Foundation Annual Reports

BURROUGHS WELLCOME FUND

P.O. Box 13901
Research Triangle Park, N.C. 27709-3901
(919) 991-5100
http://www.bwfund.org Period covered: Year ending August 31, 2002.

Purpose and areas of support: The fund was established in 1955 as the corporate foundation of the Burroughs Wellcome Company, the U.S. branch of the England-based Wellcome pharmaceutical enterprise. That business was started by two American pharmacists, Silas Burroughs and Henry Wellcome, who had moved to London in the 1880s to sell “compressed medicines,” pills that could be mass-produced and distributed widely.

In 1993, the fund received a $400-million gift from the Wellcome Trust, which had been founded in 1936 according to the will of Henry Wellcome. At that point the fund became independent, and is not affiliated with GlaxoSmithKline, the pharmaceutical giant created in 2000 through the merger of Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham, or with any other corporation.

The fund supports medical research and other scientific and educational projects, and especially young scientists and investigators entering and working in areas of medical science that are “undervalued or underfunded.” It makes approximately 90 percent of its grants through competitive awards programs.

In fiscal year 2002, the fund approved grants totaling $29,272,066 in the following programs: basic biomedical sciences, which received $12,810,998; translational research, $5,938,600; infectious diseases, $5,707,469; “interfaces in science,” $4,451,649; science and philanthropy, $184,700; and science education, $178,650.

Through its basic biomedical sciences program, the fund primarily makes “career awards,” each of which provides $500,000 over five years to a professional in the biomedical sciences during his or her advanced postdoctoral training and initial period as a faculty member. In fiscal year 2002, the fund made 17 such awards. Other biomedical-sciences grants included $240,000 to the University of California at San Francisco’s School of Medicine, to study the mechanism involved in vascular mimicry of ovarian cancer.

Grants for translational research aim to foster the development and productivity of established, independent physician-scientists who can help strengthen the two-way exchange between laboratory work and clinical medicine. Under this program, the fund makes clinical-scientist awards that provide professors at the late-assistant or early-associate levels with support for research and for “mentoring the next generation of physician-scientists.” In fiscal year 2002, the fund approved clinical-scientist awards totaling $5,850,000.

Infectious-disease grants support investigators studying the pathogenesis of infectious diseases and, to a lesser extent, new avenues in malaria research and other programs. For example, the fund awarded $20,000 to the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, in Northbrook, Ill., for its annual meeting.

Grants for “interfaces in science” support training programs that provide a bridge among scientific disciplines. They include both institutional awards and support for young investigators with backgrounds in the chemical, computational, or physical sciences who are pursuing biologically relevant research.

Science-education grants focus primarily on programs that improve science and mathematics education for primary and secondary students in North Carolina. For example, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s School of Medicine received $59,910 to provide science-enrichment programs to high-school students.

In June 2002, the fund provided $250,000 to help establish the North Carolina Science, Mathematics, and Technology Education Center, in Research Triangle Park, which is designed to help North Carolina students in kindergarten through the 12th grade improve their performance in those subjects. The center works with government, businesses, educators, and parents to help schools receive the resources and training needed to revise their curriculums.

Science and philanthropy grants are made on an ad hoc basis for projects that are outside of the fund’s competitive award programs but are closely related to its areas of interest, such as the career development of scientists or philanthropic activities. For example, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, in Washington, received $12,000 for its Mass Media Science and Engineering Fellows Program.

Application procedure: Most of the fund’s award programs are open only to citizens or permanent residents of the United States or Canada.

Most grants are made to degree-granting institutions on behalf of individual researchers, who must be nominated by their institution. Government agencies are generally not eligible.

The fund does not support activities that are primarily clinical in nature — such as disease diagnosis or treatment — or primarily related to health care and health-care policy.

Institutional awards in scientific interface and awards for investigators in infectious disease and translational research will not be made in 2003-4, but are slated to be offered again in 2004-5. Additional information, including the deadlines for the fund’s individual award programs, is available at the fund’s Web site.

Key officials: Enriqueta C. Bond, president; Scott Schoedler, vice president, finance; Martin Ionescu-Pioggia, senior program officer; D. Carr Thompson, senior program and communications officer; Victoria P. McGovern and Nancy S. Sung, program officers; Mirinda J. Kossoff, communications officer; Gail H. Cassell, chairman of the Board of Directors.

THE MINNEAPOLIS FOUNDATION

800 IDS Center
80 South Eighth Street
Minneapolis, Minn. 55402
(612) 672-3878
http://www.minneapolisfoundation.org

Period covered: Year ending March 31, 2002.

Purpose and areas of support: This community foundation was established in 1915. It manages more than 700 charitable funds, and makes unrestricted, donor-advised, and other grants primarily to programs that serve residents of the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. It also makes some grants elsewhere in Minnesota and to national organizations.

In fiscal year 2002, the foundation awarded noncompetitive, restricted grants totaling $29,088,612 in the following program areas: education, which received $10,869,317; human services and public affairs, $10,225,177; arts, culture, and humanities, $2,863,370; religion, $2,162,049; health, $1,360,492; environment and animals, $1,231,498; and international and foreign affairs, $376,709.

Competitive, or unrestricted, grants totaled $8,448,197 and were awarded in the following programs: children, youths, and families, which received $3,384,357; educational achievement, $2,466,840; affordable housing, $1,322,000; and economic opportunities, $1,275,000.

Grants to benefit children, youths, and families included $150,000 to Reuben Lindh Family Services, in Minneapolis, to improve services to local American Indian and Asian children and families, and $10,000 to the Development Corporation for Children, also in Minneapolis, for programs to make high-quality child care more economically viable.

Education-related grants included $40,000 to Kulture Klub, in Minneapolis, for programs that provide arts instruction to homeless teenagers, and $25,000 to the Minnesota Transitions Charter School, in Minneapolis, for computer- and technology-based educational projects in the virtual-high-school program.

Affordable-housing grants included $45,000 to Minneapolis Community Land Trusts Project to design and implement a community land trust for low-cost housing in the city. Also, the Minnesota Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, in St. Paul, received $25,000 for programs to protect consumers from the abuses of predatory lenders.

Economic-opportunities grants included $100,000 to the Jobs Now Coalition, in St. Paul, to educate employers, low-income workers, and service providers about the need for jobs that pay a living wage.

In April 2001, the foundation started a program called Destination 2010, a student-achievement and scholarship program for selected at-risk students attending one of seven Minneapolis or St. Paul public elementary schools. Through this program, upon high-school graduation, participating students will receive $5,000 to attend a technical school or $10,000 to attend college. The foundation raised nearly $3-million for this program during fiscal year 2002.

Application procedure: Proposals for competitive grants are accepted year-round. Letters of inquiry asking the foundation to match an applicant with a donor for a noncompetitive grant are also accepted year-round; one letter per applicant per year is recommended. The foundation issued new “Broader Reach” grant guidelines in November 2002; these are available at the foundation’s Web site.

Key officials: Emmett D. Carson, president and chief executive officer; Stuart Appelbaum, vice president, development; Desiree Heller, vice president, philanthropic consulting services; Bruce Hutchins, vice president, finance and administration; Karen Kelley-Ariwoola, vice president, community philanthropy; Christelle Langer, vice president, marketing and communications; Marigrace Deters, associate vice president, community philanthropy; Patti Marsh Cagle, grants administrator; William J. Brody, chairman of the Board of Trustees.

WINTHROP ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION

308 East Eighth Street
Little Rock, Ark. 72202
(501) 376-6854
http://www.wrfoundation.org

Period covered: Year ending December 31, 2001.

Purpose and areas of support: The foundation was established in 1974 to continue the work of the Rockwin Fund, created in 1954 by Winthrop Rockefeller, grandson of John D. Rockefeller, founder of Standard Oil. Winthrop Rockefeller owned Winrock Farms and served two terms as governor of Arkansas during the late 1960s; he died in 1973.

The foundation makes grants for projects that benefit residents of Arkansas — especially those in rural areas — and focuses on three program areas: economic development; economic, racial, and social justice; and education.

Economic-development grants seek to help improve the standard of living and economic viability of low-income Arkansas communities. For example, the National Economic Development and Law Center, in Oakland, Calif., received $25,000 to conduct a survey of Arkansas vocational, technical, and two-year institutions in order to assess their involvement with local industries in developing work-force training courses.

Grants for economic, racial, and social justice are designed to engage both institutions and individuals in promoting “pervasive justice” for all Arkansas residents. For example, Historic Arkansas Museum Foundation, in Little Rock, received $1,874 to provide supplemental classroom materials to students who visited the exhibit “A Slave Ship Speaks: The Wreck of the Henrietta Marie.”

Education grants are made for projects that help children and adults better their lives and contribute to civic, cultural, economic, educational, and social progress. For example, the Arkansas Adult Learning Resource Center, in Little Rock, received a $332,430, multiyear grant to implement a redesigned mathematics curriculum for Arkansas adult-education programs.

Also under the education program, the foundation allocated a $3,279,121, multiple-year grant to Yale University’s Bush Center in Child Development and Social Policy to strengthen and expand the Schools of the 21st Century model to Arkansas schools.

Application procedure: Applicants should first submit a concept paper, no more than three pages in length, describing the project and how it fits the foundation’s priorities. Concept papers are accepted throughout the year and take two to five weeks for initial review. A foundation staff member may then request additional information and a full proposal. Electronic copies of concept papers may be submitted to programstaff@wrfoundation.org; hard copies of all documents must follow via regular mail. Additional guidelines for developing a concept paper are available at the foundation’s Web site.

Key officials: Sybil Jordan Hampton, president; Andrea M. Dobson, chief financial and operations officer; Mary Kaye McKinney and Bill Rahn, program managers; Bob J. Nash, chairman of the Board of Directors.