Foundation Annual Reports

FORD FOUNDATION
320 East 43rd Street
New York, N.Y. 10017
(212) 573-5000
http://www.fordfound.org

Period covered: Year ending September 30, 2004.

Purpose and areas of support: Henry Ford created the foundation in 1936 with an initial gift of $25,000. During its early years, the foundation operated exclusively in Michigan under the direction of the Ford family. Its assets grew substantially following gifts of Ford Motor Company stock received upon the deaths of Edsel and Henry Ford in 1943 and 1947, respectively. In 1950 the foundation’s trustees expanded its mandate and grant making to include national and international projects. The foundation has since diversified its stock portfolio.

The foundation maintains its headquarters in New York, along with 12 offices in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Russia. It also maintains partnerships with the Trust for Civil Society in Central and Eastern Europe, in Warsaw, and the New Israel Fund, in Washington and Jerusalem. Approximately 50 percent of the foundation’s staff members work overseas.

The foundation divides its grant making into three overarching program areas: asset building and community development, which encompasses the community and resource development unit andthe economic-development unit; knowledge, creativity, and freedom, which encompasses the education, sexuality, and religion unit and the media, arts, and culture unit; and peace and social justice, which encompasses the governance and civil-society unit and the human-rights unit.

During its 2004 fiscal year, the foundation received approximately 41,000 grant requests and made 2,091 grants. Those figures were commensurate with the previous year’s rates.

The fund approved grants and program-related investments totaling $475.0-million, primarily through its six units: human rights received $105.2-million; governance and civil society, $96.0-million; education, sexuality, and religion, $82.2-million; community and resource development, $73.2-million; economic development, $57.7-million; and media, arts, and culture, $43.9-million.

The foundation’s human-rights unit works in two fields: traditional human rights and sexuality and reproductive health. Through the first, the foundation emphasizes the protection of civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights, particularly as they pertain to refugees and immigrants, ethnic minorities, women, and other vulnerable people worldwide.

Through the second field, the foundation works to guarantee the recognition and enforcement of the Programme of Action that resulted from the 1994 United Nations International Conference on Population and Development, in Cairo. To that end, grant making focuses on preventing HIV/AIDS; expanding access to reproductive-health services and technologies; and stemming HIV/AIDS-related discrimination and sex-related exploitation, trafficking, and violence.

Awards included $120,000 to the Tides Foundation, in San Francisco, for the Los Angeles Immigrant Funders’ Collaborative, and $80,000 to PATH-the Program for Appropriate Technology in Health’s Washington office for a peer-based AIDS and reproductive-health program for migrant women working at factories in Guangdong, China.

The governance and civil-society unit makes grants on wide-ranging topics, including the responsiveness of governments to social needs; electoral procedures and campaign financing in the United States; public awareness of budget and tax issues; conflict mediation within and among nations; civil-society organizations and philanthropy; global coalitions working for social justice; and citizen oversight of both public and private institutions.

Allocations included $60,000 to the Ho Chi Minh National Political Academy, in Vietnam, to study the effects of the 1998 Grassroots Democracy Decree on the performance of local governments in 30 communes throughout the country.

The education, sexuality, and religion unit coordinates work in three fields: education and scholarship, sexuality and reproductive health, and religion, society, and culture. Education grants focus on policy and research programs at both schools and higher-education institutions, with an emphasis on improving finance, access, accountability, and training. Scholarship grants are made to help advance understanding of gender, identity, pluralism, and social change. Sexuality and reproductive health is an integral component of all three of the foundation’s program divisions. Religion grants examine the role that faith-based traditions play in shaping social and other values.

The unit on community and resource development has three primary goals: helping people and local groups acquire, protect, and maintain forests, land, water, wildlife, and other natural assets in ways that can reduce poverty and injustice; enhancing quality-of-life indicators in urban and rural communities; and examining the cultural, economic, and social factors that affect sexuality and reproductive health.

For example, the Global Greengrants Fund, in Boulder, Colo., received $100,000 to make small grants to help grass-roots groups in Central America and Brazil find sustainable solutions to environmental challenges that threaten the livelihoods of the people they serve.

The foundation’s economic-development unit seeks to make “durable economic improvements” in the lives of disadvantaged people; it concentrates on efforts to expand work-force development and job-skills training, to foster employment opportunities, and to help low-income people acquire, develop, and secure savings, investments, businesses, homes, and other assets.

The overall goal of the foundation’s unit on media, arts, and culture is “to strengthen the arts and media as important contributors to the communities and societies in which they function.” Allocations included $300,000 to the Fund for Folk Culture, in Santa Fe, N.M., to assist folk and other traditional artists in California, Oregon, and Washington State, and $100,000 to the Long Island Educational Television Council, in New York, to distribute the BBC World News program to U.S. public-television stations.

Application procedure: Applicants should first submit a brief letter of inquiry. Detailed information is available on the foundation’s Web site.

Key officials: Susan V. Berresford, president; Barron M. Tenny, executive vice president, secretary, and general counsel; Barry D. Gaberman, senior vice president; Alison R. Bernstein, vice president, knowledge, creativity, and freedom; Pablo J. Farias, vice president, asset building and community development; Bradford K. Smith, vice president, peace and social justice; Linda B. Strumpf, vice president and chief investment officer; Marta L. Tellado, vice president for communications; Kathryn S. Fuller, chair of the Board of Trustees.

Program directors: Frank F. DeGiovanni, economic development; Carl Anthony, acting director, community and resource development; Michael A. Edwards, governance and civil society; Alan Jenkins, human rights; Janice Petrovich, education, sexuality, and religion; Margaret B. Wilkerson, media, arts, and culture.

RICHARD AND RHODA GOLDMAN CHARITABLE FUNDS

The Presidio, 211 Lincoln Boulevard
P.O. Box 29924
San Francisco, Calif. 94129
(415) 345-6300
http://goldmanfund.org

Period covered: Year ending December 31, 2004.

Purpose and areas of support: The funds comprise two charitable institutions. The first is the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund, established in 1951 by Richard N. Goldman and his wife, Rhoda, who died in 1996. Its assets totaled $370.3-million at the end of 2004.

The second is the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Foundation, a supporting organization of the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin and Sonoma Counties, that was endowed in 1996 by Mr. Goldman. Its assets totaled $55.2-million.

Mr. Goldman created Goldman Insurance Services, in San Francisco, and Mrs. Goldman was a descendant of Levi Strauss and served on the board of directors of both the apparel company and its philanthropic foundation.

Grant making revolves around four broad issues: the environment, Jewish affairs, democracy and civic participation, and the quality of life in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The funds also award grants to Israeli organizations, with an emphasis on civil society, the environment, higher education, religious pluralism, and the status of Ethiopian Israelis.

In 2004, the funds made grant payments totaling $35,979,000 as follows: the Jewish-affairs program received $9,611,800; the environment, $5,604,000; the arts, $4,903,000; education, $3,821,000; the Israel program, $3,595,000; social and human services, $2,194,500; population, $1,716,000; democracy and civil society, $1,635,000; children and youths, $1,404,000; violence prevention, $455,000; and other grants, $1,039,700.

Of the total dollar amount paid, $20,719,000 came from the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund, while $15,260,000 came from the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Foundation.

Jewish-affairs grants included $150,000 over two years to Humanity in Action, in New York, for a project that engages university students in examining how American Jews and American society are responding to a resurgence of anti-Semitism.

Grant making for environmental projects was down from $12,729,450 in 2003. Allocations included $75,000 to the Point Reyes Bird Observatory, in Stinson Beach, Calif., for Birds Across Borders, a program that trains conservationists in Mexico and Central America in bird-monitoring and field-research techniques.

Arts programs received more than double the amount they were awarded in 2003; this was partially attributable to a $3-million grant to the Stern Grove Festival, in San Francisco, for its capital campaign. Other awards included $250,000 to the San Francisco Conservatory of Music for the capital campaign for its Oak Street facility.

Education grants included $500,000 to the University of California at Berkeley for the Chang-Lin Tien Center for East Asian Studies, and $750,000 to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, in Palo Alto, Calif., for a project to create multimedia materials that can help improve training for educators teaching in kindergarten through 12th grade.

Awards made through the Israel program included $75,000 to Kolot, in Jerusalem, for a project that uses the creative examination of traditional Jewish texts to spur involvement in social causes among Israeli Jews.

Grants in the area of social and human services emphasized care for the elderly, emergency assistance, employment and job training, housing, and helping poor people become self-sufficient. All grants went to groups in the San Francisco Bay Area, and included $80,000 to the Sage Project to provide vocational training to homeless young men.

The foundation’s grants to benefit children and young people included $50,000 to First Tee, in San Francisco, for a golf-based youth-development program.

Allocations in other grant-making areas included $50,000 to Ipas, in Chapel Hill, N.C., for its work to improve health facilities and technologies in the United States that can increase access to abortion services, and $125,000 to Public Campaign, in Washington, to help preserve Arizona’s publicly financed election system and to spread the approach to other states.

The Goldman Environmental Foundation administers the Goldman Environmental Prize, which was initiated in 1990. Each year the prizes, which each convey a $125,000 stipend, are given to six grass-roots environmental activists, one from each of the world’s inhabited continents. Nominations are made confidentially by environmental advocates and groups worldwide. Additional information is available at its Web site, http://www.goldmanprize.org.

In May 2005, Amy Lyons succeeded Samuel J. Salkin as executive director; Mr. Salkin left after heading up the foundation for one year.

In order to respond to “immediate and emerging needs,” the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund strives to pay out 10 percent of its assets each year in grants.

Application procedure: Potential applicants should visit the fund’s Web site for detailed information on application procedures, grant-making priorities, and frequently asked questions, as well as lists of grants awarded. All grant applications should be made through the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund.

Key officials: Amy Lyons, executive director; Debbie Findling, deputy director; Pamela Allen and Eric Sloan, program officers; Bonnie Boxer, Israel program representative; Nicole Carta, grants manager; Jerry Travis, program associate; Richard N. Goldman, president of the Board of Directors.