Foundation Annual Reports

DUKE ENDOWMENT
100 North Tryon Street, Suite 3500
Charlotte, N.C. 28202-4012
(704) 376-0291
World-Wide Web: http://www.dukeendowment.org
Period covered: Year ending December 31, 1996.

Purpose and areas of support: The endowment was established in 1924 by James Buchanan Duke, who made his fortune in electric power, textiles, and tobacco. As stipulated by Mr. Duke, grant making is restricted to non-profit hospitals and children’s homes in North and South Carolina, United Methodist churches in rural North Carolina, retired Methodist ministers and their surviving families in North Carolina, and four higher-education institutions: Davidson College, Duke University, Furman University, and Johnson C. Smith University.

In 1996, grant dollars totaling $65,795,151 were appropriated as follows: programs in higher education received $39,368,782; health care, $18,991,577; rural churches and ministers, $4,212,527; child care, $3,122,265; and collaborative programs, $100,000.

Of the $39.4-million awarded through the education program, $26.4-million went to Duke University, $4.5-million each to Davidson and Furman, and $4.0-million to Johnson C. Smith.

As of 1995, the endowment began to request that the four institutions report at the end of each year how they had allocated the money given them by the endowment for operating support.

Over the years, grants in the health-care program have shifted from emphasizing capital projects to emphasizing projects that respond to specific health-care issues in the Carolinas. The program now has four general areas of interest: access to care, children’s health, hospital-community partnerships, and health promotion and education.

The fund also continued to provide eligible hospitals with one dollar for each day of charity care provided to indigent patients.

Grants to children’s homes and other child-care and child-welfare institutions were made for facilities, services, and programs, including efforts to strengthen and reunite families, to prevent children from being placed needlessly in residential care, and to place eligible children in adoptive homes. Awards included $100,000 to the Greensboro-based Children’s Home Society of North Carolina for an adoption program for hard-to-place children.

The endowment created a pool of funds for collaborative programs that involve more than one grant-making division. One of its first activities was the creation of the Duke Endowment Internship Program, which provides selected university students from Davidson, Duke, Furman, and Johnson C. Smith with experience at the endowment’s offices and summer internships at non-profit groups.

Application procedure: Applicants who believe that they are eligible under the fund’s guidelines should send a letter describing the proposed project to the attention of the president. Eligible requests will be referred to the appropriate program officer, who may request a full proposal, including a budget, financial sources, board members, and other pertinent information.

Key officials: Elizabeth H. Locke, president and director of the education division; Eugene W. Cochrane, Jr., vice-president and director of the health-care division; W. Joseph Mann, director of the rural-church division; Robert A. Mayer II, director of the child-care division; Janice C. Walker, chief financial officer and treasurer; John G. Mebane, Jr., chief investment officer; David H. Roberson, director of communications; Mary D. B. T. Semans, chairman of the Board of Trustees.

MORRIS GOLDSEKER FOUNDATION OF MARYLAND
Two East Read Street, Ninth Floor
Baltimore 21202
(410) 837-5100
Period covered: Year ending December 31, 1996.

Purpose and areas of support: The foundation was incorporated in 1973; it makes grants to non-profit organizations that benefit residents of the Baltimore metropolitan area.

In 1996, 34 new awards totaling $2.4-million were made in four program areas: community affairs, education, human services, and neighborhood development. The foundation recently ended its program in health.

Community-affairs grants included $60,000 to the Citizens Planning and Housing Association for staff support of the Campaign for Regional Issues, which links neighborhoods dealing with crime, housing, land-use, and public-sanitation issues.

Two education grants of $133,500 each were made to the Johns Hopkins University and to Morgan State University to provide fellowships to undergraduate and graduate students, respectively, who hail from the metropolitan Baltimore area.

Human-services grants concentrated on disadvantaged children and youths, hunger, immigrants, race relations, mental-health services, and services for needy and homeless families. For example, $25,000 went to the Greater Homewood Community Corporation to start up the Safe and Smart Center, which will provide educational and community services to residents of Baltimore’s Waverly neighborhood.

Neighborhood-development grants emphasized adult literacy, business development and retention, community revitalization, grassroots leadership, and the construction and rehabilitation of low-cost housing. Allocations included $30,000 to the Loading Dock, an organization that recycles, salvages, and solicits construction materials and distributes them to low-income families who are fixing up their homes and to non-profit groups that rehabilitate buildings.

Application procedure: After concluding that the proposed project is eligible and falls within the foundation’s stated objectives and interests, applicants should submit a brief letter describing the project. The following information should be included: evidence of tax-exempt status under Sections 501(c)(3) and 509(a) of the Internal Revenue Code, background information about the applicant organization, a statement of the need for and the objectives of the proposed project, methods of accomplishing the objectives, the projected program budget, and the amount sought from the foundation. Staff members will review the materials and get in touch with the applicant if a fully developed proposal is in order. If so, a proposal-development form will be sent to assist the applicant.

Key officials: Timothy D. Armbruster, president; Anne I. Dugan, program director; Sheldon Goldseker, chairman of the Board of Trustees.

WEINGART FOUNDATION
1055 West Seventh Street, Suite 3050
Los Angeles 90017-2305
(213) 688-7799
World-Wide Web: http://www.weingartfnd.org
Period covered: Year ending June 30, 1997.

Purpose and areas of support: The foundation was established in 1951 by real-estate developer Ben Weingart and his wife, Stella. It makes grants primarily for projects to benefit low-income people in southern California.

In 1996-97, 695 grants totaling $40,353,859 were allocated in two major program areas: children and youths, which received $20,357,918, and adults and the greater community, which received $19,995,941. That marked a substantial increase over the previous fiscal year’s grant making, when a total of $28,964,321 was awarded.

The foundation made two allocations through its new Major Grants Program, which was initiated in 1995. A $4.9-million grant went to the Los Angeles Annenberg Metropolitan Project to develop its “Parents as Learning Partners” program in Los Angeles and Long Beach, and $10.7-million went to create the Fremont Youth Collaborative, which will involve more than 10,000 youths in camping, sports, and tutorial activities.

Grants to assist children and youths focused on child care, community-based activities, crisis intervention, education, and health and medicine. Awards included $40,000 to the Prentice Day School in Santa Ana to provide scholarships for dyslexic children, and $25,000 to the Boys & Girls Club of Lompoc Valley in Santa Barbara to expand computer-based learning programs.

Grants to benefit adults and the greater community emphasized community services, culture and the arts, health and medicine, and higher education. Awards included $25,000 to the Los Angeles Shanti Foundation to expand services for people in south-central Los Angeles with life-threatening diseases, and $500,000 to the San Diego Space and Science Foundation to expand its theater and science center.

Thirty-seven grants totaling $7,059,510 went for loans to students attending 14 member institutions of the Independent Colleges of Southern California.

Application procedure: Applicant organizations that believe they meet the foundation’s eligibility criteria should submit three copies of a brief “test letter” that contains a concise statement of the project’s purpose, the amount sought, and enough factual information to enable the foundation to determine its initial response. One copy of any supporting data the applicant selects may accompany the letter. If it is determined that the proposed project meets the foundation’s interests and priorities, the applicant will be provided with the instructions and forms required to prepare and submit a formal application. All communication regarding grants should be sent to the president at the address above.

Key officials: Roy A. Anderson, chairman and chief executive officer; John G. Ouellet, president and chief administrative officer; Laurence A. Wolfe, vice-president for administration and real estate and corporate secretary; Ann L. Van Dormolen, vice-president and treasurer; Susan H. Grimes, Barbara Kaze, and Jerry C. Yu, program officers; Harry J. Volk, chairman emeritus.