Foundation Annual Reports

GEORGE GUND FOUNDATION

1845 Guildhall Building
45 Prospect Avenue West
Cleveland, Ohio 44115
(216) 241-3114
http://www.gundfdn.org

Period covered: Year ending December 31, 2000.

Purpose and areas of support: George Gund, a Cleveland banker who served as president of the Cleveland Institute of Art, established the foundation in 1952.

In 2000 the foundation awarded 421 grants totaling $20,755,862 in the following program areas: education, which received $5,030,104; human services, $4,207,430; the environment, $3,119,422; economic development and community revitalization, $2,862,078; the arts, $2,607,660; special projects, $2,313,900; and civic affairs, $615,268.

Education grants support efforts to improve elementary and secondary education, with an emphasis on low-income and minority youths in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. Specific focus is given to projects dealing with public-school improvement, community and parental involvement, policy and staff development, and program evaluation.

For example, the foundation maintained its focus on improving education for children in the Cleveland Municipal School District. The district received six grants, among them a $50,000 award for professional-development activities related to new language-arts standards.

Some grants are also made to higher-education institutions, primarily in northeastern Ohio, to improve the recruitment, enrollment, and retention of minority students.

Human-services grants finance direct services for disadvantaged residents of metropolitan Cleveland and seek long-term solutions to the area’s social problems. Grants help secure basic services like food, clothing, shelter, and health care; support programs that strengthen the stability and well-being of at-risk families and children; foster continued access to reproductive-health services; and respond to urgent needs in the Cleveland area, such as natural disasters or health issues, most notably H.I.V./AIDS.

Allocations included a two-year, $80,000 grant to the Greater Cleveland Committee on Hunger for operating support and for the group’s public-policy program.

Environment-related grants are awarded primarily in the metropolitan Cleveland area and elsewhere in Ohio. They focus on efforts to conserve natural systems, protect human health, build the capacity of nonprofit groups in the field, promote the development of “green buildings,” support responsible development practices, and educate the public and news media about environmental issues.

Grants for economic-development and community revitalization emphasize greater economic self-sufficiency among low-income people in Cleveland. Grants support job-training programs, promote redevelopment opportunities in downtown Cleveland, seek to strengthen the regional economy of northeastern Ohio, and encourage exemplary urban planning and design.

Arts grants seek to bring opportunities in the arts and culture to youths in the Cleveland Municipal School District, to implement a comprehensive cultural plan for metropolitan Cleveland, and to support projects that bring the arts to the area. Awards included $15,000 to the Off Hollywood Flick Fest, in Cleveland, for the Ohio Independent Film Festival.

Through its special-projects grants program, the foundation continued its support for nonprofit organizations and philanthropy and for research on the causes, nature, and prevention of inherited retinal degenerative diseases.

Civic-affairs grants emphasize the prevention of handgun violence, increased citizen participation in civic affairs, and the maintenance of fair-housing programs.

Application procedure: Proposals for grants should include a one-page cover letter with a description of the project and the amount requested. The body of the proposal should contain information about the organization, additional details about the proposed project, a project budget, an organizational budget, and supporting documents, including evidence of the organization’s tax-exempt status under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code or information confirming its status as a governmental unit or agency. The foundation does not accept faxed proposals and asks that proposals not be submitted in notebooks, binders, or plastic folders. Deadlines for proposal submissions are December 30, March 30, June 30, and September 30. Additional information and lists of previously awarded grants are available at the foundation’s Web site.

Key officials: David Bergholz, executive director; Robert B. Jaquay, associate director; Marcia Egbert, Deena M. Epstein, Jeffrey M. Glebocki, and Jon M. Jensen, senior program officers; Geoffrey Gund, president and treasurer of the Board of Trustees.

THE JM FOUNDATION
60 East 42nd Street
Suite 1651
New York, N.Y. 10165
(212) 687-7735

Period covered: Year ending December 31, 2000.

Purpose and areas of support: The foundation was created in 1924 by Jeremiah Milbank, a businessman and financier who helped found the nation’s first comprehensive rehabilitation center for the disabled.

The foundation makes grants in two general program areas: health and rehabilitation, and education and public-policy research. Its goals are to help disabled people lead fulfilling and independent lives; to promote preventive and patient-centered health care; to encourage market-oriented public policy; to foster free enterprise, entrepreneurship, and volunteerism; and to strengthen families in the United States while reinforcing the role of parents.

In 2000 the foundation awarded 55 grants totaling $1,024,850. It also paid out $71,880 through a matching-gifts program.

Health and rehabilitation grants included $50,000 to ICDInternational Center for the Disabled, the New Yorkbased organization that Mr. Milbank helped found, for its three-year strategic plan.

Education and public-policy awards included $20,000 to the Reason Foundation, in Los Angeles, for policy-related research on remedial education.

Application procedure: Applicants must be public charities as defined by Sections 501(c)(3), 509(a)(1), and 170(b)(1)(a)(vi) of the Internal Revenue Code. The foundation does not have a standard grant application, but proposals should contain an abstract of one page or less; a description of the proposed project that outlines its purpose, plan, board and staff involvement, financing, plans for evaluation, and anticipated results; professional information about authors, researchers, or project officers; project and organizational budgets and the applicant’s most recent annual report or promotional materials; most recent audited financial statements; names of board members; evidence of tax-exempt status; and a list of the organization’s current donors, current funders of the proposed project, if any, and other grant makers with whom proposals for the project are pending. Proposals should be mailed to the associate executive director.

Key officials: Chris Olander, executive director and assistant treasurer; Carl Helstrom, associate executive director; Jeremiah Milbank III, president of the Board of Directors; Jeremiah Milbank Jr., president emeritus.

WHITAKER FOUNDATION

1700 North Moore Street
Suite 2200
Arlington, Va. 22209
(703) 528-2430
http://www.whitaker.org

Period covered:

Year ending December 31, 2000.

Purpose and areas of support: The foundation was created in 1975 through a bequest from U.A. Whitaker, founder of AMP, a manufacturer of electrical connectors. It primarily supports research and education in biomedical engineering at academic institutions in the United States and Canada, with the goal of promoting better human health through advancements in medicine and rehabilitation. The foundation also makes some grants to benefit residents of Harrisburg, Pa., and Naples, Fla.

The foundation awarded $49,259,630 through several competitive grant programs. The largest program, biomedical-engineering research, awarded 86 grants totaling $14,444,383. The research carried out by recipients included examinations of how biomedicine can help study the fractures of abused children and studies of “focused ultrasonic fields” to treat spine disorders.

The foundation awarded $9,091,197 through its Special Opportunity Awards in Biomedical Engineering Program. In addition, it awarded graduate fellowships totaling $5,479,527.

The foundation plans to spend the remainder of its endowment and cease operations by the end of 2006.

Miles J. Gibbons Jr., president and chief executive officer, retired after 19 years with the foundation. He was succeeded by Peter G. Katona, who formerly served as president for biomedical engineering.

Application procedure: Information about the foundation’s programs and application guidelines are available at its Web site. The foundation does not accept unsolicited proposals or make awards outside its program areas. Inquiries about Harrisburg, Pa., grants should be directed to the Greater Harrisburg Foundation, 200 North Third Street, Eighth Floor, P.O. Box 678, Harrisburg, Pa. 17108-0678; (717) 236-5040.

Key officials: Peter G. Katona, president; John H. Linehan, vice president; Frank N. Blanchard, director of communications; James A. Frost, director of finance; Carina S. Hreib, grants manager; Wolf W. von Maltzahn, vice president, biomedical engineering; G. Burtt Holmes, chairman of the Foundation Governing Committee.