Foundation Annual Reports

AHMANSON FOUNDATION
9215 Wilshire Boulevard
Beverly Hills, Cal. 90210
(310) 278-0770
Period covered: Year ending October 31, 1996.

Purpose and areas of support: The foundation was established in 1952 by the financier Howard F. Ahmanson and his wife, Dorothy. Current grant making concentrates on the arts and culture, pre-collegiate and collegiate education, medicine and the delivery of health-care services, specialized library collections, environmental preservation, homelessness and low-income populations, and other human-services projects. The foundation distributes approximately 90 per cent of its grant dollars to organizations based in and serving Los Angeles County.

In 1996, the foundation allocated 527 grants totaling $33,385,701. Awards for education received $14,777,051 or 44 per cent; arts and culture, $11,652,420 or 35 per cent; human services, $3,805,100 or 11 per cent; and health, $3,151,130 or 10 per cent. The average grant award was $63,350, up from $44,663 the previous year.

Education-related grants focused on scholarships for minority and disadvantaged students, literacy, teacher development, parental involvement, vocational training, and early-childhood-education and after-school programs. Awards included $250,000 to the Puente Learning Center in Los Angeles for its capital campaign for a new facility and $20,000 to Ascension Lutheran Church in Los Angeles to purchase computer equipment and software for an after-school tutorial program.

Arts allocations included $20,000 to A Noise Within in Glendale, Cal., to purchase new lighting equipment for this classical theater company, and $2,900,000 to Museum Associates to acquire The Martyrdom of St. Cecilia, an early-17th-century Baroque painting by the Italian artist Carlo Saraceni, for display in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Awards in human services focused on at-risk children and youths, minorities, the elderly and disabled, and hunger and homelessness. For example, $25,000 went to M.E.N.D. (Meet Each Need with Dignity) in Pacoima, Cal., to expand its catering- training and emergency-food programs.

Health grants emphasized the same populations and included $15,000 to the American Diabetes Association-California Affiliate in Los Angeles for outreach programs in local Latino and black communities.

Application procedure: Potential applicants should first review the foundation’s guidelines to determine if its interest areas and giving preferences are compatible with the need of the organization seeking support. A brief letter of inquiry may then be sent, addressed to the managing director. It should include the organization’s mission statement, a brief description of its background, a statement of need, and other potential financial sources under consideration. All letters of inquiry are screened to determine whether the request and mission of the applicant are within the foundation’s current interests. In most instances, written responses will be sent promptly to those who are not likely to qualify. Others who may qualify will be notified so that a full proposal can be submitted for further consideration.

Key officials: Robert H. Ahmanson, president; Leonard E. Walcott, Jr., vice-president and managing director; William H. Ahmanson, vice-president; Karen A. Hoffman, secretary and program officer; Sam Dawson, Mindy Jones, and Manya Schaff, program officers; Yvonne de Beixedon, grants administrator.

GEORGE GUND FOUNDATION
1845 Guildhall Building
45 Prospect Avenue West
Cleveland 44115
(216) 241-3114
World-Wide Web: http://www.gundfdn.org
Period covered: Year ending December 31, 1996.

Purpose and areas of support: The foundation was created in 1952 by George Gund, former chairman of the board of the Cleveland Trust Company.

In 1996, it allocated 391 grants totaling $18,886,927 in seven areas: human services, which received $3,611,949; education, $3,599,063; major commitments, $3,578,700; the environment, $2,605,480; economic development and community revitalization, $2,605,405; the arts, $2,181,822; and civic affairs, $704,508.

Human-services grants focused on projects in Cleveland and Cuyahoga County that dealt with child welfare, increasing the self-sufficiency of low-income families, welfare and health-care restructuring, AIDS prevention and treatment, youth-violence prevention, and family planning and reproductive health. AIDS and reproductive-health grants were made to national, as well as local, organizations, including the National Minority AIDS Council in Washington and the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy in New York.

Education grants continued to focus on academic and organizational reform in the Cleveland public schools, national school improvement, colleges and universities in northeast Ohio, and early-childhood education.

Thirteen allocations were made in the major-commitments area, including $2-million to the National Retinitis Pigmentosa Foundation in Hunt Valley, Md., for research on retinal degenerative disease, and $1-million over three years to the Playhouse Square Foundation in Cleveland to renovate its Allen Theatre.

Environmental grants supported projects on various issues related to “urban sprawl,” including transportation reform, watershed conservation, preserving open spaces, and energy efficiency. Emphasis was also placed on preserving biological diversity and reducing pollution and toxic waste in Ohio and the Great Lakes region.

The economic-development and community-revitalization program stressed work-force development and training, low-cost housing, urban design and planning, and economic revitalization in inner-city Cleveland.

The arts program focused on visual-arts and performing-arts groups, the news media, and arts-education projects in Cleveland.

Civic-affairs grants emphasized governmental effectiveness, citizen participation, and “civility” and violence prevention. Awards included $11,475 to Euclid Community Concerns in Euclid, Ohio, for activities to insure fair and equitable housing availability and maintenance.

Application procedure: Proposals should include a one-page cover letter describing the project and the amount of funds requested. They should also include: organizational background, including history, mission, types of programs offered, and constituencies served; project description, including justification of need, specific goals and objectives, project time line, qualifications of key personnel, and methods of evaluation; project budget, including details about how foundation funds will be used, anticipated income and expenses, and other sources approached for funds; organizational budget and most recent audited financial statement; list of current board members, letters of support, and a copy of the letter from the Internal Revenue Service confirming tax-exempt status under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code or information confirming status as a government unit or agency; and printed materials about the organization (i.e., annual reports or brochures), if any. Deadlines for submitting proposals for consideration at the next board meeting are December 30, March 30, June 30, and September 30. Proposals should not be submitted by fax and should not be placed in binders, notebooks, or plastic folders.

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

CORPORATIONS

FANNIE MAE FOUNDATION
4000 Wisconsin Avenue, N.W.
North Tower, Suite One
Washington 20016-2804
(202) 274-8000
World-Wide Web: http://www.fanniemaefoundation.org
Period covered: Year ending December 31, 1996.

Purposes and areas of support: The foundation was created in 1979 as a corporate-giving arm of the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae). It focuses primarily on expanding homeownership and housing opportunities for low-income and underserved families and on improving the quality of life in communities nationwide, with a special emphasis on Washington, D.C.

In 1995, Fannie Mae made a $350-million contribution to the foundation in the form of Fannie Mae common stock. That large increase in its assets has enabled the foundation to expand the scope of its programs to include public-service activities, which include consumer-education and homeownership information fairs; to conduct housing-policy research; and to increase the amount and number of grants and program-related investments it makes.

Consequently, the foundation has expanded its staff and office space. Its headquarters are in Washington, and it maintains regional offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Philadelphia, and Pasadena, Cal.

In 1996, grants totaling $17,525,824 were awarded as follows: housing and community development received $11,080,723; quality of life, $5,222,591; and community involvement, $1,222,510.

National programs received 45 per cent of grant dollars awarded; Washington, D.C., programs, 30 per cent; and other local programs, 25 per cent.

National efforts focused on six areas: increasing housing production, developing tools and skills needed to build low-cost housing and community facilities, providing consumers with information on buying homes, promoting consistently fair housing and lending policies, bringing technology to underserved communities, and confronting challenges in housing practice and policy.

Grants in Washington, D.C., stressed housing and community development; civic, cultural, and public affairs; health and human services; and youth development and employment preparedness.

Program-related investments totaling $8.3-million were also made, including $500,000 to the Washington-based Housing Assistance Council for its Rural Housing Loan Fund to increase the production of low-cost housing in rural America.

Public-service efforts to reach potential homebuyers included the New Americans Initiative, which provides immigrants with information on citizenship and homeownership.

Application procedure: Grants are made on a continuing basis for the Community Outreach, District of Columbia, and Research Grants Programs and through special requests for proposals. Contact the foundation at (202) 274-8078 for a copy of its program and application guidelines; information and grant-application forms are also available on its World-Wide Web site.

Key officials: John K. McIlwain, president and chief executive officer; Ann Marie Wheelock, executive vice-president and chief operating officer; James H. Carr and Harriet M. Ivey, senior vice-presidents; Dennis M. Corrigan, vice-president of operations; Kevin P. Smith, director of finance and administration; James A. Johnson, chairman of the Board of Directors.