Foundation Annual Reports

BURROUGHS WELLCOME FUND

P.O. Box 13901
Research Triangle Park, N.C. 27709-3901
(919) 991-5100;
http://www.bwfund.org

Period covered: Year ending August 31, 2000.

Purpose and areas of support: The fund awards grants that support scientists early in their careers and to advance areas in the basic medical sciences that are “undervalued or in need of particular encouragement.”

The fund was created in 1955 as the corporate foundation of the Burroughs Wellcome Company, the U.S. branch of the pharmaceutical company based in the United Kingdom. In 1993 the fund received a $400-million gift from the Wellcome Trust, founded upon the 1936 death of the company’s co-founder, Henry Wellcome, which enabled the fund to become an independent foundation. The fund is not affiliated with Glaxo Wellcome, the pharmaceutical company created when Glaxo acquired the Burroughs Wellcome Company, or any other corporation.

In 1999-2000 the fund allocated new grants totaling $38.8-million as follows: Career-development programs for scientists received $12.8-million; therapeutic sciences, $10.1-million; emerging infectious diseases, $8.0-million; science education, $3.1-million; interfaces in science, $3.0-million; reproductive science, $1.4-million; and environment for science, $0.4-million.

The fund made career-development grants in four major programs: Career Awards in the Biomedical Sciences, Hitchings-Elion Fellowships, Life Sciences Research Fellowships, and BWF Research Travel Grants. Twenty-five researchers received grants in 2000, including two researchers in the area of reproductive science, which the fund considers to be “seriously understudied and therefore a target of support.”

Therapeutic sciences awards support translational research, which helps individuals who bring advances in biomedicine to the bedside to make better diagnoses and improve treatment. The fund also approved 11 New Investigator Awards in the Pharmacological or Toxicological Sciences.

The program on emerging infectious diseases focused on diseases caused by parasites and fungi. The fund approved seven awards to eight scientists for the New Initiatives in Malaria Research program, which seeks to attract more scientists to work on this disease that kills more than two million people each year.

The fund made science-education grants in three areas: the Student Science Enrichment program, which enables middle- and high-school students in North Carolina to participate in hands-on projects; BWF Visiting Professorships in the Basic Medical Sciences; and BWF Visiting Professorships in the Microbiological Sciences.

Beginning in 2001, the fund will award grants in five core program areas: biomedical sciences, interfaces in science, infectious diseases, therapeutic sciences, and science education. The fund will continue to support reproductive science through its Career Awards in the Biomedical Sciences program in its other program areas. Of a $40-million grants budget for fiscal 2001, the fund has proposed that 29 percent, or $11.7-million, go to the biomedical sciences; 24 percent, or $9.6-million, to therapeutic sciences; 22 percent, or $8.8-million, to interfaces in science; 18 percent, or $7.2-million, to infectious diseases; 4 percent, or $1.7-million, to science education; and 3 percent, or $1-million, to presidential awards, which are made at the discretion of the fund’s president and relate to its program areas.

Application procedure: The fund makes approximately 90 percent of its grants through competitive award programs.

Most programs are open only to citizens or permanent residents of the United States and Canada. Most awards are made to degree-granting institutions on behalf of individual researchers; these institutions must be tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Generally, government agencies are ineligible for awards. The fund does not support activities that are primarily clinical, such as disease diagnosis and treatment, or related to health care and health-care policy. Program information, guidelines, and deadlines are available at the fund’s Web site.

Key officials: Enriqueta C. Bond, president; Bernadette M. Marriott, vice president for programs and communications; Scott G. Schoedler, vice president for finance; D. Carr Agyapong, senior program and communications officer; Martin Ionescu-Pioggia, senior program officer; Victoria P. McGovern and Nancy S. Sung, program officers; Karyn Hede, communications officer; David M. Kipnis, chair of the Board of Directors.

ROSE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION

600 South Cherry Street, Suite 1200
Denver, Colo. 80246-1712
(303) 398-7400
http://www.rcfdenver.org

Period covered: Year ending December 31, 1999.

Purpose and areas of support: The foundation was established in 1995 with proceeds from the sale of Rose Medical Center to a for-profit health-care corporation. The center was named for General Rose, a Denver native and World War II hero, and was established by a group of local Jewish physicians and community leaders.

The fund’s grant making centers on five program areas: aging, child and family development, education, health, and Jewish life. On a limited basis, the foundation may also consider grants for projects related to human rights and nondiscrimination, expanding philanthropy and community service, strengthening nonprofit groups, and innovative approaches to community issues.

The foundation accepts proposals from nonprofit and tax-supported institutions that operate programs in the six counties that constitute metropolitan Denver: Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Denver, Douglas, and Jefferson.

During 1999, the foundation awarded 722 grants totaling $11.1-million. This was up from the 541 grants totaling $9.8-million allocated in 1998.

The program on aging supports efforts to meet the needs of low- and moderate-income elderly people and those affected by social isolation and health risks that diminish their independence.

The foundation also focuses on increasing public awareness of services available to elderly people, supporting professionals and volunteer caregivers, and coordinating resources for local citizens.

Child- and family-development grants stress the positive development of children and youths and the economic self-sufficiency of families. Particular emphasis is placed on child-rearing education, high-quality early-childhood education, employment training, and support services for low-income families.

Education grants focus on elevating teaching and on instituting systemic improvements in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade. Particular areas of interest include innovative teacher-training programs, standards-based reform, and school-board effectiveness.

Through its health program, the foundation considers proposals for programs to increase affordable health-care coverage and services and to create a better-coordinated health-care system.

Awards included $175,957 over two years to the Denver Health Foundation to provide culturally appropriate services to meet the health-care needs of American Indians living in Denver.

The Jewish-life program finances efforts to strengthen metropolitan Denver’s Jewish residents.

For example, a three-year $511,960 grant went to Synagogue 2000 to help 11 participating synagogues become more “spiritual, intimate, and welcoming.”

The foundation continued the Endowment Challenge, its partnership with the Allied Jewish Federation of Colorado. Initiated in 1998, this three-year program is striving to create some $20-million in permanent endowed funds at Jewish institutions that serve metropolitan Denver and Boulder, Colo.

Application procedure: Before applying, grant seekers should call the foundation at (303) 398-7400 for a copy of its “Guidelines for Grant Proposals,” which provides detailed information on eligibility, program priorities, and proposal content and format. These guidelines are also available at the foundation’s Web site. The foundation does not have submission deadlines. Foundation staff members review proposals as they are received, and may request additional information or arrange a site visit. The foundation strives to respond to applicants within four months of receiving proposals.

Key officials: Sheila Bugdanowitz, president and chief executive officer; Marguerite M. Johnson, vice president for programs; Judith R. Koff, chief financial officer; Barbara Emery, manager of donor services; Phil Nash, director of communications; Richard L. Robinson, chair of the Board of Trustees.

Senior program officers: Phillip A. Gonring (education), Elsa I. Holguín (child and family development), Lisa Farber Miller (Jewish life), and Annie E. Van Dusen (health).

ROSENBERG FOUNDATION

47 Kearny Street, Suite 804
San Francisco, Calif. 94108-5528
(415) 421-6105
http://www.rosenbergfdn.org

Period covered: Year ending December 31, 1999.

Purpose and areas of support: The foundation was created in 1935 by a group of business associates and relatives of Max L. Rosenberg, who were designated as trustees in his will. Mr. Rosenberg, who died in 1931, was the president and major shareholder of Rosenberg Brothers & Company, a business that he and two brothers formed in 1893 to pack and ship dried fruit from California. In 1969, the foundation received a second bequest, from the estate of Charlotte Mack, one of its early directors.

The foundation makes grants primarily through three main program areas: changing population, child-support reform, and family poverty. Within those areas, it focuses on new and innovative projects that are “designed to achieve specific and lasting improvements in public social policy and that appear to have the greatest feasibility and significance in creating institutional reform or models for public-policy reform.” Special emphasis is also placed on projects sponsored by the constituents they are designed to serve.

The foundation generally does not make grants for programs outside California. The exceptions to this rule are selected grants in the field of philanthropy and grants for projects that still directly benefit Californians.

In 1999, grant dollars were distributed in the following manner: family poverty received 37 percent of funds; changing population, 35 percent; child-support reform, 22 percent; philanthropy, 4 percent; and other, 2 percent.

The family-poverty program seeks to improve the economic status of low-income California families.

It currently employs three major strategies to accomplish this: monitoring the effects of welfare restructuring on former recipients; “making work pay” within the state’s low-wage labor markets; and expanding community investment, access to credit, and self-employment and microenterprise development. Grants included $75,000 to the Center on Policy Initiatives, in San Diego, to examine trends in the use of temporary workers in varying industries in San Diego County.

The changing-population program supports activities that promote a pluralistic society and the full civic, economic, and social integration of immigrants and minorities. It places priority on projects that defend the rights of immigrants to public services and family unification, improve working conditions in immigrant-dominated industries, reduce language-based discrimination, and promote civic participation.

For example, $50,000 went to the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, in San Francisco, to study the impact on low-income immigrant families of the income requirements of the 1996 Immigration Law.

The goal of the foundation’s program in child-support reform is to strengthen financial security for children in low-income families. Emphasis is placed on developing a system that is “effective in establishing paternity, fair in awarding support, efficient in collecting and distributing payments, and builds toward a national program of child-support assurance.”

Application procedure: Proposals are reviewed by foundation staff members and acted on by the board at meetings throughout the year. The foundation generally does not operate programs but makes grants to private, nonprofit organizations and government agencies to carry out projects in its three priority areas. Organizations interested in applying should submit a letter of inquiry describing the proposed project, the purpose and activities of the sponsoring agency, and the estimated budget. The foundation will request additional information if it determines that a project significantly advances public policy within one of its three major program areas. Letters of inquiry to the foundation should be addressed to Kirke Wilson, President, at the address above. Correspondence may also be sent via e-mail to rosenfdn@rosenbergfdn.org. Additional information about the foundation and its grant making is available on its Web site.

Key officials: Kirke Wilson, president; Ellen Widess, senior program officer; Zoe Lane, office manager; Bill Ong Hing, chair of the Board of Directors.