Foundation Annual Reports

NEW YORK COMMUNITY TRUST

2 Park Avenue
New York 10016
(212) 686-0010
http://www.nyct-cfi.org

Period covered: Year ending December 31, 1999.

Purpose and areas of support: The trust was established in 1924 to benefit New York City residents. It administers more than 1,400 charitable funds created by individuals, families, and corporations.

In 1999 grants were allocated as follows: education, the arts, and humanities received 48 percent of grants awarded; community development and the environment, 21 percent; health and people with special needs, 16 percent; children, youths, and families, 13 percent; and special projects, 2 percent. Those amounts were commensurate with past years.

The education, arts, and humanities program included support of historic preservation. For example, the New York Landmarks Conservancy received $817,000 for several projects, including repair of a wooden clock tower in Brooklyn that was damaged by Hurricane Floyd.

The program in community development and the environment emphasized civic affairs, conservation and pollution, neighborhood improvement, microenterprise, and technical assistance to non-profit groups. Grants included $46,400 to Cause Effective to help non-profit organizations manage special events and other fund raising.

Grants for health and special needs stressed AIDS, biomedical research, disabled children and youths, elderly people, health systems and policy, mental health, and people with visual impairments.

The children, youths, and families program focused on projects related to girls, hunger and homelessness, social services and welfare, substance abuse, and youth development. For example, $25,000 went to the Crenulated Company Ltd. Settlement Housing Fund for a boat-building program for young people in the Bronx.

Other grants included $75,000 to the Regional Plan Association to help New York non-profit organizations prepare for Y2K-related computer problems, and $30,000 to the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund to support legal advocacy for immigrant workers.

Application procedure: Potential applicants should request a copy of “Guidelines for Grant Applicants,” which contains detailed information about application procedures and brief descriptions of the trust´s grant-making programs. The trust also offers separate brochures on each of the four grant-making programs.

Key officials: Lorie A. Slutsky, president and director; Joyce M. Bove, vice president; Karen Metcalf, vice president for financial administration; Robert V. Edgar, manager of donor services; Anne Backman, manager of publications; Suzy D. Sonenberg, executive of the Long Island Community Foundation; Catherine J. Marsh, executive of the Westcester Community Foundation; William M. Evarts, chairman of the distribution committee.

Program contacts: Patricia Jenny, director (Neighborhood Strategies Project); Len McNally, program director (health and people with special needs); Anita R. Nager, senior program officer (community development and the environment); Jane R. Stern, program director (education, arts, and the humanities); Patricia White, senior program officer (children, youths, and families).

DONALD W. REYNOLDS FOUNDATION

1701 Village Center Circle
Las Vegas 89134-6303
(702) 804-6000
http://www.dwreynolds.org

Period covered: Year ending June 30, 1999.

Purpose and areas of support: Donald W. Reynolds, founder of the Donrey Media Group, created the foundation in 1954. Upon Mr. Reynolds´s death in 1993, the foundation received a large bequest that enabled it to operate independently of the media company.

In 1998-99 the foundation moved its offices from Tulsa, Okla., to Las Vegas, and stepped up its grant making considerably.

The foundation primarily supports non-profit institutions in Arkansas, Nevada, and Oklahoma, states where Mr. Reynolds´s company operated newspapers. It awards grants through two competitive programs, capital grants and community-services center grants, and through two noncompetitive programs, aging and quality of life and cardiovascular clinical research.

The capital-grants program awarded a total of $58.1-million to seven organizations in 1998-99. Those groups included the Oklahoma City Art Museum, which received $14.5-million to build a visual-arts center; the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, which received $13.3-million to establish the Center for Enterprise Development; and The Shade Tree, a homeless shelter in Las Vegas that received $5-million to increase the number of beds from 84 to 364.

In April 1999, the foundation established two community-services centers in Incline Village, Nev., and in Pine Bluff, Ark., at a cost of $6.7-million each. The idea behind the facilities is to enable small non-profit groups to share office space, telephones, and computers in order to improve the delivery of services.

The foundation made two huge awards in spring 1999 through its cardiovascular and aging programs: $24-million to the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas to establish a center for cardiovascular clinical research, and $11.2-million to the University of Oklahoma to create a department of geriatric medicine.

Application procedure: Organizations may apply for funds through the capital-grants or community-services center programs. To be eligible for grants from either program, applicants must be located in Arkansas, Nevada, or Oklahoma and be tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Both programs are highly competitive; visit the foundation´s Web site for more details.

Key officials: Steven L. Anderson, president; Donald E. Pray, executive director emeritus and secretary; Lynn Mosier, vice president of finance and administration; Philip L. Thomas, vice president of capital grants and facilities; David M. Zemel, vice president of programs; Christian W. Kolberg, director of communication; Courtney E. Latta and Richard S. Sharpe, senior program officers; Fred W. Smith, chairman of the Board of Trustees.

TINKER FOUNDATION

55 East 59th Street
New York 10022
(212) 421-6858
http://fdncenter.org/grantmaker/tinker

Period covered: Year ending December 31, 1999.

Purpose and areas of support: Edward Larocque Tinker, a biographer, novelist, and horse enthusiast, established the foundation in 1959 to promote the study of topics related to Latin America, Antarctica, and the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal).

In 1999 the foundation allocated most of its grants in three programs: governance, environmental policy, and economic policy.

Governance grants focused on judicial and political reform, crime reduction, education, economic growth, and the strengthening of philanthropic organizations in the regions listed above. Awards included $100,000 to the Synergos Institute, in New York, to collect and analyze information about non-profit organizations in Brazil, Mexico, and Ecuador, and $76,000 to Fundación Milenio, in La Paz, Bolivia, to study constitutional reform in that country.

Environmental grants included $76,125 to the Environmental Defense Fund, in New York, to examine ways to protect the Antarctic habitat. Among the groups supported through economic-policy grants was the Brookings Institution, in Washington, which received $50,000 for a project to examine why Latin American voters consistently support free-market policies despite a widening gap between rich and poor citizens in most Latin American countries.

Other grants included $82,500 to the Institute of International Education, in New York, for a project to promote environmentally sustainable electric-utility policies in Central and South America; and $20,000 to the Carter Center, in Atlanta, to develop procedures to monitor privatization activities in Costa Rica.

The foundation awarded a total of $130,000 in “field grants” that enabled graduate students at nine U.S. universities to conduct research in Latin America, Spain, and Portugal.

Application procedure: To be considered, a grant proposal must be concerned with topics or activities related to Iberia, Latin America, or Antarctica. Emphasis is placed on activities that have strong public-policy implications, offer innovative solutions to many of the problems facing those regions today, and incorporate new mechanisms for addressing environmental, economic, and political issues.

The foundation also promotes collaboration between organizations in the United States, Latin America, Spain, and Portugal. Field-research grants are available to all recognized centers or institutes of Ibero-American or Latin American studies with graduate doctoral programs at accredited U.S. universities. Grant seekers should contact the foundation for complete instructions. All proposals must be written in English.

Key officials: Renate Rennie, president; Charles McC. Mathias Jr., secretary; John A. Luke Jr., treasurer; Margaret J. Cushing, associate program officer; Martha Twitchell Muse, chairman of the Board of Directors.