January 23, 2003 | Read Time: 2 minutes
To highlight its 25th anniversary, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, in Chicago, last week announced $42-million in grants. The round of grants will push the foundation’s 2003 spending $15-million above its usual annual commitment of $175-million.
Jonathan F. Fanton, president of the MacArthur Foundation, says the grant maker wanted to commemorate its founders and their commitment to the arts, international organizations, and the dissemination of public information, by giving money to 51 groups the foundation has previously supported. The grant recipients had not applied for the money.
While the foundation’s endowment portfolio — valued at $4-billion — has dropped by 13 percent, it hasn’t suffered as much as those of other grant makers during the stock market downturn of the past three years, Mr. Fanton adds, leaving MacArthur in a position to make the additional grants.
MacArthur will make about half of the grants — $21.5-million — to 41 Chicago-area arts and cultural institutions.
The MacArthur Foundation, created by a husband and wife who made their fortune in insurance, is one of the 10 largest private foundations in the country.
“We’ve always been big supporters of our hometown, and in a time when grants to arts groups are going down, we thought it would be a good time to make a strong statement about the value of the arts in the Chicago area,” Mr. Fanton says. He adds that one million more people visit Chicago museums in a given year than attend sporting events there, a sign that the organizations are worthy of foundation support.
The largest single beneficiary of the anniversary grants will be National Public Radio, in Washington, which will receive $14-million over the next 10 years. Most of the money — $10-million — will go to National Public Radio’s operating budget, while $4-million will be added to the network’s endowment, currently valued at about $28-million. The remaining grantees include four international organizations and a handful of groups in Florida.
