Foundation Annual Reports

LILLY ENDOWMENT

P.O. Box 88068
Indianapolis, Ind. 46208-0068
(317) 924-5471

Period covered: Year ending December 31, 2000.

Purpose and areas of support: Three members of the Lilly family created this foundation in 1937 and continued to make gifts of stock in their pharmaceutical business, Eli Lilly and Company, to its endowment through 1971. Although that stock remains the most significant component of the endowment’s financial portfolio, the foundation is not affiliated with the company.

The endowment makes grants in three program areas: community development, education, and religion. It emphasizes programs that benefit young people and that promote leadership education and financial self-sufficiency in the nonprofit sector. The endowment focuses its grant making in Indianapolis and Marion County, elsewhere in Indiana, and, to a lesser extent, nationally and internationally.

In 2000 the endowment approved grants to 693 recipients totaling $544.7-million as follows: education received $272-million, or 49.9 percent of grant dollars; religion, $140.9-million, or 25.9 percent; and community development, $131.8-million, or 24.2 percent. Of total dollars awarded, 78 percent went to programs in Indiana. The vast majority of the remaining 22 percent of grant dollars went to programs within the United States.

The largest grant award in the education category, approximately $105-million, went to Indiana University, in Bloomington, for its work to decipher the meaning of the human genetic code.

The endowment continued support for its Community Alliances to Promote Education program, awarding 10 implementation grants totaling $68,007,137 and 22 planning grants totaling $1,419,135 to help local groups assess community education needs and to plan strategies to meet those needs.

The education division also makes grants for youth-development programs. Awards included $100,000 to Clarian Health Partners, of Indianapolis, for Willing 2 Wait, an abstinence-based pregnancy-prevention program.

Community-development grants emphasized improving the quality of life for residents of Indianapolis and Indiana and supported organizations working in a broad range of fields. Recipients ranged from affordable-housing and arts groups to homeless shelters, museums, and zoos. For example, a $260,600 grant went to the Coalition for Homeless Intervention and Prevention, in Indianapolis, for general operating support, and a $2.5-million grant went to the Indianapolis Zoological Society to expand its African Plains exhibit.

Also within the community-development area, the endowment awarded 88 grants of $25,000 each and six grants of $12,500 each to participants in its GIFT program, an effort to build the capacity of community foundations statewide.

Grants in the religion division sought to enhance the quality and depth of the religious lives of American Christians, particularly by supporting local congregations and their leadership. For example, the endowment awarded $10-million to Duke University, in Durham, N.C., for a project on theological education that promotes excellence in congregational ministry.

The endowment also awarded a total of $37,680,199 to 20 colleges and universities to establish programs through which students can explore theology as a potential vocation.

Application procedure: Organizations with projects that fit the endowment’s guidelines may submit a preliminary letter of two pages or less with information about the organization, the project, and the amount of money requested. The endowment responds to all preliminary inquiries and will request a full proposal from those groups whose projects warrant further consideration. The grant-review process takes between three and six months, and all applicants receive written notification of the endowment’s decisions.

Key officials: N. Clay Robbins, president; Sara B. Cobb, vice president for education; Craig Dykstra, vice president for religion; William M. Goodwin, vice president for community development; David D. Biber, secretary and treasurer; Thomas M. Lofton, chairman of the Board of Directors.

M.J. MURDOCK CHARITABLE TRUST

P.O. Box 1618
Vancouver, Wash. 98668
(360) 694-8415 or (503) 285-4086
http://www.murdock-trust.org

Period covered: Year ending December 31, 1999.

Purpose and areas of support: This foundation was established in 1975 through the will and estate of Melvin J. (Jack) Murdock, a co-founder of Tektronix, a technology company. It awards grants primarily to nonprofit organizations in five Pacific Northwest states: Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington. Special emphasis is given to projects that benefit residents of the metropolitan Portland, Ore., and Vancouver, Wash., area.

In 1999, the trust awarded grants in the following program areas: health and human services, which received $10.1-million; education, $8.6-million; scientific research, $4.0-million; and arts and culture, $2.4-million.

Grants in the health-and-human-services program emphasized a variety of projects, including preventive medicine and mental-health services, early-childhood and youth programs, economic and cultural development, support for disabled and homeless people, and disaster relief. Awards included $200,000 to Supporters of Abuse Free Environments, in Hamilton, Mont., to build transitional housing for victims of domestic abuse.

Education grants stressed projects that emphasized innovative learning techniques both in and outside the classroom. Allocations included support for educational programs at museums, nonprofit organizations, schools, universities and colleges, and zoos. For example, a $125,000 award went to the Oregon Graduate Institute of Science & Technology, in Portland, for its Saturday Academy Apprenticeship Program, which allows high-school students to work alongside college and industry scientists.

Scientific-research grants focused on projects in the natural sciences that emphasize new knowledge or that train students in research techniques.

The largest arts and culture grant was a $500,000 award to the Classical Chinese Garden Trust, in Portland, Ore., to construct an urban classical Chinese garden that offers cultural and educational programs as well as a teahouse and a store.

Application procedure: The foundation accepts applications from organizations that are tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and not private foundations as defined by Section 509(a), with priority given to groups in Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington State. Prospective applicants should first determine their eligibility by viewing the proposed project in the context of the trust’s stated philosophy, policies, and practices. The next step is to send a letter of inquiry with pertinent information about the project so that the trust may determine the propriety of the prospective applicant’s submitting a formal proposal. Guidelines for the letter of inquiry may be found on the trust’s Web site. A positive response to the letter of inquiry will include an application packet and directions for its completion.

Key officials: Neal O. Thorpe, executive director; John B. Van Zytveld, senior program director; Christopher (Kit) J. Gillem, Janice W. Kennedy, and Terry L. Stokesbary, program directors; James R. Martin, chief financial officer; Julie D. Cieloha, controller and financial analyst.

SURDNA FOUNDATION

330 Madison Avenue
30th Floor
New York, N.Y. 10017-5001
(212) 557-0010
http://www.surdna.org

Period covered: Year ending June 30, 2000.

Purpose and areas of support: John Emory Andrus, a New York businessman, investor, and politician, established the foundation in 1917.

In fiscal 2000 the foundation awarded $34,079,000 through five program areas: the environment, which received $15,300,000; community revitalization, $5,852,000; effective citizenry, $4,922,000; the arts, $4,500,000; and the nonprofit sector, $3,505,000. In addition, it allocated miscellaneous grants totaling $760,400 and organizational-capacity grants totaling $300,000.

The foundation also allocated $500,000 for operating support of the Julia Dyckman Andrus Memorial, in Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y., a residential treatment, special education, and diagnostic center for emotionally disabled children.

Environment grants supported programs to prevent irreversible environmental damage and to promote efficient, profitable, environmentally beneficial, and equitable land and natural-resource use. The foundation stresses four areas: biological diversity and the human communities that depend on it, human systems, transportation and urban-suburban land use, and, to a lesser extent, energy.

For example, the foundation awarded $100,000 over two years to Alternatives for Community and Environment, in Boston, to create an environmentally sustainable transportation and urban-development plan for Roxbury, a low-income Boston-area neighborhood that has experienced air pollution, traffic congestion, and disinvestment.

In addition to its regular grant-making activities in the biological-diversity category, the foundation awarded approximately $8-million to eight grantees as part of a special award program to promote sustainable forestry in fiscal years 2000 and 2001.

The community-revitalization program focused on increasing access to low-cost housing, improving child care, and assisting low-income people and welfare recipients in becoming more self-sufficient.

For instance, a two-year $200,000 grant went to the Corporation for Supportive Housing, in New York, for a national program to test the effectiveness of supportive housing in moving chronically unemployed and formerly homeless adults from welfare to work.

Grants made through the effective-citizenry program promoted civility and encouraged civic participation, particularly among teenagers and young adults. Emphasis was placed on conflict resolution and mediation, tolerance and diversity, and programs that combine formal education with community service.

For example, a $150,000 grant to the Washington-based Alliance for Justice supported a gun-violenceprevention program, designed and implemented by young people, in 10 cities nationwide.

The arts program emphasized grants to help young people create art, to bolster programs at arts-education institutions, and to support artists who teach. A $75,000 grant to Village of the Arts and Humanities, in Philadelphia, supported the Rites of Passage program, through which artists and educators teach teenagers artistic and vocational skills in such fields as computer graphics, mosaics, photography, theater, and writing.

Grants in the nonprofit-sector program focused on increasing public awareness of the activities of nonprofit groups, strengthening their capacity, and developing materials on exemplary grant-making practices.

In 2001 the foundation revised its guidelines for the effective-citizenry program, which will now emphasize youth organizing in schools and other institutions that serve young people.

Application procedure: Prospective applicants should submit a letter of inquiry containing: information on the organization’s purpose and activities; a brief description of the proposed program and the estimated length of time the funding would cover; expected outcomes; program and organizational budgets; the amount requested; funding already received and other potential sources of support; the names and qualifications of key project personnel; the most recent audited financial statements of the group and any subsidiaries; proof of the organization’s 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status; and an e-mail address for the contact person at the organization. The foundation generally does not award grants to individuals or for capital campaigns, building construction, or projects with an international focus or base. Information about specific programs may be found at the foundation’s Web site. Correspondence should be sent to the executive director at the address above or sent by e-mail to request@surdna.org.

Key officials: Edward Skloot, executive director; Marc de Venoge, chief financial and administrative officer; Hooper L. Brooks, program director for environment; Ellen B. Rudolph, program officer for arts; Robert Sherman, program officer for effective citizenry; Carey Shea, program officer for community revitalization; Vincent Stehle, program officer for nonprofit sector; Jonathan Goldberg, grants administrator and information specialist; Elizabeth H. Andrus, chairperson of the Board of Directors; John E. Andrus III, chairman emeritus.