Foundation Annual Reports

EDNA MCCONNELL CLARK FOUNDATION

250 Park Avenue
New York, N.Y. 10177-0026
(212) 551-9100
http://www.emcf.org

Period covered: Year ending September 30, 2000.

Purpose and areas of support: Edna McConnell Clark, a daughter of the founder of the Avon Products cosmetics company, established the foundation in 1950 with her husband, Van Alan Clark.

The foundation substantially revised its grant making in 1999, eliminating programs in justice and tropical-disease research in order to focus on four areas of long-term interest: children, neighborhoods in New York City, student achievement, and youth development. In 2000 the foundation continued to award grants in all four areas, but in the future it will focus its grant making exclusively on youth-development programs.

In fiscal year 2000, the foundation awarded grants in the following manner: children received $10,030,835; youth development, $9,665,000; student achievement, $7,574,840; New York neighborhoods, $6,943,507; tropical-disease research, $4,798,868; and institution and field building, $3,800,000. The foundation also allocated $425,000 to its communications program and $781,435 to its Venture Fund, which allows the foundation to explore new areas for potential grant making and to support projects that are consistent with but outside its program areas.

The children’s program works to safeguard youngsters from abuse and neglect by establishing partnerships among public and private groups, community-based organizations, parents, and local leaders. The foundation continued support for its Community Partnerships for Protecting Children project, which has awarded grants to sites in Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Jacksonville, Fla.; Louisville, Ky.; and St. Louis. For example, a $700,000 grant to the Jefferson County Public Schools, in Louisville, Ky., helped that school system create stronger partnerships among child-protectiveservices agencies, community groups, families, government agencies, and schools.

The youth-development program seeks to increase the availability of high-quality educational, social, and vocational activities for youths during nonschool hours. The largest grant in this category, $5-million to Boys & Girls Clubs of America, in Atlanta, went toward management assistance to help 100 local affiliates serve 30,000 additional youths and improve the quality of after-school programs.

The student-achievement program seeks to restructure middle-school education in three urban school districts: Corpus Christi, Tex.; Long Beach, Calif.; and San Diego. The foundation awarded grants directly to the school systems and also to groups that collaborate with the districts to explore or encourage the professional development of teachers, positive parental involvement, and student assessment. For example, a $216,000 grant to Social Advocates for YouthSan Diego sought to help parents understand and use academic standards to increase student achievement.

Grants for New York neighborhoods support improvements in living conditions for residents of central Harlem and the South Bronx. Awards in 2000 focused on building the long-term capacity of five community-based groups that work toward better living conditions in those two neighborhoods.

The foundation made only one grant in the tropical-disease program: a $4.8-million award to the International Trachoma Institute to develop a business plan and to expand its efforts to treat and prevent trachoma, a bacterial infection of the upper eyelid that causes blindness and infects millions of people in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and some parts of South America and Australia. In 1998, the foundation partnered with the pharmaceutical company Pfizer to create the institute, which became independent in 1999.

The institution- and field-building program seeks to strengthen groups that serve young people. Through a foundation project called the Growth Fund, this new program area made substantial investments in five nonprofit organizations to help them strengthen their organizational capacity and improve the quality of their services.

Application procedure: The foundation is evaluating its grant-making criteria and is not accepting grant applications. In the future the foundation expects to identify most grantees primarily through nominations from colleagues and advisers in the field of youth development. Details about changes to the foundation’s grant-making priorities and information for potential applicants will be posted on the foundation’s Web site when available.

Key officials: Michael A. Bailin, president; Nancy Roob, vice president and secretary for institution and field building; David E.K. Hunter, director of office of assessments; Ralph Stefano, director of finance and administration; Bruce S. Trachtenberg, director of communications; Susan J. Notkin, director, program for children; Susan Bellinger, director, Neighborhood Partnerships Initiative of the program for New York neighborhoods; M. Hayes Mizell, director, program for student achievement; Edward C. Schmults, chair of the Board of Trustees.

COLORADO TRUST

1600 Sherman Street
Denver, Colo. 80203-1604
(303) 837-1200 or (888) 847-9140
http://www.coloradotrust.org

Period covered: Year ending December 31, 2000.

Purpose and areas of support: The trust was created and endowed in 1985 with proceeds from the sale of Presbyterian/St. Luke’s Medical Center to American Medical International. The foundation makes grants to organizations in Colorado that work to improve the long-term health and well-being of Colorado residents in two major areas: promoting accessible and affordable health care and strengthening families.

In 2000 the trust spent $13.3-million on grants for 15 major programs, six special projects, and other distributions.

For example, the trust allocated $3,707,425 over three years to the Palliative Care Initiative, a program to develop a model of coordinated delivery of palliative-care services to people with chronic, life-threatening, progressive, or terminal medical conditions.

The trust supports six other health-care initiatives, including the Colorado Medically Underserved Initiative, which maintains eight programs that assist children and youths, the elderly, low-income and uninsured people, residents of rural areas, and women. For example, $333,334 went to the Colorado Rural Outreach Program to help retain adequate numbers of doctors in isolated rural towns by providing loan-repayment assistance, medical equipment, and temporary staff support for doctors attending continuing-education classes.

The trust administers eight initiatives to strengthen Colorado families. For example, the five-year, $7,062,000 Supporting Immigrant and Refugee Families Initiative works for the positive social adjustment of immigrants and refugees who have relocated to Colorado. The Spring Institute for International Studies, in Denver, coordinates the initiative, through which 11 grantees received funds for counseling and support groups, classes in child rearing and in English as a second language, and social events.

Other distributions included $100,000 to the Teen Suicide Prevention Collaborative, a two-year project to reduce suicide among students at three Denver high schools.

Application procedure: The foundation awards grants through requests for proposals and does not accept unsolicited proposals. New programs and grant opportunities are announced in trust publications, press releases, and special mailings. Prospective applicants may be added to the mailing list by calling the trust or by signing up at its Web site.

Key officials: John R. Moran Jr., president; Jean D. Merrick, vice president for program initiatives; John L. Samuelson, chief financial officer; Carol Breslau, senior program officer; Sally Beatty, Susan Downs-Karkos, and Ed Guajardo Lucero, program officers; Christine McElhinney, senior communications officer; Jean C. Jones, chair of the Board of Trustees.

FORD FOUNDATION

320 East 43rd Stree
tNew York, N.Y. 10017
(212) 573-5000
http://www.fordfound.org

Period covered: Year ending September 30, 2000.

Purpose and areas of support: Henry and Edsel Ford endowed the foundation in 1936 with gifts and bequests of Ford Motor Company stock. The foundation functioned as a local grant maker in Michigan until 1950, when it expanded its grant making to include national and international interests. It no longer owns stock in Ford Motor Company.

In 1999-2000 the foundation approved grants and program-related investments totaling $690.8-million. Of that total, $484.4-million went to U.S. and worldwide programs, and $206.4-million went to programs supported by the foundation’s 14 offices abroad.

The foundation makes grants in three overarching areas: asset building and community development, which comprises community and resource development, economic development, and human development and reproductive health; education, media, arts, and culture, which comprises the education, knowledge, and religion program and the media, arts, and culture program; and peace and social justice, which comprises governance and civil society and human rights and international cooperation.

In fiscal year 2000 grant approvals were distributed among the seven program units as follows: human rights and international cooperation received $146.9-million; governance and civil society, $103.8-million; media, arts, and culture, $93.9-million; human development and reproductive health, $88.5-million; education, knowledge, and religion, $88.4-million; community and resource development, $87.2-million; and economic development, $64.9-million. The foundation also approved $16.4-million for “foundationwide actions” and $800,000 for good-neighbor grants, which support activities in neighborhoods near the foundation’s New York City headquarters and overseas offices.

The human-rights and international-cooperation unit supports groups working on international human rights and the rights of women, ethnic and religious minority groups, and refugees. It also emphasizes conflict resolution, foreign policy, nuclear nonproliferation, and peacemaking activities. New programs in this unit focused on achieving justice and peace in countries that have experienced societal conflict and human-rights abuses and on highlighting economic issues in developing countries related to increased globalization and the actions of the World Bank and other multilateral institutions.

Grants made through the governance and civil-society unit emphasize improving the performance of government, building public awareness of budget and tax issues, and managing challenges posed by governmental decentralization. In 2000 the foundation introduced two new programs to this unit. The first emphasizes political equality in the United States by encouraging public participation in public affairs, strengthening civil-society organizations, and bolstering philanthropic activity. The second focuses on global civil society and the role of multinational citizens’ groups in addressing social problems.

The media, arts, and culture unit focuses on artistic creativity and resources, cultural preservation and vitality, the news media and public policy, and the role of arts in society.

The human-development and reproductive-health program supports policies and organizations working to alleviate the effects of poverty and discrimination for disadvantaged children, youths, and families and to address the social, cultural, and economic factors that affect sexuality and reproductive health. The foundation emphasizes grant making that empowers women to participate in reproductive-health policy.

Grants in the education, knowledge, and religion unit emphasize teaching and scholarship, campus diversity, educational administration and policy research, curriculum development, international studies, and religious pluralism.

The community- and resource-development unit helps people and groups purchase, protect, and sustain land, water, forests, and other natural resources in ways that help reduce poverty and injustice. It also seeks to improve the quality of life for people living in urban and rural areas by developing community-based groups that leverage philanthropic giving, investments, human resources, and natural resources in fair and sustainable ways.

The economic-development unit focuses on job creation, the development of marketable skills and personal assets among low-income people, economic revitalization, and related policy research. The unit also administers the foundation’s program-related investments, which totaled $16.5-million in fiscal 2000.

Paul A. Allaire, chairman and chief executive officer of the Xerox Corporation, became chairman of the board in September 2000, succeeding Henry B. Schacht.

Application procedure: Prospective applicants should submit a brief letter of inquiry to the foundation with the following information: the purpose of the proposed project, the problems and issues the project will address, information about the organization conducting the project, an estimated project budget, the length of time for which funds are requested, and the qualifications of those running the program. Letters in the United States should be sent to the secretary at the address above. Detailed information about the foundation’s grant making is available at its Web site.

Key officials: Susan V. Berresford, president; Barron M. Tenny, executive vice president, secretary, and general counsel; Barry D. Gaberman, senior vice president; Alexander Wilde, vice president for communications; Linda B. Strumpf, vice president and chief investment officer; Melvin L. Oliver, vice president for asset building and community development; Bradford K. Smith, vice president for peace and social justice; Alison R. Bernstein, vice president for education, media, arts, and culture; Paul A. Allaire, chairman of the Board of Trustees.

Program directors: Frank F. DeGiovanni, economic development; Cynthia Duncan, community and resource development; Michael A. Edwards, governance and civil society; Virginia Davis Floyd, human development and reproductive health; Janice Petrovich, education, knowledge, and religion; Anthony D. Romero, human rights and international cooperation; Margaret B. Wilkerson, media, arts, and culture.

The summary of the Metropolitan Life Foundation annual report that appeared in the May 17 issue of The Chronicle should have stated that the foundation primarily makes grants to nonprofit organizations for programs that are national in scope.