Foundation Annual Reports

ROBERT STERLING CLARK FOUNDATION

135 East 64th Street
New York, N.Y. 10021
(212) 288-8900
http://www.rsclark.org

Period covered: Year ending October 31, 2003.

Purpose and areas of support: The foundation was created in 1952 by Robert Sterling Clark, an art collector whose grandfather, Edward Clark, had been Isaac Singer’s partner in the Singer sewing-machine business.

During its 2003 fiscal year, the foundation allocated grants totaling $4,411,430 to support the work of 101 grantees. The funds were distributed among its three program areas as follows: ensuring access to comprehensive reproductive-health information and services received 23 grants totaling $1,830,000; strengthening cultural institutions, 36 grants totaling $1,250,000; and improving the performance of public institutions in New York, 25 grants totaling $1,215,000. The foundation also awarded miscellaneous grants totaling $116,430.

Reproductive-health grants support national and regional organizations involved in advocacy, grass-roots organizing, litigation, media campaigns, policy analysis, and research. Specific objectives include challenging laws and legal decisions that restrict reproductive rights and promoting criteria for judicial selection that can help produce “non-ideological” courts. Grants included $65,000 to Advocates for Youth, in Washington, to advance its work to promote comprehensive sexuality education.

The majority of grants made through the foundation’s cultural program go to efforts to enhance the management and financial status of arts and cultural institutions in New York City; a limited number of grants are also made to help safeguard artistic freedom and boost public support for the arts nationwide. For example, Asian CineVision, in New York, received $25,000 for a campaign to increase membership and develop a cadre of donors.

The foundation’s program on the performance and accountability of public institutions in New York City and State stresses efforts to ensure the well-being of those individuals and families who are most dependent on social and welfare programs. Grants included $50,000 to the Nursing Home Community Coalition of New York State, in New York, for its legislative, policy, and other work to improve the overall quality of care given to nursing-home residents.

Publications supported by the foundation included Freedom Under Fire: Dissent in Post 9-11 America, issued by the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation.

Application procedure: Proposals should be addressed to Margaret C. Ayers and should include a description of the planned project, a budget, expected outcomes, plans for evaluation, the background of project participants, and a statement of plans for future support. Applicants should also provide information on the organization’s past, current, and projected budgets; audited financial statements; tax-exempt status; board members; and past accomplishments. The main body of the application should not exceed 15 pages; a one-page summary is also required. The Board of Directors meets in January, April, July, and October, and proposals are received and reviewed year-round.

Key officials: Margaret C. Ayers, executive director; Darcy Hector and Laura Wolff, program officers; Winthrop R. Munyan, president of the Board of Directors.

KRESGE FOUNDATION

P.O. Box 3151
Troy, Mich. 48007
(248) 643-9630
http://www.kresge.org

Period covered: Year ending December 31, 2003.

Purpose and areas of support: The foundation was established in 1924 by Sebastian S. Kresge to mark the 25th anniversary of his S.S. Kresge Company, now known as the Kmart Corporation. Mr. Kresge made gifts totaling more than $60-million, the overwhelming majority of his fortune, to the foundation prior to his death in 1966 at the age of 99. The foundation is not affiliated with Kmart or any other company, and its board has always included members of the Kresge family.

Approximately 80 percent of Kresge Foundation grants benefit large “bricks and mortar” projects — such as the construction or renovation of facilities, the acquisition of property, or the purchase of equipment — at nonprofit organizations around the country. Although grant making emphasizes primarily U.S. groups, a few grants also go to groups in Canada, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and other locales “where a relatively strong indigenous philanthropic tradition exists.”

The foundation generally makes grants on a conditional or challenge basis in order to help grantees expand their fund-raising and leadership capabilities.

In 2003 the foundation allocated 142 grants totaling $108,120,600 in these categories: the arts and humanities, which received $22,400,000, or 21 percent of grant dollars; human services, $19,075,000, or 18 percent; the Detroit Initiative, $16,480,000, or 15 percent; education, $16,300,000, or 15 percent; science, nature, and the environment, $12,550,000, or 11 percent; health and long-term care, $11,675,000, or 11 percent; the Science Initiative, $1,786,600, or 2 percent; and special projects, $7,854,000, or 7 percent.

The foundation approved 28 grants of $1-million or more, and only one grant of less than $100,000; those figures were consistent with the previous year’s grant making.

Allocations to arts groups included $500,000 to the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, in Washington, to construct a facility comprising a performance space, a rehearsal hall, a classroom, and other areas.

Grants for human-services projects included $1-million to the Greater Chicago Food Depository to build a new food-distribution warehouse.

Undertaken in the early 1990s, the Detroit Initiative is a public-private collaboration intended to spur community and economic development, create and restore parks and greenways, and expand job-training opportunities in metropolitan Detroit. The foundation committed $15-million to its planned series of $50-million in grants to the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy to develop RiverWalk — a three-mile parcel of land along the Detroit River — and to endow the conservancy.

Grants in other program areas included $800,000 to Chatham College, in Pittsburgh, to construct an athletic and fitness center, and $850,000 to the San Antonio Zoological Society to build a habitat for African crocodiles, fish, and hippos that includes areas from which to view the animals underwater.

In November 2003 the foundation inaugurated the Green Building Initiative, which encourages nonprofit leaders to examine their design and building processes and to consider how those processes use natural resources. The initiative includes two grant programs, one to assist organizations that plan to construct a “green” building and one to augment awards to grantees in its capital-grant program whose projects are certified by the United States Green Building Council.

Special grants included $3,164000 to the Southern Education Foundation, in Atlanta, for the Kresge HBCU Initiative, a five-year, $18-million program to strengthen fund-raising efforts at five historically black colleges and universities: Bethune-Cookman College, in Daytona Beach, Fla.; Dillard University and Xavier University, in New Orleans; Johnson C. Smith University, in Charlotte, N.C.; and Meharry Medical College, in Nashville.

Application procedure: The foundation considers requests for the following types of projects: the construction or renovation of facilities; the purchase of major equipment or an integrated system at a cost of at least $300,000; and the purchase of real estate. Community colleges, private foundations, and individuals are not eligible to apply, and religious organizations and elementary and secondary schools are eligible only under certain circumstances. More-detailed application guidelines are available on the foundation’s Web site.

Key officials: John E. Marshall III, president and chief executive officer; Edward M. Hunia, senior vice president and treasurer; Elizabeth C. Sullivan, vice president, program and administration; Sandra McAlister Ambrozy, Ernest B. Gutierrez Jr., William F.L. Moses, and Laura J. Trudeau, senior program officers; Alice L. Carle, David D. Fukuzawa, Andrew W. Gatewood, and Richard K. Rappleye, program officers; Irene Y. Hirano, chair of the Board of Trustees.

MARIN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION

5 Hamilton Landing, Suite 200
Novato, Calif. 94949
(415) 464-2500
http://www.marincf.org

Period covered: Year ending June 30, 2004.

Purpose and areas of support: The foundation was created in 1986 through the assets of a trust established by Leonard and Beryl Hamilton Buck, a couple who were longtime residents of Marin County, Calif. The bulk of the foundation’s discretionary grant dollars are awarded via the Leonard and Beryl H. Buck Trust, which benefits residents of Marin County and the San Francisco Bay Area.

The foundation also makes grants through advised and designated funds; during fiscal 2004, the foundation received contributions totaling $14,630,228 and 27 new funds were opened by individuals, families, businesses, and groups.

In 2004 the foundation paid out grants totaling $52,526,092; of that, discretionary grants totaling $29,754,245 were made in seven program areas: human needs, education and training, community development, the environment, the arts, community outreach, and religion, ethics, and conscience.

In addition to the Buck Trust, the foundation operates three other competitive programs that benefit people living in Marin County: the Stinson/Bolinas Community Fund, the Earth Day Every Day Fund, and the Community Facilities Partnership Initiative.

The foundation allocated $16,465,750 — the most awarded to any program area — for efforts to meet basic human needs. The program has four goals: expanding access to health, mental-health, and social-services programs; helping elderly and disabled people to live independently; mitigating health and social conditions that endanger young people; and involving community members in promoting the health and well-being of individuals and families.

For example, $106,000 went to Huckleberry Youth Programs, in San Francisco, for efforts to preserve and reunite troubled families in San Anselmo, and $40,000 went to the Novato Youth Center for child-care scholarships for infants and toddlers from low-income families.

Grants for education and training programs received $7,980,914, the next-highest amount awarded to a single program. Awards emphasized three areas: improving the academic performance of children and youths attending public schools in Marin County, enhancing access to higher-education and vocational opportunities, and promoting literacy and lifelong learning.

Awards made through other programs included $14,500 to Dominican University of California, in San Rafael, to develop the Center for Religion, Ethics, and Public Life in conjunction with the Graduate Theological Union, in Berkeley.

The foundation operates three community award programs: the Beryl H. Buck Awards for Achievement, the Neighborhood Achievement Award, and the Thanks for Caring Award.

It also maintains three “major projects” that cumulatively received $8,420,392: the Buck Institute for Age Research, the Marin Institute, and the Buck Institute for Education.

Application procedure: Proposed projects should fall within the foundation’s program areas and either be conducted in Marin County or benefit the residents of that county. Applicants should be public or nonprofit organizations as defined in Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Interested applicants should contact the relevant program officer. If the project or program matches the foundation’s goals and interests, the applicant will be asked to submit a letter of intent, using a form the foundation provides. More-detailed instructions may be found on the foundation’s Web site.

Key officials: Thomas Peters, president and chief executive officer; Marsha Bonner, vice president, programs; Michael Groza, vice president, community outreach; Sid Hartman, vice president, finance and administration; Fred Silverman, vice president, marketing and communications; Patrick Woods, vice president, fund development; Christy Vorhis, grants manager; Sara Barnes, chair of the Board of Trustees.

Program officers: James Flavell, arts; Donald Jen, education and training; Jennifer Johnson, environment; Lourdes Martinez, human needs; Anuja Mendiratta, community development.