Foundation Annual Reports

COMMUNITY FOUNDATION FOR GREATER ATLANTA
The Hurt Building, Suite 449
Atlanta 30303
(404) 688-5525
Period covered: Year ending June 30, 1997.

Purpose and areas of support: This community foundation changed its name in May 1997 from the Metropolitan Atlanta Community Foundation. It allocates grants to non-profit groups for projects in 19 counties in the metropolitan Atlanta area.

Grants from the unrestricted fund emphasize six program areas: arts and culture, civic affairs, community development, education, health, and human services. Priority is given to projects that help meet the needs of children, youths, and families, and to projects that promote civic participation and equity for all community residents.

In the 1996-97 fiscal year, donor-advised awards received 71 per cent of grant dollars; designated grants, 14 per cent; field-of-interest grants, 9 per cent; and unrestricted grants, 6 per cent.

The human-services program received 25 per cent of allocated dollars, the largest percentage of any area. New awards included $15,000 to the Atlanta-based organization Sheltering Arms to provide child-care services for low-income families in Atlanta’s Cabbagetown and Reynoldstown neighborhoods.

The foundation continued to support “Early Start,” a five-year, $1.1-million effort that provides programs for children from birth through age 5.

Grants in other areas included $10,000 to Cobb Housing in Atlanta to provide housing-related counseling and programs for low- to middle-income first-time homebuyers.

The foundation maintains various field-of-interest funds, among them the Atlanta AIDS Fund, which allocated approximately $76,000 to 10 organizations. The Atlanta Women’s Fund awarded $265,500 for projects to benefit women and girls. The Metropolitan Atlanta Arts Fund allocated $296,120 to 21 arts groups with annual budgets below $1-million. Four grants were made through the Lesbian and Gay Funding Initiative for Youth.

Application procedure: Grants from the foundation’s unrestricted fund are made three times a year. Organizations interested in applying should contact one of the program officers before submitting a request. Eligible organizations will then receive grant-application materials and instructions. The deadlines for submitting a completed proposal are March 16 for the May 1998 cycle, July 15 for the September 1998 cycle, and November 2 for the January 1999 cycle.

Key officials: Alicia Philipp, executive director; Drew Barringer, chief operating officer; Lizanne Stephenson, director of advancement; Winsome Hawkins, senior program officer; Jessie Bond, Lisa Eaves, and Phillip Rush, program officers; Michael Dorsey, controller; George H. Johnson, president of the Board of Directors.

JOHN A. HARTFORD FOUNDATION
55 East 59th Street
New York 10022
(212) 832-7788
World-Wide Web: http://www.jhartfound.com
Period covered: Year ending December 31, 1996.

Purpose and areas of support: The foundation was endowed in 1929 through bequests from its founder, John A. Hartford, and his brother, George L. Hartford. Both men were former chief executives of the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company.

Grants and program-related investments focus on two major programs: aging and health, and health-care costs and quality.

The foundation continued to wind down support for its Health Care Cost and Quality Program, which was initiated in 1979. The final grants made under the program will be completed by 1999, and no new grants will be authorized.

Consequently, most grant making will explore new opportunities in the Aging and Health Program, which emphasizes two major areas: academic geriatrics and training, and integrating and improving services for elderly people.

In 1996, the foundation authorized 16 grants totaling $14,535,252 for academic geriatrics training, five grants totaling $3,026,348 for projects to integrate health services, and five grants totaling $1,582,434 for other projects related to aging and health.

The foundation made a five-year, $5-million award to New York University to create the John A. Hartford Foundation Institute for the Advancement of Geriatric Nursing Practice, the first geriatric-nursing center in the nation.

Nine grants totaling $6,450,000 over three years were made through the second round of the “Geriatric Interdisciplinary Team Training” program to adopt projects to coordinate the work of nurses, residents in internal and family medicine, social workers, and other health professionals who provide social services and health care to elderly people.

An allocation of $872,080 went to the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y., for research to advance scientific understanding of the genetic basis of long-term memory formation and dysfunction.

Other awards included $750,000 to Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass., for its newly established Policy and Resource Center on Women and Aging.

Application procedure: The foundation normally makes grants to only two types of U.S. organizations: those that are tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and not private foundations, and universities and colleges. No grants are made to individuals. For the most part, the foundation makes grants by invitation only. Letters of inquiry may be submitted if potential applicants have familiarized themselves with the foundation’s program areas and guidelines and feel that the proposed project falls within the foundation’s areas of interest. Initial inquiries should be made at least six months before financial support is needed. Those submitting proposals will be notified of the results of the foundation’s review within approximately one month and may be asked to supply additional information.

Key officials: Corinne H. Rieder, executive director; Samuel R. Gische, finance director and controller; Diane C. Brewer Collier, senior administrative officer; Donna I. Regenstreif, senior program officer; Laura A. Robbins, program officer; James D. Farley, chairman of the Board of Trustees.

SKILLMAN FOUNDATION
600 Renaissance Center, Suite 1700
Detroit 48243
(313) 568-6360
Period covered: Year ending December 31, 1996.

Purpose and areas of support: The foundation was created in 1960 by Rose Skillman with funds from the estate of her husband, Robert, a vice-president and director of the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company. It makes grants for projects to benefit residents of southeastern Michigan, with an emphasis on metropolitan Detroit’s Macomb, Oakland, and Wayne Counties.

In 1996, grants totaling $17,503,628 were authorized as follows: the children, youths, and families program received $15, 177,032; culture and the arts, $1,244,000; basic human needs, $425,000; strengthening community and civic organizations, $260,000; and other, $397,596.

The children, youths, and families program comprises five areas: education, child and family welfare, child and family health, youth development, and juvenile justice.

The foundation provides continuing support for three related major programs: the Parenting Matters Initiative, which provides grants for child-rearing programs; the Comer Schools and Families Initiative, which helps Detroit public elementary schools adopt comprehensive education-reform programs; and the Youth Sports and Recreation Initiative, which provides grants for positive summer, after-school, and weekend programs for at-risk children and youths.

The foundation approved a $4-million grant to the Schools of the 21st Century Corporation. The organization was set up to administer a large-scale project to reform the Detroit public schools that was sparked by a $20-million challenge grant from the Annenberg Foundation of St. Davids, Pa.

Other grants to benefit children and families included $550,000 to the City of Detroit’s Department of Health for an information system to track childhood immunizations, and $150,000 to the Michigan Metro Girl Scout Council to provide scouting programs for girls living in public housing and inner-city Detroit neighborhoods.

Grants in other program areas included $200,000 to the Detroit-based Hunger Action Coalition of Michigan to provide small grants to food banks and other emergency-food providers.

Application procedure: Applicants are encouraged to read two foundation publications: Grantmaking Policies and Procedures and A Guide to Evaluation for Skillman Foundation Grantees. They describe the foundation’s grant-making and application procedures and can be obtained through the foundation’s program office.

Key officials: Leonard W. Smith, president and secretary; Kari Schlachtenhaufen, vice-president for program and assistant secretary; Richard Connell, vice-president and treasurer; David D. Fukuzawa, Claudette Y. Smith, Jodee Fishman Raines, and John Ziraldo, program officers; Jane R. Thomas, chair of the Board of Trustees.