsoft Corporation, and his wife, Melinda French Gates. The foundation is completely independent of Microsoft.

It makes grants in four major program areas: education, which received $720.9-million in 2004, compared with $531.2-million the preceding year; global health, $447.0-million, compared with $576.6-million; the Pacific Northwest, $38.2-million, compared with $44.5-million; and global libraries, $25.2-million, compared with $18.4-million. The foundation also allocated grants totaling $29.8-million for special projects, compared with $14.5-million in 2003.

The foundation supports grantees in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, as well as projects in more than 100 countries. Approximately 60 percent of its grants go toward global efforts and 40 percent to programs in the United States.

Since 2000, the education program has focused on increasing the percentage of students, particularly blacks and Hispanics, who graduate from high school “with the high-level skills they need to be successful in college, work, and citizenship.” To that end, the foundation makes grants to create new high schools or to convert existing, struggling ones into institutions with rigorous curricula, more-relevant coursework, and lower student-to-teacher ratios. More than 400 such schools had opened in 40 states and Washington, D.C., by the start of the 2004 academic year.

The foundation also supports “early college high schools,” which provide disadvantaged students with an intensive, college-level curriculum and the opportunity to earn two years of college credit or an associate degree. It pledged an additional $29.6-million in grants to eight organizations that are working to expand the network of such high schools to more than 25 states.

The overarching goal of the global-health program is to reduce health inequities that disproportionately affect people in developing nations and to ensure that vaccines and other lifesaving advances and technologies are created and then shared with people in poor countries.

In 2004 the program stressed support for efforts to find effective, affordable solutions to the ravages of HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis. For example, the foundation awarded $82.9-million to the Aeras Global TB Vaccine Foundation, in Bethesda, Md., to finance human trials of promising tuberculosis vaccines, as well as early research on the “next generation” of vaccines. The foundation also made grants totaling $16-million to a consortium that is gathering data on an innovative approach to malaria control in Tanzania and elsewhere that involves giving infants intermittent doses of antimalarial drugs.

Grants to benefit Pacific Northwest residents go primarily to groups in Washington State and the metropolitan Portland, Ore., area that work to increase access to high-quality early education, create new resources for vulnerable families, expand positive after-school opportunities for youths, or expand housing and support services for homeless and at-risk families.

Awards included $632,500 to Consejo Counseling and Referral Services, in Seattle, to construct a 23-unit housing facility in Federal Way, Wash., that will provide support services for formerly homeless families, and $480,946 to the YMCA of Greater Seattle to offer advanced computer-skills training and a GED-completion program to high-school dropouts.

Through its libraries program, the foundation strives to ameliorate the “digital divide” by joining with public libraries in the United States, Canada, and other countries to expand access to computer technology to traditionally underserved people. For example, the OCLC Online Computer Library Center, in Dublin, Ohio, received $6,849,383 to conduct workshops on creating and maintaining patrons’ access to computers at rural libraries in all 50 U.S. states.

Application procedure: The foundation awards the majority of its grants to institutions selected by its program teams. It accepts letters of inquiry for the global-health and Pacific Northwest programs. Potential applicants for grants in those areas should review the program guidelines on the foundation’s Web site before submitting a letter. The foundation does not accept unsolicited proposals.

Key officials: Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates, co-founders; William H. Gates Sr., co-chair; Patty Stonesifer, co-chair and president; Sylvia M. Mathews, chief operating officer and executive director, global libraries, Pacific Northwest, and special projects; Allan C. Golston, chief financial and administrative officer; Richard D. Klausner, executive director, global health; Tom Vander Ark, executive director, education.

ANDREW W. MELLON FOUNDATION

140 East 62nd Street
New York, N.Y. 10021
(212) 838-8400
http://www.mellon.org

Period covered: Year ending December 31, 2004.

Purpose and areas of support: This foundation was established in 1969 through the merger of the Avalon Foundation, created in 1940 by Ailsa Mellon Bruce, daughter of Andrew W. Mellon, and the Old Dominion Foundation, created in 1941 by her brother, Paul Mellon.

In 2004, the foundation appropriated grants totaling $185,633,843 in these program areas: higher education and scholarship, which received $89,852,948; libraries and scholarly communication, $48,298,600; the performing arts, $17,184,000; museums and art conservation, $15,365,295; conservation and the environment, $10,588,000; population, $3,150,000; and public affairs, $1,195,000. Although the foundation primarily finances domestic programs, it awards some grants to foreign groups.

The program in higher education and scholarship stresses support for minority students, research universities, liberal-arts colleges, postdoctoral fellowships for aspiring faculty members, and centers for advanced study. Its support for liberal-arts colleges, for example, emphasizes curricular innovation, language studies, and institutional collaboration.

The foundation has placed increasing emphasis on support for libraries and scholarly communication over the past decade and those aspects of its work now constitute a separate program area. Awards included $599,000 to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for its continued development of online tools for the scholarly analysis of literary texts.

The performing-arts program supports dance, music, opera, and theater programs, with an emphasis on artistic development and new organizational models. Allocations included $50,000 to the Musical Arts Association, in Cleveland, to carry out an artistic exchange with the San Francisco Symphony.

Grants for museums and art conservation focus on curatorial positions and scholarship, the role of science in art conservation, and artistic exchanges. An emerging area of special emphasis is the conservation of photographs; for example, the George Eastman House, in Rochester, N.Y., received $136,000 for stipends for participants in the Advanced Residency Programs in Photograph Conservation.

In mid-July of this year, the foundation named Don Michael Randel, president of the University of Chicago since 2000, to be president, effective July 1, 2006. Mr. Randel will succeed William G. Bowen, who has led the foundation since 1988.

Application procedure: The foundation rarely accepts unsolicited proposals. Prospective applicants are encouraged to submit a letter of inquiry of one page or less to the appropriate program officer. The foundation does not make grants to individuals or to primarily local organizations. Detailed information is available on the foundation’s Web site.

Key officials: William G. Bowen, president; Harriet Zuckerman, senior vice president; Ira H. Fuchs, vice president for research and information technology; John E. Hull, financial vice president and chief investment officer; Patricia L. Irvin, vice president for operations and planning; Mary Patterson McPherson, vice president; Michele S. Warman, general counsel and secretary; Anne M. Tatlock, chairman of the Board of Trustees.

Program officers: Danielle D. Carr, Lydia L. English, Ira H. Fuchs, Suzanne M. Lodato, Catherine Maciariello, Joseph S. Meisel, William Robertson IV, Angelica Z. Rudenstine, Eugene M. Tobin, and Donald J. Waters.

WALLACE FOUNDATION

5 Penn Plaza, Seventh Floor
New York, N.Y. 10001
(212) 251-9700
http://www.wallacefoundation.org

Period covered: Year ending December 31, 2004.

Purpose and areas of support: DeWitt Wallace and his wife, Lila Acheson Wallace, the founders and publishers of Reader’s Digest magazine, established several philanthropic funds in the 1950s. Following their deaths in the mid-1980s, two private foundations — the DeWitt Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund and the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund — were created to continue their philanthropic legacy.

After program evaluations in the 1990s, the funds’ board and staff determined that the two funds shared common goals; they merged in 2003 and were renamed the Wallace Foundation. Meanwhile, the foundation has divested all its Reader’s Digest stock, its primary bequest from the Wallaces.

The foundation restricts its grant making to domestic projects. In 2004, the board approved new grants and related expenses totaling $61.2-million, an increase of 39 percent over its 2003 grants budget. Allocations were as follows: education leadership received 61 percent of grant dollars; out-of-school learning, 28 percent; arts participation, 10 percent; and “foundation-wide initiatives,” 1 percent.

Support for education grants rose significantly, up from 38 percent of total grant dollars in 2003. This was due in large part to the addition of nine new states to the foundation’s “state-district strategy,” for a total of 26 states. The strategy seeks to improve student achievement by strengthening the preparation and performance of school principals and superintendents.

The program on out-of-school learning also received an influx of foundation support, up from 5 percent of grant dollars the previous year. It focuses on expanding high-quality extracurricular activities available to children from low- and moderate-income families. New York City and Providence, R.I., are serving as the initial sites for its Learning in Communities program, which enlists public and private leaders to ensure that the best possible use is made of available funds.

The foundation’s arts program promotes new models for cultural groups that can expand public participation in the arts. The foundation created the Wallace Excellence Awards to honor arts organizations that have developed exemplary ideas and practices for involving community members. In its first round, the foundation made challenge grants totaling $6-million to Arena Stage, in Washington; the Armory Center for the Arts, in Pasadena, Calif.; the Des Moines Art Center; the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, in Newark; Real Art Ways, in Hartford, Conn.; and the University Musical Society, in Ann Arbor, Mich.

Application procedure: Most grants are awarded through foundation-initiated programs. Although unsolicited proposals are rarely supported, organizations may submit a one- to two-page letter of inquiry. Additional information is available on the foundation’s Web site.

Key officials: M. Christine DeVita, president; Nancy M. Devine, director, arts and communities programs; Richard D. Laine, director, education programs; Sharon W. Clark, director, operations; Mary E. Geras, director of finance and assistant treasurer; Lucas Bernays Held, director, communications; Lee D. Mitgang, director, editorial services; Rob D. Nagel, director of investments and treasurer; Edward Pauly, director, evaluation; Rory MacPherson, Sheila Murphy, Jody Spiro, Jessica Schwartz, Ann Stone, and Mary R. Trudel, senior officers; Walter V. Shipley, chairman of the Board of Directors.