Foundation Annual Reports

HOUSTON ENDOWMENT

600 Travis, Suite 6400
Houston 77002-3007
(713) 238-8100
World-Wide Web: http://www.hou-endow.org
Period covered: Year ending December 31, 1996.

Purpose and areas of support: The foundation was established in 1937 by the Houston-based builder and financier Jesse H. Jones and his wife, Mary Gibbs Jones. Grant making focuses on non-profit organizations and projects that serve metropolitan Houston and the rest of Texas. Although a few grants are made to organizations outside Texas, none are made to foreign organizations.

In 1996, the foundation approved 367 grants totaling approximately $50-million in five program areas: education, which received 48 per cent of grant dollars; arts and culture, 22 per cent; human services, 16 per cent; civic affairs and the environment, 8 per cent; and health, 6 per cent.

The foundation’s board of directors appropriated five grants of $1-million or more. The largest was a $12-million commitment to the University of Texas at Austin toward construction of an art museum on campus. The next largest, a $7.5-million commitment, went to the Houston Music Hall Foundation to build a performing-arts venue in Houston’s downtown theater district.

Due in part to those unusually large grants, 58 per cent of all grants awarded in 1996 went to building campaigns. Scholarships, support for specific programs, and general operating support accounted for the other types of grant support.

The foundation continued its strong emphasis on educational programs, which focus on higher-education institutions in Texas and Houston-area public schools. For example, the Jesse H. Jones and Mary Gibbs Jones High School Scholarship Program provides $10,000 over four years for undergraduate tuition at any accredited four-year college or university. Scholarships totaling $2,060,000 were allocated to 206 students from 82 Texas high schools.

Other education-related grants included $750,000 to the Association for the Advancement of Mexican Americans in Houston to construct an educational center that will house a library, computer center, classrooms, and a child-care facility, and $10,000 to the Adult Reading Center in Pearland, Tex., for reading and writing programs for functionally illiterate adults.

Human-services grants emphasized projects to strengthen community centers in low-income neighborhoods and to deal with disadvantaged children and families, housing and homelessness, minorities, disaster relief, domestic and youth violence, the disabled and elderly, and people with AIDS. Awards included $500,000 to the Non-Profit Housing Corporation of Greater Houston to convert a downtown hotel into single-room-occupancy housing for homeless people.

Civic-affairs and environmental grants focused on preserving the Houston-area environment, environmental education, land and species conservation, leadership development, human rights and race relations, and historic preservation. Allocations included $35,000 to the Peregrine Fund in Boise, Idaho, to reintroduce the Aplomado falcon into south Texas.

Application procedure: Grants are made only to organizations that are tax-exempt under Sections 501(c)(3) or 170(c) of the Internal Revenue Code. Application forms are not required, but requests must be made in writing. Applications should consist of a letter on the organization’s letterhead that must be signed by the chief executive officer of the organization and must include a statement that the C.E.O. has seen and approved the request and endorses it as a strong priority. The letter should contain a brief description of the history and mission of the organization and the scope of its current activities, the need for the program or project and the specific population it will benefit, the program’s objectives, the activities to be included as part of the project and a timetable for their accomplishment, the overall cost of the project, the amount of support requested from the foundation, a list of other sources that have committed support to the project and the amounts committed, a list of sources from which the organization has requested support and the amounts requested, the proposed method for evaluating the project’s effectiveness, and the name, title, and telephone number of the contact person at the organization. The following should also be included: a copy of the latest determination letter by the Internal Revenue Service regarding the organization’s tax-exempt status; a signed statement by the C.E.O. that no change has occurred in the exempt status, purpose, character, or operational methods subsequent to the I.R.S. ruling; the most recent audited financial statements; a complete copy of the most recently filed I.R.S. Form 990, including all supporting schedules; the current annual operating budget, including revenues and expenses; and a current list of board members. Applications should be mailed to the attention of the Grant Department.

Key officials: H. Joe Nelson, III, president; David L. Nelson, vice-president, corporate secretary, and grant director; Sheryl L. Johns, vice-president, treasurer, and chief financial officer; Claudette Y. Di Nal, Ann T. Hamilton, Anna B. Leal, Michele J. Sabino, and Donald P. Sheppard, grant officers; E. Jane Floren and Helen Hill, grant managers; Jack S. Blanton, chairman of the Board of Directors.

JAMES IRVINE FOUNDATION
One Market, Spear Tower, Suite 1715
San Francisco 94105
(415) 777-2244
World-Wide Web: http://www.irvine.org
Period covered: Year ending December 31, 1996.

Purpose and areas of support: The foundation was established in 1937 as trustee of a charitable trust created by James Irvine, an agriculturalist who inherited a large California estate.

Grants are made for projects that benefit California residents in eight program areas: the arts; children, youths, and families; civic culture; health; higher education; sustainable communities; work-force development; and special projects. In 1996, 190 new commitments totaling $34,761,800 were made.

The foundation undertook a year-long process in 1995 to assess changing demographics and needs in California and to evaluate its work in light of those changes. Two new program areas were established: work-force development, which focuses on employment training and placement programs and welfare-to-work strategies, and “sustainable communities,” which promotes the cleanup and redevelopment of “brownfield” sites that are unusable due to toxic contamination.

Grants in the work-force-development program included $500,000 to YouthBuild USA in Somerville, Mass., to help its California-based affiliates provide leadership and construction-skills training to high-school dropouts and other at-risk youths. Grants in the sustainable-communities program included $2-million to the Trust for Public Land in San Francisco to start up the California Center for Land Recycling.

Throughout 1996, the foundation’s board and staff members met to evaluate the state of the arts in California and the fund’s role in supporting arts activities. It determined three strategies that will direct its future arts grant making: strengthening arts leadership among both individuals and organizations, supporting artists and arts groups in California, and promoting innovative approaches to the ways in which non-profit arts groups conduct their programs and finances.

Arts allocations included $180,000 to the New York-based organization Poets & Writers to establish the California Writers-in-Residence Program and $350,000 to the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego for a marketing campaign to expand its audience among youths and young adults.

Grants to support at-risk children, youths, and families focus on two areas: improving the management and programs of youth-serving groups, and uniting schools, community organizations, and families to improve students’ academic performance.

Civic-culture grants emphasize strengthening community foundations and non-profit groups in California, and supporting problem-solving efforts that involve all community members, particularly ethnic and racial minorities.

Health-related grants included $125,000 to the Western Consortium for Public Health in Berkeley for its Pacific Institute for Women’s Health to study the effects of managed health care upon women in California.

The foundation also maintains an office in Los Angeles at the following address: 777 South Figueroa Street, Suite 740, Los Angeles 90017. The telephone number is (213) 236-0552.

Application procedure: Prospective applicants should contact the foundation to request a copy of its “Program Priorities and Guidelines for Applications” for a description of current priorities and comprehensive application information.

Key officials: Dennis A. Collins, president and chief executive officer; Larry R. Fies, chief financial officer and treasurer; James E. Canales, chief administrative officer and corporate secretary; Nick Bollman and Craig A. Howard, senior program directors; Martha S. Campbell, Author E. Hughes, Craig E. McGarvey, Cora Mirikitani, and Carol J. Ramsey, program directors; Christy Pichel, director of operations; Heather G. Graham, grants manager; James C. Gaither, chairman of the Board of Directors.

ROCKEFELLER BROTHERS FUND
1290 Avenue of the Americas
New York 10104-0233
(212) 373-4200
e-mail: rock@rbf.org
World-Wide Web: http://www.rbf.org
Period covered: Year ending December 31, 1996.

Purpose and areas of support: The fund was established in 1940 as a vehicle for coordinating charitable giving by the daughter and five sons of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., who made a substantial gift and left a major bequest to the fund.

In 1996, 381 grants and matching gifts totaling $10,189,675 were made in five major areas: the “One World” program, which supports projects on world security and the sustainable use of natural resources; non-profit organizations; education; projects in New York City; and basic education for children and adults in South Africa.

The “One World: Sustainable Resource Use” area remained the fund’s single largest emphasis, receiving $4,530,500, or 45 per cent of total payments. For the most part, appropriations are made in four geographic areas: global, the United States, East Central Europe, and East Asia.

Global projects focused on climate change and the protection of biological diversity. Specific strategies emphasized utility-based energy efficiency, renewable energy sources, transportation, “green taxes” on energy use, temperate rain forests, the management of fisheries and coastal zones, and the effect of international trade, economics, and multilateral financial and grant-making institutions on climate change and biological diversity.

An internal review of the fund’s activities in central Eastern Europe — which involve sustainable resource use, non-profit groups, and security concerns — identified integrated approaches to future grant making in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia. The fund’s board also approved a small budget allocation for grants related to sustainable resource development in the Russian Far East; the fund’s initial focus is likely to be on preserving the region’s salmon habitat and fisheries.

The “One World: World Security” area received $1,127,500, or 11 per cent of grant payments. Guidelines for the program are currently under review, with new guidelines scheduled for release in late 1998. Its current focus is on promoting continuing discussions among grant makers and civil-society organizations on post-Cold War security issues.

Grants to strengthen non-profit organizations received $1,525,150 or 15 per cent of payments. Awards went to promote increased understanding of the role of non-profit institutions and to support model community foundations and non-governmental organizations in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia.

Education-related grants were made for efforts to meet the needs of diverse students and to improve early-childhood education in the United States.

Grants to improve the quality of life in New York City included $60,000 to the Campaign for Fiscal Equity for its work to reform the New York State school-financing system, which currently provides different levels of support to students at New York City public schools.

Application procedure: Applicants must be either a tax-exempt organization or an organization seeking support for an educational or charitable project. Foreign applicants must satisfy a determination that the organization would qualify as a tax-exempt organization if it were incorporated in the United States or that the project would qualify as educational or charitable. A preliminary letter of inquiry is recommended as an initial approach. Letters should be approximately two to three pages long and should include a succinct description of the project or organization for which support is sought, its relationship to the fund’s program, information about the principal staff members involved, a synopsis of the budget, and an indication of the amount requested from the fund. Letters of inquiry should be addressed to Benjamin R. Shute, Jr., Secretary and Treasurer. Review of grant inquiries is continual throughout the year.

Key officials: Colin G. Campbell, president; Russell A. Phillips, Jr., executive vice-president; Benjamin R. Shute, Jr., secretary and treasurer; William S. Moody, Nancy L. Muirhead, Michael F. Northrop, Peter W. Riggs, Ben Rodriguez-Cubenas, and Caroline Zinsser, program officers; Priscilla Lewis, director of communications and special assistant to the president; Charles L. Granquist, director of Pocantico programs; Jane Wales, director of the Project on World Security and assistant to the president for international security; Abby M. O’Neill, chairman of the Board of Trustees.