Foundation Annual Reports

BILL & MELINDA GATES FOUNDATION
P.O. Box 23350
Seattle, Wash. 98102
(206) 709-3140
http://www.gatesfoundation.org

Period covered: Year ending December 31, 2001.

Purpose and areas of support: The foundation was established in January 2000, following the merger of two funds endowed by Bill Gates, chairman of the Microsoft Corporation, and his wife, Melinda French Gates: the Gates Learning Foundation, which focused on expanding access to technology at public libraries, and the William H. Gates Foundation, which focused on global health.

Bill and Melinda Gates made three donations to the foundation totaling $16-billion in 1999, followed by gifts of $5-billion and $2-billion in 2000 and 2001, respectively. The foundation is the wealthiest philanthropy in the United States, with 2001 year-end assets of $24.5-billion, nearly twice those of the Lilly Endowment, the next-largest foundation.

The foundation awards grants in four program areas: global health, which received $855,567,807, or nearly 75 percent of 2001 grant dollars; education, which received $177,944,218; libraries, $43,175,536; and community giving in the Pacific Northwest, $36,511,233. The foundation also made grants totaling $33,403,292 for special projects outside those designated program areas.

The global-health program seeks to address health inequities in developing countries by supporting alliances and organizations focusing on infectious-disease prevention, reproductive and child health, and vaccine research and development. Within that framework, priority areas include the development and testing of vaccines to combat malaria and AIDS, and of microbicides that can be used as contraceptives while also protecting women against HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. Other priorities include emergency obstetric services and cost-effective methods for screening for cervical cancer in settings with scarce resources.

Global-health grants included $100-million over 10 years to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, in Geneva, for its work on AIDS and health, and $70-million over 10 years to PATH-the Program for Appropriate Technology in Health, in Seattle, to support efforts to eliminate epidemic meningitis in sub-Saharan Africa. Also under this program, the Population Council, in New York, received $20-million over five years for the advanced trial phase of a highly promising microbicide.

The Vaccine Fund, created in 1999 by a $750-million donation from the foundation, has since immunized children in some 60 developing countries. More information about this fund is available on its Web site, http://www.vaccinefund.org.

The Gates Award for Global Health, established by the foundation in 2000, includes a $1-million honorarium and is given annually to an organization that has made “a major and lasting contribution to the field of global health. “The Centre for Health and Population Research, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, received the award in 2001 for its work on health conditions in developing countries and for pioneering the discovery and development of an oral rehydration solution to prevent diarrhea. The Rotary Foundation of Rotary International, in Evanston, Ill., won the award in 2002 for its work on polio eradication and immunization.

The education program seeks to expand higher-education opportunities for qualified minority and disadvantaged students. It focuses on two areas: supporting the creation of small high schools that prepare students for the rigors of college, and reducing existing financial barriers to higher education. For example, the Carnegie Corporation of New York received $25-million, to match its own contribution of $40-million, for a project designed to improve the academic performance of high-school students in seven U.S. cities by reconfiguring large high schools into several smaller “learning communities.”

Also under the education program, the Idaho Association of School Administrators, in Boise, received $350,000 to provide leadership-development and technology training to school superintendents and principals statewide.

Through its libraries program, the foundation collaborates with public libraries in the United States, Canada, and other countries to expand public access to computers and the Internet. For instance, the foundation started a program in Chile that leveraged local resources in order to provide public Internet access at 368 libraries.

The foundation’s Pacific Northwest giving primarily supports organizations in Washington State and Oregon that serve at-risk and low-income families and their children. For example, the YMCA of Seattle received $2,838,383 over five years to expand youth-development and student-achievement programs to four public middle schools in Seattle.

Special-projects grants included $1-million to Yale University, in New Haven, Conn., to renovate the university’s art gallery.

Application procedure: The foundation awards a majority of its grants to organizations selected by its program teams.

Letters of inquiry are accepted for the global-health program, community grants under the Pacific Northwest giving program, and the Community Access to Technology focus under the libraries program. Potential applicants to those three areas should review program guidelines before submitting a letter. The foundation will consider letters of inquiry from tax-exempt, charitable organizations whose requests fall within the program guidelines summarized on its Web site. The foundation neither encourages nor generally considers unsolicited proposals.

Proposals that benefit specific individuals or that serve exclusively religious purposes are not accepted.

Key officials: William (Bill) H. Gates III and Melinda French Gates, co-founders; William H. Gates Sr., co-chair; Patty Stonesifer, co-chair and president; Sylvia Mathews, chief operating officer and executive director, libraries, Pacific Northwest, and special projects; Allan Golston, chief financial and administrative officer; William Foege, Gates Fellow and senior health adviser.

Program directors: Richard Akeroyd, director, international library initiatives; Craig Arnold, director, U.S. library program; Jaime Garcia, director, Pacific Northwest program; Helene Gayle, director, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis; Richard D. Klausner, executive director, global-health program; David Lane, director, East Coast Office; Gordon W. Perkin, director, reproductive and child health; Sally K. Stansfield, acting director, infectious diseases; Carol Rava Treat, deputy director, education program; Tom Vander Ark, executive director, education.

JOYCE FOUNDATION

70 West Madison Street
Suite 2750
Chicago, Ill. 60602
(312) 782-2464
http://www.joycefdn.org

Period covered: Year ending December 31, 2001.

Purpose and areas of support: The foundation was created in 1948 by Beatrice Joyce Kean, of Chicago. Upon her death in 1972, Mrs. Kean left her family’s wealth, which stemmed from lumber and sawmill interests, to the foundation.

In 2001, 248 grants totaling $37,540,376 were approved in the following programs: environment, which received $9,235,891; education, $7,692,243; employment, $8,893,125; gun violence, $4,192,249; money and politics, $2,709,526; culture, $1,607,400; and discretionary and interprogram grants, Joyce Millennium Initiatives, and special opportunities, $3,209,942.

The foundation primarily makes grants that benefit the Great Lakes region, including Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin. A limited number of environment grants are made to Canadian organizations, and cultural grants are restricted to groups in the metropolitan Chicago area.

Environment grants seek to protect the quality of water in the Great Lakes; to bolster coalitions of environmental groups working to improve the lakes’ ecosystem; to reduce toxic agricultural and industrial waste; to promote energy conservation and the use of renewable, nonpolluting energy sources; and to ensure that decision makers in government, particularly at the state level, take environmental considerations into account. For example, the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, in Minneapolis, received $185,000 to study the impacts of agriculture on the Great Lakes.

Other environment grants included $150,000 over two years to the Citizens Action Coalition Education Fund, in Indianapolis, to involve representatives from industry and organized labor in its work to promote state policies that support renewable energy and energy efficiency.

The education program seeks to improve public schools in Chicago, Cleveland, and Milwaukee, with a focus on teaching, community engagement, technology, and minorities. For example, Marquette University’s College of Education, in Milwaukee, received $500,000 over two years for a fellowship program designed to increase the number of minority teachers in the Milwaukee school system. Other recipients under the program included the Children’s Defense Fund–Ohio, in Columbus, which received a three-year, $381,000 grant for work related to Ohio’s education-reform law, school funding, new governance options for urban districts, and the linking of academic achievement to improved school facilities.

The program on gun violence seeks to reduce firearm-related deaths and injuries by addressing gun violence as a public-health problem, with an emphasis on prevention. Allocations included a three-year, $1.2-million grant to the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, to enhance its Firearm Injury Center and expand its Medical Professionals as Advocates Program. Also under this program, the National Association of State-Based Child Advocacy Organizations, in Washington, received $733,249 over three years for a project called Child Safe, designed to reduce the incidents of gun-related deaths and injuries suffered by children and their families.

Through its program on money and politics, the foundation promotes the restructuring of systems for financing both state and federal election campaigns. Program priorities are to promote campaign-finance reform at the federal level and in Midwestern states, to improve the disclosure of campaign-finance records, and to seek a balance between constitutional rights and the fiscal integrity of the political process. For example, the Alliance for Better Campaigns, in Washington, received $200,000 over two years for public education, research, and advocacy on behalf of a federal mandate requiring broadcasters to provide free air time for candidates in the final weeks of campaigns.

Culture grants included $150,000 to the Columbia College Dance Center, in Chicago, to develop and present a new work by the African-American dance troupe Urban Bush Women.

Application procedure: Before submitting a formal proposal, prospective applicants should send to the appropriate program officer a two- or three-page letter of inquiry that briefly describes the proposed project and its goals, how it relates to the foundation’s interests, the target audience and beneficiaries, the estimated budget and duration, and plans for evaluating and disseminating its findings. The program officer may then request a formal proposal.

The foundation does not accept electronically submitted proposals. Additional details and deadlines are available on the foundation’s Web site.

Key officials: Ellen S. Alberding, president; Lawrence N. Hansen, vice president; Deborah Gillespie, chief financial officer; Mary O’Connell, communications officer; Peter T. Mich, director, information systems and administration; Chindaly Griffith, grants manager; John T. Anderson, chairman of the Board of Directors.

Program officers: Roseanna Ander, gun violence; Shelley A. Davis, special projects; Lawrence N. Hansen, money and politics; Reginald Jones, culture and education; Peter T. Mich, education; Margaret H. O’Dell and James Seidita, environment; Jennifer L. Phillips and Unmi Song, employment.

WILLIAM PENN FOUNDATION

2 Logan Square, 11th Floor
100 North 18th Street
Philadelphia, Pa. 19103
(215) 988-1830
http://www.wpennfdn.org

Period covered: Year ending December 31, 2001.

Purpose and areas of support: The foundation, initially known as the Phoebe Waterman Foundation, was established in 1945 by Otto Haas, co-founder of the chemical company Rohm and Haas, and his wife, Phoebe. Mr. Haas died in 1960, leaving the majority of his estate to the foundation.

The foundation makes awards primarily to groups located in and serving the metropolitan Philadelphia area, which comprises Bucks, Camden, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, and Philadelphia Counties. Some environmental grants are awarded for efforts outside that six-county region, and community-revitalization grants focus exclusively on selected neighborhoods in Philadelphia and Camden, N.J.

In 2001 the foundation paid out $65,181,777 as follows: children, youths, and families received $28,233,337; environment and communities, $15,861,108; arts and culture, $9,833,760; interdisciplinary, $6,174,827; Fairmount Park 50th anniversary, $4,090,000; and small and matching gifts, $988,745.

Grants in the children, youths, and families program emphasize early-childhood development and education, family support, school readiness and academic success, youth development, and related public policy and engagement. New program objectives developed in 2001 focus on improving the school readiness of young children through high-quality early care and education, reducing youth violence in Philadelphia, and promoting funding equity and accountability in Pennsylvania’s public schools. Awards included $82,500 to the Tenants Action Group, in Philadelphia, for a program to educate families and nonprofit groups about preventing lead poisoning in children.

Environment and communities grants focus on protecting and restoring watersheds and related ecosystems, revitalizing and stabilizing selected neighborhoods, and analyzing regional socioeconomic and other demographics and the resulting policy implications. Grants included $825,000 over three years to the Lancaster Farmland Trust, in Lancaster, Pa., to preserve agricultural land in Lancaster County through the acquisition of easements by the regional land trust.

The foundation’s arts and culture program emphasizes three priority areas: strengthening the role of arts in education, advancing the arts in metropolitan Philadelphia through regional planning, and boosting arts groups’ organizational capacity and long-term financial stability. For example, the Asociación de Musicos Latino Americanos, in Philadelphia, received a $348,661 grant for salaries, allowing the group to focus on fund raising, publicity, and other projects.

Application procedure: Prospective applicants must be tax-exempt as defined by Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and must not be private foundations. Additional information is available at the foundation’s Web site.

Key officials: Kathryn J. Engebretson, president; Louis J. Mayer, vice president, finance and administration; Mark Eyerly, chief of staff; Helen Davis Picher, director, evaluation and research; Jean Hunt, director, children, youths, and families; Olive Mosier, director, arts and culture; Geraldine Wang; director, environment and communities; David W. Haas, chair of the Board of Directors.