Foundation Annual Reports

MCKNIGHT FOUNDATION
600 TCF Tower
12 South Eighth Street
Minneapolis, Minn. 55402
(612) 333-4220
http://www.mcknight.org

Period covered: Year ending December 31, 2001.

Purpose and areas of support: The foundation was established in 1953 by William L. McKnight, a founder and president of the 3M Company, and his wife, Maude. The couple were the parents of the honorary board chair, Virginia M. Binger, and the great-grandparents of the current board chair, Noa Staryk. The foundation is not affiliated with 3M.

In 2001, the foundation paid 880 grants totaling $90.8-million in the following program areas: children, families, and communities, which received 68 percent of grant dollars; the arts, 14 percent; the environment, 10 percent; research, 5 percent; and international, 3 percent.

On a geographic basis, 58 percent of grants paid went to organizations in Minneapolis and St. Paul, 28 percent went to groups elsewhere in Minnesota, 10 percent went to groups in other states, and 4 percent went to foreign groups.

Grants for children, families, and communities focus on enhancing children’s emotional and social development and academic achievement; helping parents nurture and guide their children; and creating healthier environments for children. All awards in this program are made to groups in Minnesota, with the majority based in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.

The largest single grant in this program was $5,000,000 to the Family Housing Fund, in Minneapolis, for affordable-housing development and preservation in the Twin Cities area, and for related public-education efforts.

Within the children, families, and communities program, the foundation also collaborates with selected partners on several multiyear programs: the Virginia McKnight Binger Awards in Human Service, Congregations in Community, the Family Loan Program, Legal Services for Women, the Minnesota Initiative Funds, Welfare Reform, and Youth Enrichment. In 2001, the Minnesota Initiative Funds — six independent funds outside the Twin Cities area — received $9.3-million for their work to meet specific regional needs.

Arts grants seek to improve the quality of and public access to the arts in Minnesota. Awards included $267,000 to the Walker Art Center, in Minneapolis, to create, maintain, and market a Web site that allows artists to advertise their work free of charge, and $55,000 to the Chinese American Association of Minnesota, in St. Paul, for a Chinese dance theater.

The foundation’s environment program aims to maintain and restore a healthy environment in the Mississippi River basin, to encourage energy conservation and the use of alternative energy in the Midwest, and to protect the livability of the Minneapolis-St. Paul region. For example, the Energy Foundation, in San Francisco, which administers the foundation’s energy grants, received a $4.5-million pledge for efforts to spur the use of wind energy in the Upper Midwest.

Also under its environment program, the foundation committed $1-million to a new project, Living Twin Cities, designed to reduce traffic congestion and protect open space in Minneapolis and St. Paul.

Grants for research and applied science supported collaborative research on food crops vital to developing countries; scholarly work on eating disorders; and the McKnight Endowment Fund for Neuroscience, an independent organization that receives all its funds from the foundation. The foundation is phasing out its eating-disorders program, and is no longer accepting new proposals in that area.

International grants focus on two areas: efforts to improve economic opportunities for women in Tanzania, Uganda, and Zimbabwe, and health and community-development projects in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam.

Application procedure: Applicants must be tax-exempt, nonprofit organizations and not private foundations. Before applying for a grant, potential applicants should determine whether the organization’s work and the purpose for which the money would be requested fit the foundation’s grant-making priorities. The foundation encourages applicants to discuss their request with a program officer before writing a letter of inquiry.

For more-detailed information about the foundation’s program areas, applicants may request a copy of “Guidelines for Applicants” by calling the phone number above, sending an e-mail[URL]info@mcknight.org[/URL] to info@mcknight.org, or visiting the foundation’s Web site. The foundation considers applications in research and applied science only by invitation or in response to a special announcement.

Key officials: Rip Rapson, president; Carol Berde, executive vice president for children, families, and communities, international programs (Africa), and crop research; Richard J. Scott, vice president for finance and administration and secretary; Kristin Batson, manager of organizational learning and grants administration; Neal I. Cuthbert, program director, arts; Kathleen Rysted, manager of information systems and research programs; Gayle Thorsen, communications director; Noa Staryk, chair of the Board of Directors; Virginia M. Binger, honorary chair.

PUBLIC WELFARE FOUNDATION
1200 U Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20009-4443
(202) 965-1800
http://www.publicwelfare.org

Period covered: Year ending October 31, 2001.

Purpose and areas of support: Charles Edward Marsh, a newspaper publisher, established the foundation in 1947. He endowed it by donating three Southern daily newspapers — The Gadsden Times, The Spartanburg Herald & Journal, and The Tuscaloosa News — that were later sold to the New York Times Company.

In fiscal 2001, the foundation approved grants in eight program areas: population and reproductive health, which received 50 grants totaling $3,204,500; health, 50 grants totaling $3,048,000; community economic development and participation, 47 grants totaling $2,665,000; human rights and global security, 58 grants totaling $2,385,500; environment, 57 grants totaling $2,375,000; criminal justice, 37 grants totaling $1,641,250; disadvantaged youths, 28 grants totaling $1,284,750; and disadvantaged elderly, 13 grants totaling $1,045,000. Although most of its grants go to U.S. groups, the foundation has no geographic limitations and makes a limited number of international grants.

Population and reproductive-health grants focus on reproductive health for teenagers; international programs, with an emphasis on Africa; AIDS prevention, education, and advocacy; and reproductive rights. Projects frequently include parents and other adults responsible for youths, and involve teenagers in program design and implementation. For example, $25,000 was awarded to Metro Teen AIDS, in Washington, for general support to prevent the spread of HIV among adolescents in the city, and to help those already infected.

Health grants emphasize advocacy, access, and reform; preventive and primary services; hunger and nutrition; occupational health and safety; and mental-health advocacy and services. For instance, the North Carolina Occupational Safety and Health Project, in Durham, received $25,000 to advocate more-stringent workplace safety and health conditions, particularly for poultry workers and Latino immigrants.

The program for community-based economic development and participation provides technical and other support for advocacy and policy development and for grass-roots or local groups that aid low-wage workers and other low-income people. Awards included $60,000 to Manna, in Washington, for its efforts to transform poor neighborhoods by expanding homeownership among low-income families.

Human-rights and global-security grants emphasize international human rights; countering hate-motivated activity and discrimination; immigration and refugees; and global security. For example, the Center for Democratic Renewal, in Atlanta, received $50,000 to monitor and counter hate-group activity in the United States.

The environment program focuses on sustainable development, efforts to prevent and reduce pollution, and assistance for communities affected by environmental degradation. Under this program, the Association of Birth Defect Children, in Orlando, Fla., received $25,000 to document environmental exposures that can be linked to birth defects.

Criminal-justice grants stress alternative sentencing, legal services for low-income people, violence prevention, and related advocacy and policy development.

The disadvantaged-youth program makes grants to provide high-quality education, job-training services, child care, housing, health care, and other assistance to at-risk youths.

The foundation allocated 23 grants totaling $525,000 through its Welfare Reform Fund, which supports community-based efforts to monitor the effects of welfare restructuring on low-income people.

The foundation also made 15 grants totaling $1,113,500 for special opportunities outside its program areas; seven grants totaling $220,000 to the Fund for Washington’s Children and Youth; and 14 grants totaling $100,000 to its Technology Assistance Fund, which provides small grants to current foundation grantees.

Application procedure: Initial requests for first-time support and for projects that have not received recent support from the foundation should come in the form of a letter of inquiry. Additional information about guidelines and the format of the letter is available at the foundation’s Web site.

Key officials: Larry Kressley, executive director; Abdillahi Alawy, evaluation director; Rebecca A. Davis, senior program officer; Phillipa P. Taylor, chief financial and administrative officer; Kim Villa, manager of investments; June P. Drew, grants manager; Thomas J. Scanlon, chair of the Board of Directors.

Program officers: Millie Brobston, community economic development and participation; Adisa Douglas, population and reproductive health; Teresa Langston, health and disadvantaged elderly; Midge Taylor, environment; Charisse M. Williams, criminal justice and disadvantaged youth; Joe Wilson, human rights and global security.

WHITAKER FOUNDATION
1700 North Moore Street
Suite 2200
Arlington, Va. 22209
(703) 528-2430
http://www.whitaker.org

Period covered: Year ending December 31, 2001.

Purpose and areas of support: The foundation was endowed in 1975 through a bequest from U.A. Whitaker, founder and chief executive of AMP, a manufacturer of electrical connectors. The fund primarily supports research and education in biomedical engineering at U.S. and Canadian academic institutions.

In 2001, the foundation awarded $69,531,023 through several competitive grant programs. The largest program, biomedical-engineering research, awarded 110 grants totaling $19,804,464. The research conducted by grantees included work on diagnostic medical imaging, investigation of mechanisms of kidney-stone destruction by shock waves, and engineering intracellular spatial sensing for enhanced wound healing.

Other biomedical-engineering programs received $9,943,898. The foundation also awarded leadership and development awards, which support centers of excellence in biomedical engineering, totaling $23,651,667; graduate fellowships totaling $5,940,526; special-opportunity awards totaling $5,481,691; and regional and other awards totaling $4,708,777.

The foundation plans to spend down the remainder of its endowment and cease operations by 2006. Accordingly, all foundation-financed research activities must be completed by that date.

Application procedure: Information about the foundation’s programs and application guidelines is available at its Web site. The foundation does not accept unsolicited proposals or make awards outside its program areas. No new applications for leadership and development awards are being accepted; see the foundation’s Web site for additional details on its schedule for phasing out programs.

Key officials: Peter G. Katona, president; James A. Frost, vice president for finance; John H. Linehan, vice president; Wolf W. von Maltzahn, vice president for biomedical engineering; Frank N. Blanchard, director of communications; Carina S. Hreib, grants manager; G. Burtt Holmes, chairman of the Foundation Governing Committee.