Foundation Annual Reports

FUND FOR NEW JERSEY

94 Church Street, Suite 303
New Brunswick, N.J. 08901
(732) 220-8656
http://www.fundfornj.org

Period covered: Year ending December 31, 2003.

Purpose and areas of support: In 1969, the family of the late Charles F. and Florence Wallace, of Westfield, N.J., established what is now known as the Fund for New Jersey. Mr. Wallace held more than 80 patents and was the inventor of an automatic chlorinating device used by municipal utilities to purify water.

The fund restricts its grant making to activities in New Jersey, and pays particular attention to projects that seek to affect public policy in the state. Although it occasionally makes awards for local activities, direct services, and general operating support, such proposals are usually considered at the fund’s invitation.

In 2003, the fund approved grants totaling $3,149,703 in three program areas: statewide public policy, which received 50 percent of grant dollars; social and economic opportunity, 29 percent; and the environment and land use, 21 percent.

Public-policy awards included $50,000 to the Caucus Educational Corporation, in Montclair, to produce three television programs on the New Jersey Prisoner Reentry Roundtable’s recommendations on substance-abuse treatment and employment and other services for ex-prisoners.

Through its social- and economic-opportunity program, the fund awarded $100,000 for start-up support of CityWorks, an organization in Trenton that helps nonprofit groups develop commercial and other nonresidential real-estate projects in low-income neighborhoods throughout New Jersey.

Grants made through the environment and land-use program included $100,000 to the Clean Water Fund-New Jersey, in Belmar, for its grass-roots campaign to combat sprawl and environmental toxins.

In 1999, the fund began supporting Children’s Rights Inc., in New York, in its work on a class-action lawsuit on behalf of children in New Jersey’s foster-care system. In June 2003, the lawsuit was settled, and New Jersey’s Division of Youth and Family Services is now required by court order to collaborate with an independent panel on a comprehensive overhaul of foster-care services.

Application procedure: The fund makes grants only to organizations that have applied for or have been granted tax-exempt status under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Additional information on the foundation’s application guidelines are available on its Web site.

Key officials: Mark M. Murphy, executive director; Glorianne H. Robbi and Carol Schlitt, executive assistants; Leonard Lieberman, chair of the Board of Trustees; Joseph C. Cornwall, chairman emeritus.

HOUSTON ENDOWMENT
600 Travis, Suite 6400
Houston, Tex. 77002
(713) 238-8100
http://www.houstonendowment.org

Period covered: Year ending December 31, 2003.

Purpose and areas of support: The foundation was created in 1937 by Jesse H. Jones and his wife, Mary Gibbs Jones. Mr. Jones was a Houston-based financier and commercial builder who owned more than 80 large buildings in Fort Worth, Houston, and New York. He also served as director general of military relief for the American Red Cross during President Wilson’s administration and as U.S. secretary of commerce under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Mr. Jones died in 1956, and his wife died in 1962.

The endowment’s geographic focus is on organizations and programs that serve residents of the metropolitan Houston area and surrounding Harris County. It also awards some grants to projects that serve residents of contiguous counties, that benefit underserved areas of the state, or that carry out work that affects the Houston area. In rare cases, the endowment makes grants to U.S. institutions outside the state.

In 2003, the foundation allocated $76,408,778 in six program areas: health and human services, which received 23 percent of grant dollars; community enhancement, 22 percent; higher education, 21 percent; medicine, 13 percent; elementary and secondary education, 12 percent; and the arts, 9 percent. Those percentages were roughly equivalent to the previous year’s allocations.

The endowment’s health and human-services grants stress support for disadvantaged people, with special emphasis on multipurpose organizations, at-risk children, specific health issues, emergency relief, and services for disabled, elderly, homeless, and hungry people. The largest new awards in this program area were $1-million to the Houston-Harris County Immunization Registry for an effort to increase local vaccination rates through a confidential, computerized registry, and $1-million to the United Way of the Texas Gulf Coast, in Houston, for its Center for Philanthropy, Leadership, and Volunteerism.

The community-enhancement program emphasizes the environment and wildlife conservation, community and work-force development, educational resources, urban parks and beautification, historic preservation, and youth development.

For example, $500,000 went to the Hill Country Conservancy, in Austin, to purchase rights to the 5,700-acre Storm Ranch, in order to help preserve an aquifer that is a major source of water for central Texas. Other grants included $150,000 to the McAuley Institute, in Houston, for a program to help low-income women in Houston buy homes and accumulate financial assets.

In 2003, 59 percent of higher-education grants went for program development, followed by 35 percent for scholarships and fellowships, 4 percent for buildings and facilities, and 2 percent for other activities. Allocations included $1.3-million to the University of Texas System, in Austin, to develop a method for measuring the effectiveness of university-based teacher-preparation programs.

In addition, the Jesse H. Jones and Mary Gibbs Jones Scholarship Program awarded $12,000 each to 322 graduates of Harris County high schools. Scholarship recipients may use the funds for tuition at any accredited four-year college or university in the United States.

Medicine-related grants included $75,000 to Save Our ERs Education and Research Foundation, in Houston, to expand emergency medical services to meet both current and future demands.

New awards in other program areas included $50,000 to Imprint Inc., in Houston, for programs that teach creative writing and advance the literary arts, and $250,000 to the National Hispanic Institute, in Maxwell, Tex., for efforts to increase the number of Latino students attending college by providing guidance to disadvantaged ninth graders and their families.

Application procedure: The foundation makes grants only to those nonprofit organizations that are recognized as charitable organizations under the Internal Revenue Code. The foundation has no formal application form and no designated deadlines for the submission of requests. Applications should consist of a one-page cover letter, a three- to five-page proposal, a budget, and other supporting documents. Detailed information is available on the foundation’s Web site. Information regarding the Jesse H. Jones and Mary Gibbs Jones Scholarships may be obtained from the principals and counselors of high schools in Harris County.

Key officials: H. Joe Nelson III, president; Sheryl L. Johns, vice president, treasurer, and chief financial officer; David L. Nelson, vice president and grant director; Domingo Barrios, George V. Grainger, Ann T. Hamilton, Anna B. Leal, Donald Sheppard and Emily L. Todd, grants officers; E. Jane Kennedy, Carolyn A. Powell, and Sharie Wood, grants managers; Steven L. Fenberg, community-affairs officer; D. Kent Anderson, chair of the Board of Directors.

CHARLES STEWART MOTT FOUNDATION
503 South Saginaw Street
Suite 1200
Flint, Mich. 48502
(810) 238-5651
http://www.mott.org

Period covered: Year ending December 31, 2003.

Purpose and areas of support: Charles Stewart Mott (1875-1973), an industrialist affiliated with General Motors, created the foundation in 1926. Mr. Mott also served as a three-term mayor of Flint, Mich.

The foundation’s grant making initially focused on Flint, which at that time was a rapidly growing city. Over the years, the fund’s geographic scope has expanded to include the rest of the United States as well as international projects, primarily in Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, and South Africa.

The foundation currently maintains auxiliary offices in Johannesburg and London. Almost 30 percent of the foundation’s grants have an international bent, although many of the grantees are located in the United States.

In 2003 the foundation made grants totaling approximately $99,979,000 in five program areas: “pathways out of poverty,” which received $39,090,000, or 39.1 percent of total dollars; civil society, $24,517,000, or 24.5 percent; the Flint area, $18,251,000, or 18.3 percent; the environment, $14,487,000, or 14.5 percent; and exploratory and special projects, $2,120,000, or 2.1 percent. In addition, matching and trustee-initiated grants totaled $1,514,000, or 1.5 percent.

The mission of the “pathways out of poverty” program is to identify, test, and support projects that expand economic and civic opportunities in impoverished neighborhoods, help low-income people become more self-sufficient, and improve extracurricular and in-school education for children. Allocations included a three-year, $225,000 grant to the Working Interfaith Network, in Baton Rouge, La., for efforts to improve the quality of alternative schools in the East Baton Rouge Parish school district.

Civil-society grants promote citizens’ “rights, responsibilities, and participation,” the development of nongovernmental groups, and improved race and ethnic relations. The program’s geographic focus continues to be on Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, South Africa, and the United States. Awards included $100,000 over two years to the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights, in Vienna, to address human-rights abuses in Chechnya.

A number of grants were made to help advance reconciliation and ease racial and ethnic tensions in South Africa. For example, a $500,000 grant went to the Central Johannesburg Partnership for the Constitution Hill complex, which will house the country’s constitutional court as well as its commissions on gender equality and human rights, the Mandela Library, and a collection of art works on human-rights themes.

Awards to Flint-area institutions focused on arts and culture, community revitalization, economic development, education, and special opportunities.

The environment program emphasizes the conservation of freshwater ecosystems in North America, the reform of international finance and trade institutions and policies, and other activities to advance environmental protection in the United States and elsewhere. Awards included $1-million over two years to the Trust for Public Land, in San Francisco, to protect a large coastal wetland tract on the Detroit River.

Application procedure: The foundation does not have an official application form. Letters of inquiry, with a brief description of the project and the range of financial support needed, are acceptable for initial contact. The foundation requests proposals from organizations with which it has been in contact, sends out occasional requests for proposals that deal with a specific issue or area of interest, and accepts unsolicited proposals for projects that fall within its program priorities and guidelines. More-detailed information, including specific guidelines on writing letters of inquiry, is available on the foundation’s Web site.

Key officials: William S. White, president, chief executive officer, and chairman of the Board of Trustees; Phillip H. Peters, vice president for the administrative group, secretary, and treasurer; Marilyn Stein LeFeber, vice president for communications; Robert E. Swaney Jr., vice president for investments and chief investment officer; Maureen H. Smyth, vice president for programs; Jimmy L. Krause, director of grants administration and assistant treasurer; Shannon L. Lawder, regional director, Central and Eastern Europe and Russia; Russell T. Ally, director, South Africa office.

Program directors: Raymond P. Murphy, civil society; Lois R. DeBacker, environment; Jack A. Litzenberg, Flint area; Kevin F. Walker, pathways out of poverty.