Foundation Annual Reports

THE DANA FOUNDATION

745 Fifth Avenue, Suite 900
New York, N.Y. 10151
(212) 223-4040
http://www.dana.org

Period covered: Year ending December 31, 2002.

Purpose and areas of support: The foundation was established in 1950 by Charles A. Dana, a New York State legislator and industrialist who founded the Dana Corporation, in Kalamazoo, Mich., a supplier of components and systems to vehicle manufacturers. Mr. Dana died in 1975.

The foundation’s grant making focuses on science, health, and education. Grants for science and health, which are awarded primarily through a competitive “request for proposals” process, support research in immunology and neuroscience that has the potential to improve human health. The program focuses on brain and immuno-imaging, human immunology, neuroimmunology, clinical neuroscience research, and other related topics.

In 2002, the foundation awarded its first nine grants in human immunology. Other awards included $300,000 to the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, in New York, for research on neuroimmunology.

The Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives marked its 10th anniversary. The alliance, which comprises more than 200 members, encourages scientists to inform the general public about the findings of their brain research.

The Dana Press publishes general-interest periodicals and books in the foundation’s fields of interest. Publications in 2002 included The Dana Guide to Brain Health, a 768-page medical reference intended for home use.

Education grants support primarily professional-development programs that foster improved teaching of the performing arts in public schools. This program is currently limited to projects that are located in or benefit residents of metropolitan Los Angeles, New York, or Washington.

One grantee under the education program, the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at the University of Maryland at College Park, received $25,500 for a training program for arts specialists who teach in public schools.

Throughout its history, the foundation has supported advances in kindergarten-through-12th-grade education. It currently maintains this interest through support of the Dana Center for Educational Innovation at the University of Texas at Austin, which received $350,000 in 2002.

Application procedure: For most health and science grants, requests for proposals are sent twice yearly to the deans of all schools of medicine and selected biomedical-research institutions in the United States. All other science and health grants are made solely by invitation. Letters of inquiry for the education program are accepted throughout the year. Grants are ordinarily not made directly to individual schools.

Key officials: Edward F. Rover, president; Barbara E. Gill, vice president for public affairs and executive director, Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives; Burton M. Mirsky, vice president for finance; Jane Nevins, vice president and editor in chief, the Dana Press; Barbara Rich, vice president and director, news and Internet office; William Safire, chairman of the Board of Directors.

JOYCE FOUNDATION

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

Period covered: Year ending December 31, 2002.

Purpose and areas of support: Beatrice Joyce Kean, a Chicago resident whose family wealth was based on lumber and sawmill interests, established the foundation in 1948. Upon her death in 1972, Ms. Kean bequeathed 90 percent of her estate — or more than $100-million — to the foundation.

The foundation’s geographic focus is on projects that benefit residents of the Great Lakes region, including Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin. A small number of environment-related grants are made to groups in Canada.

In 2002, the foundation approved 178 grants totaling $26,-459,583 in the following program areas: the environment, which received $7,988,199; education, $7,-690,393; employment, $3,320,000; gun violence, $3,216,967; money and politics, $1,635,909; culture, $922,500; and discretionary and special-opportunities grants, $1,-685,615.

Environmental grants seek to protect the Great Lakes ecosystem by supporting the development, testing, and adoption of policy-based solutions to environmental problems, especially those related to the protection and management of local water resources.

Other areas of emphasis include efforts to create transportation alternatives to automobiles; to promote energy conservation and the use of renewable, nonpolluting energy sources; to ensure that decision makers in government, particularly at the state level, take environmental considerations — including climate change — into account; and to educate the public about environmental issues. For example, the Izaak Walton League of America, in Gaithersburg, Md., received $480,000 to educate Midwestern policy makers and others in that region and Ontario about air pollution from the region’s old coal-fired electric-power plants.

Education grants support projects designed to restructure and improve public schools in Chicago, Cleveland, and Milwaukee. Special emphasis is placed on the recruitment and training of teachers; public participation in decision making about educational issues; technology that enhances teaching and learning; and efforts to encourage minority students to succeed in schools.

Grants included $75,000 to Leadership for Quality Education, in Chicago, to continue its technical assistance to charter schools in the city.

The employment program emphasizes policies that provide welfare recipients and other disadvantaged people with education and skills training so that they can land and maintain jobs and pursue successful careers. For example, the Center for Labor and Community Research, in Chicago, received $225,000 to support the Food Chicago Project, which works with food-processing manufacturers to provide low-wage workers with the skills needed to advance to higher-paying jobs.

The program on gun violence seeks to reduce deaths and injuries resulting from firearms, especially handguns. Grants promote consumer oversight of the firearms industry — particularly health and safety regulations as well as research on fatalities stemming from gun violence.

Awards included $150,000 to Physicians for Social Responsibility, in Washington, to encourage medical and public-health professionals to warn their patients about the dangers of keeping firearms in the home and about practices that can reduce gun-related fatalities or injuries.

The program on money and politics aims to restructure systems for financing both state and federal election campaigns. Grants promote campaign-finance reform at the federal level and in Midwestern states, fair and adequate coverage of elections by the news media; and independent and impartial judiciary systems. The program supports communication activities, data collection and analysis, litigation, policy development and advocacy, public education on campaign-finance reform, and related research.

Culture grants focus exclusively on metropolitan Chicago. In 2002, they included $35,000 to Young Audiences to develop an Internet-based resource that uses the arts to improve teaching practices.

Discretionary and special-opportunities grants included $16,200 to the Ceasefire Pennsylvania Education Fund, in Philadelphia, for a conference to plan a national public-education project focusing on the dangers of assault weapons.

Application procedure: Before submitting a formal proposal to the foundation, prospective applicants should send a two- or three-page letter of inquiry outlining the proposed project to the appropriate program officer, who may then request a formal proposal. Additional information, including grant-proposal guidelines for specific programs, is available on the foundation’s Web site.

Key officials: Ellen B. 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 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 Phillips and Unmi Song, employment.

CHARLES STEWART MOTT FOUNDATION

503 South Saginaw Street,
Suite 1200
Flint, Mich. 48502-1851
(810) 238-5651
http://www.mott.org

Period covered: Year ending December 31, 2002.

Purpose and areas of support: Charles Stewart Mott (1875-1973), an industrialist affiliated with General Motors and a three-term mayor of Flint, Mich., established the foundation in 1926.

Over time, its grant making has expanded from an initial focus on Flint and the rest of the United States to include international projects, primarily in Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, and South Africa. In addition to its headquarters in Flint, the foundation also maintains offices in Prague and Johannesburg. Approximately 25 percent of the foundation’s grants have an international purpose, although many of the grant recipients are located in the United States.

In 2002 the foundation allocated grants totaling $109,838,445 in five program areas: “pathways out of poverty,” which received $45,-379,157; civil society, $31,255,509; the environment, $17,484,061; the Flint area, $10,978,273; and exploratory and special projects, $3,232,692.

The “pathways out of poverty” program seeks to identify, test, and support projects that rejuvenate impoverished neighborhoods and help poor people become self-sufficient. Grants support building renovation and economic development, extracurricular programs for children, grass-roots organizing, and primary education. Awards included $300,000 over 38 months to Asian Immigrant Women Advocates, in Oakland, Calif., to provide leadership training to low-income Asian immigrant women.

Civil-society grants promote citizens’ rights and responsibilities, the development of nonprofit groups, and improved race and ethnic relations.

The program’s primary geographic focus is on Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, South Africa, and the United States. For example, the Center for Peace Studies, in Zagreb, Croatia, received $80,000 over two years to promote peace, nonviolence, and positive social change in the country.

Grants for the environment support the conservation of freshwater ecosystems in North America, the reform of international finance and trade practices, and greater public participation in related decision-making processes. For example, $150,000 over two years went to the Center of Concern, in Washington, to analyze the effects of international trade and finance on women and the environment.

Flint-area grants included $90,-100 to the Ennis Center for Children, in Detroit, for programs that provide at-risk youths with alternatives to residential treatment.

Grants for exploratory and special projects included $180,000 over three years to the University of North Carolina at Greensboro for a project to collect and publish legislative and county-court petitions from throughout the South related to race and slavery.

Application procedure: The foundation does not have an official application form. Letters of inquiry, with a brief description of the project and the range of financial support needed, are acceptable for initial contact. Additional information, including specific guidelines on writing letters of inquiry, is available on the foundation’s Web site.

Key officials: William S. White, president, chief executive officer, and chairman of the Board of Trustees; Phillip H. Peters, vice president for the administrative group, secretary, and treasurer; Jimmy L. Krause, director, grants administration and assistant treasurer; Marilyn Stein LeFeber, vice president for communications; Robert E. Swaney Jr., vice president, investments and chief investment officer; Maureen H. Smyth, vice president for programs.

Program directors: Raymond P. Murphy, civil society; Lois R. DeBacker, environment; Kevin F. Walker, pathways out of poverty.