Foundation Annual Reports

BOSTON FOUNDATION

75 Arlington Street
Boston, Mass. 02116
(617) 338-1700
http://www.tbf.org

Period covered: Year ending June 30, 2003.

Purpose and areas of support: This community foundation was established in 1915. Through its more than 750 constituent funds, it awards discretionary, designated, and donor-advised grants for projects that primarily serve residents of metropolitan Boston. Donors made 800 new outright and planned gifts totaling $38-million to the foundation and 52 new funds were created during its 2003 fiscal year.

Also during that time, the foundation made grants totaling nearly $48-million to some 2,000 organizations. Those grants supported wide-ranging projects, with special emphasis placed on the arts and culture, civic engagement, education and out-of-school time, health and human services, housing and economic development, the urban environment, and work-force development.

Discretionary grants included $50,000 to Greater Boston Legal Services for the Low-Wage Worker Advocacy Project, and $60,000 to ReadBoston for the Boston Literacy Collaborative’s family-literacy programs at 34 Boston public schools.

The foundation also spearheads special initiatives, which currently include efforts focused on civic engagement, community safety, pilot schools, and work-force development. For example, the foundation pledged $2.5-million to the Boston Workforce Development Initiative, which generated an additional $7.6-million over five years from the City of Boston, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and local and national foundations. This collaborative effort seeks to develop employer-backed training programs that can produce greater numbers of skilled workers.

Also that year, the foundation’s Boston Indicators Project unveiled a new Web site (http://www.bostonindicators.org) that offers regularly updated data about the metropolitan Boston region, including trends in the economy, housing, public health, public safety, and transportation.

Application procedure: The foundation welcomes applications from organizations in the metropolitan Boston area that are tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. A new organization that is not yet tax-exempt may submit an application through a nonprofit group that has agreed to serve as fiscal agent. In 2003 the foundation made substantial changes to its grant-making process; potential applicants should obtain a copy of “The Grantseeker’s Guide to the Boston Foundation,” which is available on the foundation’s Web site along with other information on application procedures.

Key officials: Paul S. Grogan, president and chief executive officer; Terry S. Lane, vice president for program; Mary Jo Meisner, vice president for communications, community relations, and public affairs; Ruben D. Orduña, vice president for development; Gail Snowden, vice president for finance and operations; Angel H. Bermudez, director of grant making; Kate R. Guedj, director of philanthropic services; Robert R. Wadsworth, program director; Ann McQueen, Cindy T. Rizzo, and Richard S. Ward, program officers; Corey L. Davis, grants manager; the Rev. Ray Hammond, chair of the Board of Directors.

CARNEGIE CORPORATION OF NEW YORK
437 Madison Avenue
New York, N.Y. 10022
(212) 371-3200
http://www.carnegie.org

Period covered: Year ending September 30, 2003.

Purpose and areas of support: The Carnegie Corporation of New York was created in 1911 by Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919), the Scottish-born steel magnate and philanthropist, to promote “the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding.” As stated in Mr. Carnegie’s will, although grant making must primarily benefit residents of the United States, up to 7.4 percent of funds may be awarded to groups in countries that are or have been members of the British Commonwealth, with a current emphasis on sub-Saharan Africa.

The foundation maintains four major program areas: education, international development, international peace and security, and strengthening U.S. democracy.

In addition, it awards some grants through the Carnegie Scholars Program, which provides fellowships of up to $100,000 over two years to individual scholars; the Special Opportunities Fund, which provides support for human-rights efforts, libraries, public radio, and U.S.-Muslim relations; and the Dissemination Program, which supports outreach, media, and journalism projects.

Education grants emphasize child and adolescent literacy, the districtwide reform of urban schools, and the development of model schools of education that can lead to improved teaching at the elementary and secondary levels. For example, the Teachers for a New Era program awarded multimillion-dollar grants to seven schools of education to design state-of-the-art programs.

The international-development program concentrates on three issues: improving universities in Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda; promoting higher-education opportunities for African women and girls; and revitalizing national and public libraries in Botswana, Kenya, and South Africa. Universities in Nigeria were included for the first time, and three-year grants of $2-million each were made to the University of Jos and to Obafemi Awolowo University, in Ile-Ife, for institutional-development and gender-equity projects.

The foundation’s program in international peace and security centers around five related components: global engagement, higher education in the former Soviet Union, nuclear and biological weapons, technological and scientific advances, and U.S.-Russian cooperation. Grants included $200,-000 over two years to the Social Science Research Council, in New York, for a project to advance cooperative security in Northeast Asia.

The program to strengthen democracy in the United States emphasizes removing structural barriers to civic and electoral participation, improving attitudes toward civic involvement, and strengthening philanthropy and nonprofit institutions. Several grants supported efforts related to the 2004 presidential election, including boosting voter registration and participation among immigrants, new citizens, and others.

Application procedure: Potential grant seekers are encouraged to first submit a letter of inquiry. If the project described in the letter fits the foundation’s guidelines, the grant seeker will be contacted and asked to submit a proposal using the foundation’s format. Program guidelines, information on funding restrictions, and instructions for submitting letters of inquiry are available on the foundation’s Web site. There are no formal deadlines.

Key officials: Vartan Gregorian, president; Neil R. Grabois, vice president and director for strategic planning and program coordination; Susan King, vice president for public affairs; Edward Sermier, vice president, chief administrative officer, and corporate secretary; D. Ellen Shuman, vice president and chief investment officer; Robert J. Seman, director of finance; Patricia L. Rosenfield, chair of the Carnegie Scholars Program and special adviser to the vice president for strategic planning and program coordination; Rikard Treiber, grants manager; Helene L. Kaplan, chairman of the Board of Trustees.

Program chairs: Deana Arsenian, international peace and security; Daniel Fallon, education; Geraldine P. Mannion, strengthening U.S. democracy; Narciso Matos, international development; David C. Speedie, project on Islam and special adviser to the president.

ROCKEFELLER BROTHERS FUND

437 Madison Avenue, 37th Floor
New York, N.Y. 10022
(212) 812-4200
http://www.rbf.org

Period covered: Year ending December 31, 2003.

Purpose and areas of support: The fund was created in 1940 in order to coordinate charitable giving by the daughter and five sons of John D. Rockefeller Jr. The fund received a substantial donation from Mr. Rockefeller in 1951 followed by a major bequest upon his death in 1960.

Following a strategic-planning process, in 2003 the foundation implemented a new “program architecture,” logo, and tag line — “philanthropy for an interdependent world.”

The fund now administers four major programs: sustainable development, democratic practice, human advancement, and peace and security. Grant making tackles issues and challenges in the United States, other regions, and at a global level. The fund places special emphasis on three locales it has designated “pivotal places”: New York City, Serbia and Montenegro, and South Africa. The fund plans to implement efforts in a fourth “pivotal place” — southern China — in the near future.

In 2003, the fund approved 276 grants totaling roughly $20.7-million. The average grant size was $73,000, up from $65,000 the previous year, and approximately two-thirds of the grants provided program support and one-third provided general operating support. Almost one-half of total grant dollars went to sustainable-development and New York City projects.

The sustainable-development program has two main goals: combating global warming both in the United States and on a global level, and conserving biodiversity and protecting ecosystems in the United States, British Columbia, the Russian Far East, and elsewhere. The foundation placed special emphasis on British Columbia, the site of 25 percent of the earth’s remaining pristine temperate rainforests.

The democratic-practice program works to boost civic engagement and promote effective governance in the United States. On a global basis, it seeks to expand participation and equitable representation in transnational organizations and to ensure transparency and accountability in transnational decision making that affects human lives and the environment. Allocations included $150,000 over two years to Tufts University, in Medford, Mass., to collect and distribute information on the impacts of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

The human-advancement program focuses on the arts and culture in New York City and in Serbia and Montenegro; arts exchanges between U.S. and Asian artists, through the Asian Cultural Council; education in New York City and South Africa; increased diversity among U.S. teachers; recognition of leadership in Asia, through the Ramon Magsaysay Awards; and health in South Africa and the United States.

The program on peace and security has two main objectives: promoting “responsible” U.S. global engagement and enhancing mutual understanding between Muslim and non-Muslim societies. Grants included $300,000 over two years to Link Media, in San Rafael, Calif., for television programs designed to inform Americans about Islamic cultural and political issues.

The foundation made several grants to study the links between HIV/AIDS and other social issues in South Africa. For example, the Institute for Democracy in South Africa, in Pretoria, received $60,000 to study the effects of the HIV/AIDS pandemic upon electoral processes in the country.

Laurance S. Rockefeller died on July 11, 2004, at the age of 94. He was a lifelong environmentalist, and served as president and later chairman of the fund for 22 years.

Application procedure: Only organizations that are tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code or that are seeking support for a project that would qualify as educational or charitable are eligible. Foreign organizations must meet similar requirements. Letters of inquiry that are no more than three pages long and written in English are recommended for most program areas, and should be sent to Benjamin R. Shute Jr. at the above address. There are no application forms, and the fund reviews grant inquiries year-round. Additional, detailed information is available on the fund’s Web site.

Key officials: Stephen B. Heintz, president; William F. McCalpin, executive vice president and chief operating officer; Benjamin R. Shute Jr., secretary and program officer; Boris A. Wessely, treasurer; Nancy L. Muirhead, assistant secretary and program officer; Michael Conroy, Priscilla Lewis, William S. Moody, Michael F. Northrop, and Ben Rodriguez-Cubeñas, program officers; Charles L. Granquist, director, Pocantico programs; Miriam Añeses, director, fellows program; A. Heather Masters, grants manager; Steven C. Rockefeller, chair of the Board of Trustees.