Foundation Annual Reports

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, 2005.

Purpose and areas of support: Charles Stewart Mott (1875-1973), an industrialist with General Motors, established the foundation in 1926. Mr. Mott also served three terms as mayor of Flint, Mich., at a time when the city was experiencing rapid growth. The foundation’s 13-member Board of Trustees currently includes five members of the Mott family who represent three generations.

Mr. Mott was active in local charitable causes, and the foundation’s early grant making emphasized projects to benefit children and other residents of Flint. However, the foundation’s scope has broadened significantly over the past several decades to include not only the rest of the United States, but also projects to advance civil society in Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, and South Africa.

In the annual report, William S. White, the foundation’s president, writes that while it took the foundation 71 years — from 1926 to 1997 — “to grant its first $1-billion, the second $1-billion was granted over just a nine-year span.”

In keeping with this trend, the foundation approved 549 grants totaling $123,235,864, up from $97,200,000 the preceding year. Awards were made in five program areas: “pathways out of poverty,” which received $37,200,669, or 30.2 percent of total dollars; exploratory and special projects, $26,773,206, or 21.7 percent; civil society, $23,599,549, or 19.1 percent; the Flint area, $19,224,277, or 15.6 percent; and the environment, $14,881,693, or 12.1 percent. In addition, matching and trustee-initiated grants totaled $1,556,470, or 1.3 percent.

The foundation’s “pathways out of poverty” program seeks to identify, test, and sustain projects that can help people and communities escape chronic poverty. Its specific objectives are to ensure high-quality in-school and extracurricular education for poor children and youths; to expand programs and public policies that build a “safety net” for low-income Americans and increase their salaries and assets; to connect poor people to the labor market and enable them to advance in jobs that pay a living wage; and to strengthen community-based organizing on these issues.

For example, Jobs for the Future, in Boston, received a $751,000 grant for a two-year program intended to help disadvantaged adults with few skills earn occupational certificates or degrees from community colleges.

The foundation also made several grants that explored the use of microenterprise in the United States, including $100,000 to the Corporation for Enterprise Development, in Washington, to duplicate a program that combines savings and credit options to assist low-income entrepreneurs.

Support for exploratory and special projects was up substantially, from only $1,340,000 — or 1.3 percent of total awards — the previous year. This upswing was due in large part to a $25-million grant to the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor to build a new facility for the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital. The original hospital was constructed nearly 40 years ago using a $6.5-million Mott Foundation grant.

The civil-society program has three overarching goals: strengthening nonprofit groups and philanthropy; promoting citizens’ “rights, responsibilities, and participation”; and addressing racism and discrimination while promoting justice and reconciliation. Projects to benefit Russia and Central and Eastern Europe received grants totaling $12,092,303; projects in South Africa, $4,318,100; the United States, $4,041,739; and other international projects, $3,147,407.

Allocations included $100,000 over two years to Citizens’ Watch, in St. Petersburg, Russia, to promote democracy and accountability within that country’s government agencies, and $450,000 over three years to the Bertelsmann Stiftung, in Gütersloh, Germany, for the Transatlantic Community Foundations Network.

Flint-area grants stressed support for the arts and culture, economic development, education, housing and neighborhood revitalization, and race relations. The Flint Cultural Center Foundation received the largest new award in the category — $7,150,000 over 18 months — to expand gallery space for the Flint Institute of Arts.

The environmental program currently focuses on three themes: conserving freshwater ecosystems in North America, revamping international finance and trade institutions and policies, and responding to special opportunities, including the monitoring of new land-use policies being adopted in Michigan.

Throughout the annual report, readers will find graphics that say “Only Online: Extras,” pointing them to expanded details and complementary links on the Web.

Application procedure: 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; Maureen H. Smyth, senior vice president for programs and communications; Marilyn Stein LeFeber, vice president for communications; Phillip H. Peters, vice president for the administrative group, secretary, and treasurer; Michael J. Smith, vice president for investments; Jimmy L. Krause, director of grants administration and assistant treasurer; Lois R. DeBacker, associate vice president for programs (civil society and environment); Kevin F. Walker, associate vice president for programs (Flint area and pathways out of poverty).

NEW YORK COMMUNITY TRUST
909 Third Avenue, 22nd Floor
New York, N.Y. 10022
(212) 686-0010
http://www.nycommunitytrust.org

Period covered: Year ending December 31, 2005.

Purpose and areas of support: Created in 1924 by a group of bankers, the New York Community Trust is the nation’s wealthiest community foundation. It comprises nearly 1,800 constituent funds, and makes most of its grants to nonprofit organizations located in New York City’s five boroughs.

Fifty-one percent of the trust’s funds are unrestricted or donor-advised; 32 percent are field-of-interest; 13 percent are designated; and 4 percent are restricted to scholarships.

The trust allocates grants through four program areas: education, arts, and the humanities, which received 42 percent of grant dollars; children, youths, and families, 22 percent; community development and the environment, 18 percent; and health and people with special needs, 16 percent. Special projects received the remaining 2 percent of grant dollars, and all figures were roughly commensurate with the previous year’s.

Grants for education, arts, and the humanities focus on underserved and minority populations, and emphasize arts and culture, historic preservation, public and alternative education, and civil rights, criminal justice, and racial and ethnic harmony. For example, the Ma-Yi Theater Company received a $60,000 grant to develop and stage plays about the experiences of Asian-Americans, particularly Filipino-Americans.

The children, youths, and families program makes grants in these subject areas: girls and young women, hunger and homelessness, social services and welfare, substance abuse, and youth development. Awards included $175,000 to the Outreach Project for a two-year campaign to identify barriers to — and make recommendations for — effective drug treatment for New York adolescents.

Community-development and environment grants concentrate on civic affairs, conservation and the environment, employment, neighborhood revitalization, and technical assistance for nonprofit organizations.

The annual report highlights environmental projects that the trust supported in 2005, including efforts to clean up contaminated sites, improve air and water quality, and reduce the effects of pesticides and other environmental toxins on human health. Many of those grants were made possible by a field-of-interest fund endowed by Dorothy Kraft; through her will, Ms. Kraft, who died in 1995, left the trust more than $50-million for environmental-protection efforts.

Grants for health projects and people with special needs included $60,000 to the Brooklyn Public Library Foundation to expand a storytelling and reading program for disabled children, and $25,000 to Compassion & Choices of New York to provide terminally ill people with education and counseling on effective pain management, the right to refuse or withdraw from treatment, and advance directives.

Application procedure: Potential applicants should first request the foundation’s “Guidelines for Grant Applicants” publication and one or more of the brochures that provide detailed descriptions of the four program areas. The foundation also suggests that potential applicants review copies of its grants newsletter, which provides examples of the types of grants the foundation is currently making. These materials are available on its Web site.

Key officials: Lorie A. Slutsky, president; Joyce M. Bove, senior vice president; Robert V. Edgar, vice president of donor relations; Mercedes M. Leon, vice president of administration; Kit Conroy, chief financial officer; Mary Z. Greenebaum, chief investment officer; Ani F. Hurwitz, director of communications; Liza Lagunoff, grants administrator; Samuel S. Polk, chairman of the Distribution Committee.

Program contacts: Patricia Jenny, program director for community development and the environment; Len McNally, program director for health and people with special needs; Jane R. Stern, program director for education, arts, and the humanities; Patricia A. White, senior program officer for children, youth, and families.

CORPORATIONS

VERIZON FOUNDATION

1 Verizon Way
Basking Ridge, N.J. 07920
(800) 360-7955
http://foundation.verizon.com

Period covered: Year ending December 31, 2005.

Purpose and areas of support: The foundation’s history reflects the spate of corporate mergers and acquisitions that have taken place in the telecommunications industry over the past two decades. Initially established in 1985 as the NYNEX Foundation, the fund adopted its current name in 2000, when GTE and Bell Atlantic joined to form Verizon.

The foundation maintains three grant-making priorities: literacy, domestic-violence prevention, and technology that can be used to improve health-care services and accessibility.

In 2005 the foundation awarded approximately 900 literacy-related grants totaling more than $13-million. Grants focused on helping both children and adults improve their literacy skills. For example, the National Center for Family Literacy, in Louisville, Ky., received $225,000 for a curriculum that teaches immigrant parents to speak and read English and support the language and literacy development of their young children.

Through the online Verizon Literacy Network, the foundation offered training materials and information to teachers, volunteers, parents, and others interested in promoting literacy development. It also continued an online program that provides teachers with more than 47,000 educational resources in seven academic disciplines.

Grants to help mitigate domestic violence focused on efforts to provide community-based education and prevention efforts, as well as counseling, interim housing, legal aid, and other services for victims. Awards included $35,000 to the San Diego Family Justice Center Foundation and $25,000 to Safe Horizon, in New York.

Verizon Wireless also continued its HopeLine program, which distributes new and recycled cell phones to abused women, shelters, and other nonprofit groups working on the issue.

Technology grants included $10,000 to Senior Services of Snohomish County, in Mukilteo, Wash., for software designed to help senior citizens learn about and gain access to critical health and human services.

In addition, Verizon employees volunteered more than 460,000 hours in 2005 at some 17,000 nonprofit groups nationwide. They also contributed $35.6-million in direct and matched gifts through the Verizon Volunteers program.

Application procedure: Proposals must be submitted online; visit the foundation’s Web site for detailed instructions and eligibility guidelines.

Key officials: Patrick Gaston, president, Verizon Foundation; Ivan G. Seidenberg, chairman and chief executive officer, Verizon Communications.