Foundation Annual Reports

ANDREW W. MELLON FOUNDATION
140 East 62nd Street
New York, N.Y. 10021
(212) 838-8400
http://www.mellon.org

Period covered: Year ending December 31, 2006.

Purpose and areas of support: The foundation was formed in 1969 through the merger of two others: the Avalon Foundation, established in 1940 by Ailsa Mellon Bruce, and the Old Dominion Foundation, established in 1941 by her brother, Paul Mellon. The siblings renamed the foundation for their father, Andrew W. Mellon, the financial titan and art collector who endowed the National Gallery of Art, in Washington.

In 2006, the foundation made new grants totaling $213,878,603 in these program areas: higher education and scholarship, which received $118,357,675; libraries and scholarly communication, $37,102,600; the performing arts, $25,498,100; museums and art conservation, $20,311,100; conservation and the environment, $11,291,400; and miscellaneous, $1,317,728. All figures were commensurate with the previous year’s grant making, with the exception of the money for performing arts, which was up from $16,789,000 in 2005.

The program in higher education and scholarship reconfigured two major areas: first, by changing how it provides financial assistance to graduate students, and second, by electing to make large grants to selected research universities that are striving to make fundamental improvement in the humanities.

For example, the foundation discontinued its Mellon Fellowships in Humanistic Studies, which had supported first-year graduate students. In lieu of this, the foundation instituted a program in tandem with the American Council of Learned Societies that supports students writing their dissertations as well as recent Ph.D. recipients. It also worked with the Social Science Research Council on a new initiative that will provide summer fellowships for preliminary research or specialized training to students at earlier stages of their graduate studies.

The foundation made three grants of $2.5-million each to three research institutions: Duke University, in Durham, N.C., for research and teaching in “visual studies”; the University of California at Los Angeles, for efforts to renew its comparative-literature, English, and history departments; and the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, for a program on democracy, citizenship, and the Constitution.

Mellon continued to make grants that are intended to strengthen historically black colleges and universities, liberal-arts colleges in Appalachia and elsewhere in the country, and higher-education institutions in South Africa.

The foundation also renewed its support for the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program, which seeks to expand the pool of underrepresented minorities who go on to pursue doctoral degrees at more than 70 institutions, and a collaborative program with the American Indian College Fund to increase the number of faculty members with Ph.D.’s who teach at tribal colleges.

The largest grant made through the libraries and scholarly communication program was a $8,550,000 award to ARTstor, in New York, to add nearly 370,000 images to its database and help it raise funds from other sources.

In the performing-arts realm, the foundation joined with the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation to support outstanding ensemble theaters; recipients included Theatre de la Jeune Lune, in Minneapolis, and the Wooster Group, in New York. Other grants included $200,000 to the Santa Fe Opera, in New Mexico, for a new project to commission operas by emerging U.S. composers.

Application procedure: The foundation rarely supports projects introduced through unsolicited proposals. Prospective applicants are instead encouraged to submit a letter of inquiry of one page or less that describes the need, nature, and amount of the request. The foundation does not make grants to individuals or to primarily local organizations. Detailed information is available on the foundation’s Web site.

Key officials: Don M. Randel, president; Harriet Zuckerman, senior vice president; Ira H. Fuchs, vice president for research in information technology; John E. Hull, financial vice president and chief investment officer; Philip E. Lewis, vice president; Michele S. Warman, general counsel and secretary; William G. Bowen, senior research associate and president emeritus; Anne M. Tatlock, chairman of the Board of Trustees.

GORDON AND BETTY MOORE FOUNDATION
Presidio of San Francisco
P.O. Box 29910
San Francisco, Calif. 94129
(415) 561-7700
http://www.moore.org

Period covered: Year ending December 31, 2006.

Purpose and areas of support: The foundation was established in September 2000 by Gordon E. Moore, co-founder of the Intel Corporation, and his wife, Betty.

The fund works to advance environmental conservation and cutting-edge scientific research around the world and to benefit people who live in the San Francisco Bay Area, where the Moores have resided for more than 70 years.

Within those three overarching areas, the foundation has identified five initiatives, which it terms “major grant-making efforts” to “effect large-scale, long-term change.”

The environmental program seeks to preserve critical land and coastal marine ecosystems, while allowing for their sustainable use.

The program received nearly half of all grant dollars paid in 2006: $116,817,000, or 49 percent. It encompasses the Andes-Amazon Initiative, which received $28,624,000; the Wild Salmon Ecosystems Initiative, $17,067,000; and the Marine Conservation Initiative, $11,849,000.

The program also manages a major commitment made by the foundation to Conservation International, in Arlington, Va., which received $52,018,000, and it oversaw special grants totaling $7,259,000.

Awards included $7,681,000 to the Wildlife Conservation Society, in New York, to safeguard biologically diverse lands and establish protected areas in Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela, and $1,592,777 to Ecotrust, in Portland, Ore., to work with various partners on an integrated approach to managing the Copper River watershed in Alaska and its valuable salmon stock.

In 2006 the science program received $73,258,000, or 30 percent of grants paid. It currently operates the Marine Microbiology Initiative, which received $14,558,000, and also made grants totaling $20,202,000 for special projects.

In addition, the California Institute of Technology, in Pasadena, received grants totaling $38,498,000 for various efforts, including creating the Center for Sustainable Energy Research and establishing the Center for Integrative Study of Cell Regulation.

Grants in the San Francisco Bay Area emphasize preserving “unique and irreplaceable lands,” strengthening science and technology museums, and improving nursing as it affects patient outcomes at adult acute-care hospitals in Alameda, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Clara Counties. The program received $37,691,000, or 16 percent of grants paid, with $21,314,000 of that going to the Moore Nursing Initiative.

The remaining 5 percent — nearly $13-million — went to “special opportunities” identified by the foundation that complement its three program areas.

Application procedure: The foundation does not accept unsolicited proposals. Foundation staff members investigate organizations as “potential contributors” within the foundation’s program areas. Once potential projects and grantees have been identified, the foundation may request a formal proposal.

Key officials: Edward E. Penhoet, president; William G. Green, general counsel and chief program officer, environmental conservation; Barry D. Gold, Marine Conservation Initiative lead; Helen S. Kim, chief program officer, San Francisco Bay Area and the Moore Nursing Initiative; David T. Kingsbury, chief program officer, science; Kenneth G. Moore, director of evaluation and technology; Christine M. Pallatto, director of human resources; Deborah Tellier, associate general counsel and chief compliance officer; Gordon E. Moore, chairman of the Board of Trustees.

PUBLIC WELFARE FOUNDATION 1200 U Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20009 (202) 965-1800 http://www.publicwelfare.org

Period covered: Year ending October 31, 2006.

Purpose and areas of support: The foundation was established in 1947 by Charles Edward Marsh, a newspaper publisher who landed his first job as a rookie reporter in 1909, and his wife, Claudia. According to the foundation, Mr. Marsh believed in a flexible approach to meeting social needs, and deliberately chose a vague name to allow the foundation to evolve over time.

Mr. Marsh endowed the foundation by donating three daily Southern newspapers that were later sold to the New York Times Company. The fund made its first grant in 1948, providing 28 sewing machines to an organization of women in Jamaica so that poor children on the island could be clothed and sent to school.

During its 2006 fiscal year, the foundation awarded 381 grants totaling $18,763,000 in the following program areas: health, which received $3,162,500; community development, $2,837,500; human rights and global security, $2,660,000; reproductive and sexual health, $2,555,000; the environment, $2,255,000; criminal justice, $1,613,000; children and youths, $1,450,000; civic participation, $1,025,000; and special opportunities, $985,000. The foundation also made trustee-initiated grants that totaled $220,000.

The foundation has cut its programs to aid poor elderly people and to spur welfare reform. In addition, the foundation surveyed grantees, policy makers, grass-roots activists, and others about the effectiveness of its work. The foundation expects to release new program guidelines this fall that reflect a more streamlined approach.

The foundation’s annual report focuses on its work on health-care reform and advocacy, and emphasizes promising efforts to restructure access to health care that are taking place at the state level.

For example, the New Jersey Citizen Action Education Fund, in Hackensack, received $60,000 over two years to analyze the effects of state heath-care proposals on low-income families, to develop programs that expand health benefits for uninsured and poor consumers, and to help protect the rights of patients.

The foundation also initiated a two-year, $1-million program to advance efforts nationwide to secure paid sick days as a minimum workplace standard.

Grants in other program areas included $50,000 to Community Legal Services, in Philadelphia, to help deal with problems caused by inaccurate criminal records that are readily available online, and $75,000 to the Brennan Center for Justice, in New York, to assist local organizing campaigns that promote socially responsible practices for large-scale retailers along with a raise in the minimum wage.

In October 2006, Deborah Leff succeeded Larry Kressley as president. Ms. Leff had been director of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, in Boston, and is a former president of the Joyce Foundation, in Chicago. Mr. Kressley stepped down after leading the foundation for 15 years.

Application procedure: Initial requests for first-time support and for projects that have not received support from the foundation in the past three years should come in the form of a letter of inquiry. If the foundation determines that a proposed project fits its grant-making priorities, and if resources are available, it will then request a full proposal. Letters of inquiry should be submitted online via the foundation’s Web site.

Key officials: Deborah Leff, president; John B. Williams, vice president for programs; Phillipa Taylor, chief financial and administrative officer; Yvette W. Buck, director of administration; Kimberly J. Villa, manager of investments; Adisa Douglas, senior program officer for reproductive and sexual health; Teresa Langston, senior program officer for health; Ericka Taylor, program officer for community development; Midge Taylor, program officer for environment; Elaine Shannon, communications officer; Nicole Howe Buggs, grants manager; Juliet Villarreal Garcia, chair of the Board of Directors.