Foundation Annual Reports

CALIFORNIA WELLNESS FOUNDATION
6320 Canoga Avenue, Suite 1700
Woodland Hills, Calif. 91367
(818) 593-6600
http://www.tcwf.org

Period covered: Year ending June 30, 1999.

Purpose and areas of support:

The foundation makes grants to improve the health of Californians. It was created in 1992 when Health Net, a health-maintenance organization, converted from non-profit to for-profit status. In 1994, Health Net and QualMed, a publicly traded H.M.O., merged to form Health Systems International. HSI then merged with the Foundation Healthcare Corporation in April 1997, and the resulting company is known as Foundation Health Systems.

The California Wellness Foundation awarded 350 grants totaling more than $45-million in 1998-99, its seventh year of grant making.

The foundation shifted its priorities slightly over the past few years to provide more grants for general operating support. Most of its emphasis, however, remained on specific projects supported within its five major programs: community health, population health improvement, teen-pregnancy prevention, violence prevention, and work and health.

In the community-health program, the foundation awarded grants totaling $10.5-million to 10 organizations to improve and enhance neighborhood-based services such as health-promotion programs, self-help groups, and health education and outreach programs.

Grants in the Population Health Improvement Initiative were awarded to both government and private health-care systems and were often tied to school-based programs or services to populations lacking access to health care. For example, a $60,000 award went to the Sonoma County Indian Health Project, in Santa Rosa, Calif., to provide eye-care services to American Indians.

Grants in the Work and Health Program included $110,000 to the Environmental Defense Center, in Santa Barbara, Calif., to educate farmworkers and health-care providers about the dangers of pesticides used in Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties.

Among the grants awarded in other areas, the Center for the Study of Young People in Groups, in Los Angeles, received $50,000 to establish a statewide, toll-free, “teen-to-teen” hotline designed to reduce pregnancy among teenagers.

The foundation maintains a Special Projects Fund to finance health-oriented programs that fall outside the scope of its five main program areas. Grants from that fund supported projects that included advocacy for low-income populations in health-policy debates. For example, $200,000 went to the Fresno Metropolitan Ministry for a public-information campaign to increase access to health care for poor people in that city.

Application procedure: Potential applicants should call or write the foundation to obtain a copy of its current grant-application guidelines, which are also available on its Web site. The foundation is not accepting letters of intent to apply for grants in its teenage-pregnancy-prevention and violence-prevention programs until June 1, due to increased grant making within those areas.

Key officials: Gary L. Yates, president and chief executive officer; Thomas G. David, executive vice president; Magdalena Beltran-del Olmo, director of communications; Annette Drake, director of administration; Margaret W. Minnich, controller and director of finance; Frank de Jesus Acosta, Ruth Brousseau, Pauline Daniels, Ruth Holton, Frances E. Jemmott, and Gary D. Nelson, senior program officers; Joan C. Hurley, grants administrator; Ezra C. Davidson Jr., chair of the Board of Directors.

HOUSTON ENDOWMENT

600 Travis, Suite 6400
Houston 77002-3007
(713) 238-8100
http://www.houstonendowment.org

Period covered: Year ending December 31, 1998.

Purpose and areas of support:

The foundation was endowed in 1937 by the Houston financier, commercial builder, and former U.S. Secretary of Commerce Jesse H. Jones and his wife, Mary Gibbs Jones. Since its creation, grant making has focused on non-profit organizations and projects that primarily serve metropolitan Houston, though it also aids other communities in Texas. Although a few grants are made to institutions outside Texas, none are made to foreign organizations.

In 1998, the foundation’s Board of Directors approved 463 grants totaling $52.1-million in six program areas: higher education, which received 32 percent; health and human services, 20 percent; arts and culture, 19 percent; medical facilities and research, 12 percent; community enhancement, 11 percent; and primary and secondary education, 6 percent.

The percentage of grants awarded for higher education was commensurate with previous years. Within that category, 43 percent of grants went for buildings and facilities, 22 percent for program development, 21 percent to endow professorships and programs, and 14 percent for scholarships and fellowships.

Allocations included $500,000 to the Galveston College Foundation for a military-style residential program that provides vocational training to high-school dropouts.

The Jesse H. Jones and Mary Gibbs Jones High School Scholarship Program awarded $10,000 each to 208 students from the Houston area for undergraduate tuition at any accredited four-year college or university. Also in 1998, the foundation’s board approved raising the amount of the scholarships to $12,000 each for future recipients.

Grants in the health and human-services category focused on issues that included access to health care, children’s health, disabilities, and substance abuse. Allocations included $20,000 to the Grief Center of Texas, in Houston, to provide therapy for bereaved children and their families.

The largest arts-related grant was a $3,650,000 award to the Houston Symphony Society to reduce the symphony’s debt. The foundation also awarded $3-million toward its $20-million commitment to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, to construct the Audrey Jones Beck Building, which is named after Mr. and Mrs. Jones’s granddaughter and will house her collection of Impressionist and post-Impressionist artworks.

In the medical facilities and research category, 43 percent of grant dollars went to capital needs and 57 percent was awarded for medical research. The endowment gave two grants of $1,500,000 each for research programs at Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.

Grants in the area of community enhancement focused on historic preservation, promoting education and cultural diversity, environmental and wildlife conservation, community development, youth development, parks, and the strengthening of non-profit organizations.

Grants to benefit primary and secondary education included a $15,000 award to the Soul Patrol, in Houston, which uses motivational techniques to urge students to stay in school.

Application procedure: Grants are made only to organizations that are tax-exempt under Sections 501(c)(3) or 170(c) of the Internal Revenue Code. The foundation does not make grants to individuals or loans of any type. Application forms are not required, but requests must be made in writing. Applications should consist of a letter and other supporting documents; specific information on what should be included is available through the foundation’s “Grant-Application Guidelines,” which are posted on its Web site.

Key officials: H. Joe Nelson III, president; David L. Nelson, vice president, corporate secretary, and grant treasurer; Sheryl L. Johns, vice president, treasurer, and chief financial officer; George V. Grainger, Ann T. Hamilton, Anna B. Leal, Michele J. Sabino, Donald P. Sheppard, and Emily Todd, grant officers; E. Jane Floren, Helen Hill, and Carolyn A. Powell, grant managers; Peggy J. Howell, controller; Jack S. Blanton, chairman of the Board of Directors.

SMITH RICHARDSON FOUNDATION

701 Green Valley Road
Suite 300
P.O. Box 29467
Greensboro, N.C. 27429
(336) 379-8600
http://www.srf.org

Period covered: Year ending December 31, 1998.

Purpose and areas of support:

H. Smith Richardson, a North Carolina druggist who sold his company to Procter & Gamble in 1985, and his wife, Grace Jones Richardson, established this foundation in 1935. Its mission is to promote discussion and scholarship on public-policy issues affecting the United States.

The foundation awards grants in two areas. The International Security and Foreign Policy Program supports research on issues central to the interests of the United States in Europe, the former Soviet Union, Asia, and the Middle East; and the Domestic Public Policy Program encompasses the study of American politics, the content of the news and entertainment media, and the law.

In 1998, the international program awarded 97 grants totaling $9.2-million and the domestic program made 63 grants totaling $7.9-million.

Grants allocated in the international category included an award of $115,000 to the University of California at Berkeley for research on how totalitarian regimes in East Asia are using the Internet to control information. The project is expected to culminate in a series of magazine articles, opinion pieces, and a monograph.

Other international grants included $151,726 to the Nixon Center for Peace and Freedom, in Washington, to organize workshops on U.S.-Iranian relations, and $100,000 to the National Institute for Public Policy, in Fairfax, Va., for research on the capabilities and potential legal restrictions on U.S. defense programs in outer space.

In the domestic category, the foundation awarded $500,000 jointly to the American Enterprise Institute and the Brookings Institution, both Washington think tanks, to create a program that will analyze the costs, benefits, and trends surrounding federal regulations of all types.

The foundation also allocated $378,000 to Children’s Hospital, in Denver, to conduct two studies on the effects of prenatal and postnatal home visitation by nurses and paraprofessionals, and $150,000 to the Environmental Resources Trust, in Bend, Ore., for research on programs that use market-based incentives to encourage compliance with environmental standards.

Other domestic grants supported research on the challenges of welfare restructuring, the future of the Social Security system, and the deleterious effects of judicial decrees.

The foundation also made a smaller number of grants for purposes unrelated to public policy. The largest of those awards was $250,000 to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, in Bethesda, Md., for clinical research.

Application procedure: Initial grant inquiries should consist of a brief concept paper or letter of application and should be sent to the foundation’s office for grant proposals at 60 Jesup Road, Westport, Conn. 06880; (203) 222-6222. The inquiry should not exceed five pages and should include the purpose of the proposed project; an explanation of how the project relates to the foundation’s mission; a description of the applicant organization and the credentials of key people involved in the project; an outline of the project’s activities, timetable, and expected outcomes; and a summary budget. If the foundation feels that the inquiry merits further consideration, the applicant will be asked to submit a full proposal.

Key officials: Peter Richardson, president and chairman of the Board of Trustees; Marin Strmecki, vice president and director of programs; Phoebe H. Cottingham, Lyn A. Hogan, and Mark Steinmeyer, senior program officers for domestic public policy; Nadia Schadlow and Allan Song, program officers for international security and foreign policy; Olga Ramous, grants coordinator.