Foundation Annual Reports

ROBERT STERLING CLARK FOUNDATION
135 East 64th Street
New York, N.Y. 10021
(212) 288-8900
http://fdncenter.org/grantmaker/rsclark

Period covered: Year ending October 31, 2001.

Purpose and areas of support: The foundation was created in 1952 by Robert Sterling Clark, an art collector and grandson of Edward Clark, a founder of the Singer Manufacturing Company.

The foundation allocates grants in three main program areas: family planning, which received $2,090,000 in fiscal year 2001; government accountability, $1,530,000; and arts and culture, $1,527,000. Miscellaneous and discretionary grants totaled $152,144.

Family-planning grants support national and regional projects that ensure access to family-planning services and help protect reproductive rights.

Focus areas for the family-planning grants include advocacy and litigation; education on sexuality, contraception, and abortion; policy analysis; research; monitoring the activities of extremist anti-abortion groups; and campaigns related to legislation that affects reproductive rights. For example, the Emergency Campaign for Choice, a collaboration of nine reproductive-rights organizations, received $250,000 for its work, which includes collaborative planning, public-opinion research, and the development of a system through which reproductive-rights advocates can respond rapidly to pertinent legislative issues.

The program on government accountability promotes the improved performance and accountability of New York State agencies responsible for economic development, education, environmental protection, housing, and human services. Specifically, the foundation supports public education about government actions; research to determine agencies’ efficacy; citizen organizing intended to pressure agencies to improve their performance; and litigation on behalf of underserved people. Within that framework, the program focuses primarily on the well-being of those most dependent on government programs and policies, including children in foster care; victims of child abuse, neglect, and domestic violence; homeless and mentally ill people; and nursing-home residents. For example, the Hunger Action Network of New York State, in New York, received $50,000 for its programs that monitor county-level welfare and welfare-to-work programs.

Arts and cultural grants seek to strengthen the management of cultural institutions in New York City, to help them reduce operating costs, to increase their income, and to protect artistic freedom and increase public support for the arts nationally. For example, the Children’s Museum of Manhattan received $50,000 to increase earned income through traveling exhibitions.

In the wake of the September 11 attacks, the foundation awarded $250,000 to the New York Foundation for the Arts for the creation of the New York Arts Recovery Fund, designed to assist artists and small arts groups affected by the attacks. More than $5-million was raised for the fund from various sources, and all the money was distributed in 2001 to more than 160 individuals and 110 groups that had suffered financial losses.

Application procedure: Proposals should be addressed to Margaret C. Ayers and should include a description of the planned project, a budget, expected outcomes, plans for evaluation, the background of project participants, and a statement of plans for future support. Applicants should also provide information on the organization’s past, current, and projected budgets; audited financial statements; tax-exempt status; board members; and past accomplishments. The main body of the application should not exceed 15 pages; a one-page summary is also required. The Board of Directors meets in January, April, July, and October, and proposals are reviewed year-round.

Key officials: Margaret C. Ayers, executive director; Darcy Hector and Laura Wolff, program officers; Winthrop R. Munyan, president of the Board of Directors.

DANIELS FUND
55 Madison Street, Suite 255
Denver, Colo. 80206
(303) 393-7220 or (877) 791-4726
http://www.danielsfund.org

Period covered: Year ending December 31, 2001.

Purpose and areas of support: The fund was established in 1998 by Bill Daniels, a businessman with ties to the Rocky Mountain states who was active in the sports and cable-television industries. Mr. Daniels died in 2000 and, according to stipulations in his will, the bulk of his estate was transferred to the fund.

In addition to its headquarters in Colorado, the fund operates offices in New Mexico and Wyoming, and will open an office in Utah in 2003.

Within the next three years, the fund plans to award grants in the following manner, according to guidelines established by Mr. Daniels: Fifty percent of all grant dollars will go to organizations and individuals in metropolitan Denver, 15 percent elsewhere in Colorado, 10 percent each in New Mexico and Wyoming, 10 percent for solicited national grants, and 5 percent in Utah.

Thirty percent of grant dollars in fiscal year 2001 were allocated through the Daniels College Prep and Scholarship Programs, which assist students who attend or have graduated from selected high schools in Colorado, New Mexico, and Wyoming.

The Daniels College Prep Program provides underprivileged high-school juniors and seniors with up to 18 months of college-preparation training and support, including guidance in choosing and applying to colleges. This program, which will include students from Utah in 2003, supported 450 students in fiscal year 2001.

Students who have completed the college-preparatory program and intend to earn a four-year college degree are eligible to apply for the Daniels Scholarship Program. Approximately one-third of the students who complete the college-preparatory program go on to receive college scholarships from the fund. In 2001, a total of 272 Daniels Scholars attended 45 colleges and universities nationwide.

Direct grants were awarded in 2001 in the following program areas: amateur athletics; child care and early education; education; homelessness and self-sufficiency; mental health, alcoholism, and substance abuse; physical disabilities; and senior citizens.

In Colorado and New Mexico, grant making focused on education and on child care and early-childhood education. For example, the Day and Zimmerman Group, in Espanola, N.M., received $35,000 for a collaboration with San Juan College, in Farmington, N.M., designed to encourage high-school students to finish their secondary education and attend college. Other grants included $25,000 for operating support to the Children’s Outreach Project, in Denver.

Grant making in Wyoming emphasized primarily programs for elderly people, at-risk youths, and young children. For example, the Wyoming Association of Elementary School Principals, in Sheridan, received $5,732 for resource materials on early-childhood education.

Another grant recipient, the Wyoming Children’s Access Network, in Sheridan, received $10,000 for general operating support.

The founding president and chief executive officer, Phillip J. Hogue, retired this year. He was succeeded by Hank Brown, a former U.S. Senator from Colorado and former chief executive officer of the fund. Bill Daniels’s surviving brother, Jack, has served as chairman of the Board of Directors since 2000.

Application procedure: Potential applicants should visit the fund’s Web site to learn about geographic and other restrictions for various programs, and about program-specific application guidelines. Applicant organizations must be tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.

Key officials: Hank Brown, president and chief executive officer; Jesse King, vice president and chief operating officer; Carrie Besnette, vice president and scholarships program director; Jeb Dickey, senior vice president and chief financial officer; Barclay Jones, vice president and director, Colorado grants; Perry Mathews, director, Daniels Fund Utah; Stephen Patrick, vice president and director, New Mexico Daniels Fund; Michelle Sullivan, vice president and director, Wyoming Daniels Fund; Gina Bovee, director, communications; Jack Daniels, chairman of the Board of Directors.

JESSIE SMITH NOYES FOUNDATION

6 East 39th Street, 12th Floor
New York, N.Y. 10016-0112
(212) 684-6577
http://www.noyes.org

Period covered: Year ending December 31, 2001.

Purpose and areas of support: The foundation was established in 1947 by Charles F. Noyes, a real-estate developer in New York, as a memorial to his wife.

In 2001 the foundation awarded grants totaling $3,791,250 to 150 organizations working in the following program areas: toxics, which received $1,234,620, or 33 percent of grant dollars; reproductive rights, $859,000, or 23 percent; sustainable agriculture, $738,980, or 20 percent; metropolitan New York environment, $358,150, or 9 percent; sustainable communities, $279,500, or 7 percent; and related interests, $321,000, or 8 percent. Grant making is limited to the United States.

The toxics program seeks to reduce threats posed by toxics to the environment and human health, particularly across the South and in the Western and Rocky Mountain states. Grants support advocacy, environmental groups, and leadership and participation in environmental advocacy by low-income people and members of minority groups. For example, the Military Toxics Project, in Lewiston, Me., received $25,000 for its efforts to document environmental, economic, and public-health consequences of defense-related spending and activities, and to exert pressure on the U.S. Department of Defense to be accountable for those consequences.

Sustainable-agriculture grants promote environmentally sound and equitable practices, with particular focus on the Northeast, the South, the West, and Rocky Mountain states. Grants included $28,000 to Red Tomato, in Canton, Mass., for efforts to create markets for farmers in the Northeast who grow organic products or use few chemicals.

Reproductive-rights grants seek to involve new constituencies in reproductive-health issues, to support legal and policy efforts at the state and national levels, and to ensure that reproductive health is included in health-care policies and in restructuring of the health-care system. For example, the Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights, in Denver, received $20,000 for its efforts to protect the reproductive rights of Latinas.

Sustainable-communities grants included $25,000 to Sustainable Northwest, in Portland, Ore., to work with residents of two counties in Oregon and one in Washington State to create environmentally sound business opportunities.

The program on the metropolitan New York environment seeks to strengthen environmental groups, particularly those that are community-based; to improve public policies and the responsiveness of government agencies charged with protecting the area’s environment; and to develop effective coalitions and networks. For example, the Lower East Side Ecology Center, in New York, received $20,000 for its work to promote environmentally sound management of the city’s solid waste.

In 2001 the foundation created a new opportunity fund, through which it annually awards grants totaling $100,000 for a particular issue or campaign. This year, funds are being used to involve community-based and environmental groups in planning the redevelopment of the World Trade Center site.

Application procedure: Applicants should send a letter of inquiry of no more than three pages that includes a brief description of issues to be dealt with in the project; the history and goals of the applicant organization and the group’s involvement with those issues; a short summary of the proposed project, including an outline of objectives and anticipated outcomes; the starting date and duration of the project; the total amount of money needed; the amount requested from the fund; and information about other sources of support, both assured and requested. Full proposals should be submitted only upon request.

Key officials: Victor De Luca, president; Millie Buchanan, Wilma Montañez, and Kolu Zigbi, program officers; Margaret T. Segall, director of administration; Linda Singer, chair of the Board of Directors.