Foundation Annual Reports

HEINZ ENDOWMENTS

30 Dominion Tower
625 Liberty Avenue
Pittsburgh, Pa. 15222
(412) 281-5777
http://www.heinz.org

Period covered: Year ending December 31, 2001.

Purpose and areas of support: The endowments are two private foundations — the Howard Heinz Endowment and the Vira I. Heinz Endowment — that were established in 1941 and 1986, respectively. They are jointly administered and were endowed through the fortune of H.J. Heinz, founder of Pittsburgh’s H.J. Heinz Company, through the will of his son, Howard Heinz, and his daughter-in-law, Vira Ingham Heinz. Neither foundation is affiliated with the H.J. Heinz Company or with its philanthropic arm, the Heinz Company Foundation.

The majority of the endowments’ giving is concentrated in southwestern Pennsylvania. The funds share three organizational goals: helping residents to view the Pittsburgh region as a premier place in which to live and work, making the region a center of high-quality learning and educational opportunities, and ensuring that diversity and inclusion are defining regional characteristics.

The endowments maintain five grant-making programs through which they approved grants totaling $55.4-million in 2001: children, youths, and families, which received $14.7-million; economic opportunity, $13.5-million; arts and culture, $10.7-million; education, $8.6-million; and the environment, $7.9-million.

The children, youths, and families program has three goals: improving the education and development of young children in Pennsylvania, expanding meaningful extracurricular activities for adolescents, and promoting parental responsibility and the active involvement of parents and other family members in their children’s education. Allocations included $600,000 to the Pittsburgh Board of Public Education for Literacy Plus, an effort to improve reading instruction and achievement.

The economic-opportunity program seeks to emphasize regional growth, develop a “competitive advantage in human capital,” and promote jobs and economic enterprise. For example, $250,000 went to Duquesne University, in Pittsburgh, for research on labor-force issues related to low-income communities and regional immigration strategies.

Arts grants emphasize expanding opportunities for arts education and participation, building “creative capital,” and advancing Pittsburgh as a cultural center. In addition, the Small Arts Initiative, now in its seventh year, makes artistic-development awards to professional arts groups with annual budgets of $250,000 or less.

The education program focuses on exemplary schools, teacher development, and the effective use of technology in education, while the environmental program focuses on sustainable urban design, environmental enterprise and innovation, and watershed and ecosystems protection.

Application procedure: Prospective applicants should review carefully the guidelines for the specific grant-making program from which they anticipate seeking support. Inquiries regarding grant funds should demonstrate a familiarity with the program’s relevant goals and strategies. The first step in seeking support is to submit a concise letter of inquiry. The second step is a formal application process for those requests that are determined to meet the endowments’ basic grant-making criteria. The letter of inquiry, which should be signed by the head of the applicant organization or of its board, should address: the nature of the proposed program, including its objectives, target population, and specific action plan; the need for the proposed program and how it differs from existing programs; the ways in which the proposed program would advance the goals and strategies of the endowments and is consistent with their work; the nature of the applicant organization and its qualifications to carry out the proposed program; a plan for monitoring and evaluating the program’s effectiveness; the implications of the program in terms of public policy and public awareness and the ways in which the program’s outcomes will be communicated to relevant audiences; and the estimated cost of the project and the amount of funds being requested. Additional supporting materials should not be submitted with the initial letter of inquiry, and applicants should not develop and submit full proposals unless they have been asked to do so by a representative of the foundation.

Key officials: Maxwell King, executive director; Jack E. Kime, chief financial officer; Grant Oliphant, planning and communications director; Joseph F. Dominic, program director-education; Caren E. Glotfelty, program director-environment; Brian M. Kelley, program director-economic opportunity; Margaret M. Petruska, program director-children, youth, and families; Janet L. Sarbaugh, program director-arts and culture; Teresa Heinz, chairman, the Howard Heinz Endowment; James M. Walton, chairman, the Vira I. Heinz Endowment.

MOODY FOUNDATION

2302 Postoffice Street,
Suite 704
Galveston, Tex. 77550
(409) 797-1500
http://www.moodyf.org

Period covered: Two years ending December 31, 2001.

Purpose and areas of support: The foundation was established in 1942 by William Lewis (W.L.) Moody Jr. and his wife, Libbie, longtime residents of Galveston, Tex. The family’s commercial interests included banks, hotels, insurance, newspapers, and ranches.

Grant making initially focused on local charities and later on education, the arts, health, and community and social services. In the 1980s, the foundation undertook two large-scale projects, both in Galveston: Moody Gardens — a complex that includes an aquarium, a hotel and convention center, an enclosed tropical rainforest, and an IMAX theater — and the Transitional Learning Center at Galveston, a research and rehabilitation institution focusing on traumatic brain injury. Although those two foundation-initiated projects represent the foundation’s current funding priority, it also makes some grants in the arts, education, and social services in Dallas and adjacent areas.

During 2000 and 2001, the foundation made 64 grants totaling $17,167,137. By far the largest commitment was $14,600,519 over two years to the Transitional Learning Center for existing and new programs in brain-injury rehabilitation.

Other allocations included $300,000 to St. Andrew’s Episcopal School, in Austin, for its lower- and middle-school library, and $10,000 to Community Hospice of Texas/Healing Hearts, in Dallas, to provide grief-counseling services to children and their families.

Created in 1969, the Moody Scholars Program enables outstanding, financially needy students from Galveston County to attend the Texas college of their choice. The foundation allocated $250,000 over two years for scholarship assistance through the program.

Application procedure: Not listed in report.

Key officials: Frances Anne Moody, executive director; Harold C. MacDonald, comptroller; Peter M. Moore, grants director; Gerald J. Smith, program officer; Allan Matthews, scholarship administrator; Jean Wylie, regional grants director, Dallas office; E. Douglas McLeod, director of development; Frances Moody Newman, chairman of the Board of Trustees.

CORPORATIONS

HITACHI FOUNDATION
1509 22nd Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20037-1073
(202) 457-0588
http://www.hitachifoundation.org

Period covered: Year ending December 31, 2000.

Purpose and areas of support: Endowed in 1985 by the Japanese corporation Hitachi Ltd., the fund promotes “social responsibility through effective participation in global society.” It maintains general-grants and matching-funds programs, as well as the Yoshiyama Awards for Exemplary Service to the Community.

In 2000, the foundation added the new Work Skills/Life Skills grants area, which examines how links can be forged between community-based youth-entrepreneurship activities, school-based career programs, and businesses involved in youth development and education. For example, the Black Hills Special Services Cooperative, in Sturgis, S.D., received an award for a program that combines instruction, technical assistance, and seed funds to help students create up to 15 new businesses.

The fund also supported initiatives on corporate citizenship, the role of information technology in education, resource use in community development, and partnerships for education and economic opportunity. With the exception of the corporate-citizenship program, which runs through 2003, those initiatives are now completed.

Teams of employee volunteers — deemed Community Action Committees — at Hitachi facilities nationwide allocated 280 grants totaling $841,380 to some 300 local organizations.

Application procedure: The foundation only accepts proposals in response to its formal requests for proposals, which specify a particular focus and provide details on deadlines and submission criteria. Those announcements are posted on the foundation’s Web site and also are available through its fax-on-demand system at (202) 457-0588, option 1. The foundation recommends that organizations check its Web site on a quarterly basis for any updates.

Key officials: Barbara Dyer, president and chief executive officer; James J. Gillespie, chief financial officer; Renata Hron Gomez and Mark G. Popovich, senior program officers; Katrinka Hall, grants manager; Joseph E. Kasputys, chairman of the Board of Directors; Katsushige Mita, honorary chairman.