Foundation Annual Reports

THE CALIFORNIA ENDOWMENT
21650 Oxnard Street, Suite 1200
Woodland Hills, Calif.
91367(818) 703-3311
http://www.calendow.org

Period covered: Year ending February 28, 2000.

Purpose and areas of support: The foundation was created in 1996 as a result of nonprofit Blue Cross of California’s conversion to WellPoint Health Networks, a for-profit corporation. It emphasizes regional approaches that directly benefit the overall health of California residents, and its key areas of emphasis are access to health-care services, health and well-being, and multicultural health.

More than 50 percent of all grants made by the endowment since its creation were awarded during fiscal year 1999-2000 — approximately 677 grants totaling $197-million. More than 90 percent of that money was specifically focused on low-income and underserved populations, including women and rural, minority, and inner-city populations. In addition, populations in each of California’s 58 counties benefited from grants made by the endowment.

The foundation’s primary responsive grant-making program is CommunitiesFirst, which allocated more than 188 grants totaling $74-million during its first full year of operation. Grants covered a broad array of health issues, including substance abuse, mental health, services for low-income immigrant families and American Indians, and crisis services.

Multicultural-health grants emphasized work-force development, language and cultural barriers, and alternative health practices. For example, the White Memorial Medical Center’s Family Practice Residency Program in East Los Angeles received a $1-million, three-year award for training to ensure that its resident physicians are able to care competently for patients of varying ethnic and cultural backgrounds.

Another focus was on efforts to reduce health problems that disproportionately affect Latinos, American Indians, blacks, Asian Americans, and other minorities. Grants included $1,260,000 to the National Foundation for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to administer the Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH) 2010 program.

Health-access grants included $50,000 to Catholic Charities–Diocese of Fresno to hire a full-time outreach worker who will enroll poor children in the Central Valley region in health-insurance programs.

In addition to its Woodland Hills headquarters, the foundation maintains regional offices in San Francisco, Sacramento, San Luis Obispo, and Carlsbad.

In July 2000, Robert K. Ross, the director of health and human services for San Diego County, became the foundation’s new president, succeeding E. Lewis Reid, who remains on the Board of Directors.

Application procedure: The endowment uses a variety of funding approaches to meet the needs of local communities, including the CommunitiesFirst open-application grant program, requests for proposals, funding partnerships, commissioned grants, and program-related investments. Grant making is restricted to nonprofit and government organizations in the State of California, and no grants are made to individuals. Visit the foundation’s Web site or call (800) 449-4149, ext. 271, to request a copy of ”CommunitiesFirst Program Guidelines and Application Information.’’

Key officials: Robert K. Ross, president and chief executive officer; Julie Tugend, vice president and chief operating officer; George Nicholas, vice president and chief financial officer; Peggy Hinz, vice president of communications; Chris McCarns, director of human resources; Mario Gutierrez, director of strategic programs and acting manager-northern California region; Alicia Lara, director of responsive grant making; Leroy T. Barnes Jr., chairman of the Board of Directors.

Senior program officers: Joel Diringer, Lorraine Evernham, Marion Standish, Gwen Walden, and Jai Lee Wong.

JOYCE FOUNDATION
70 West Madison Street, Suite 2750
Chicago 60602
(312) 782-2464
http://www.joycefdn.org

Period covered: Year ending December 31, 1999.

Purpose and areas of support: The foundation was established in 1948 by Beatrice Joyce Kean, a Chicago resident whose family wealth was based on lumber and sawmill interests.

In 1999, 235 grants totaling $34,123,572 were approved in these program areas: the environment, which received $8,160,106; education, $7,918,357; employment, $6,964,179; gun violence, $4,558,301; money and politics, $3,841,417; culture, $841,110; and grants from the President’s Discretionary Fund and special opportunities, $1,840,102.

In general, grant making emphasizes projects to benefit the Great Lakes region: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin. A limited number of environmental grants are also made to Canadian organizations, and cultural grants are restricted to groups in the metropolitan Chicago area.

The environmental program makes grants for projects to protect and improve Great Lakes water quality; to maintain a strong network of regional environmental groups; to reduce the production, use, and discharge of toxic substances in agriculture and industry; to use opportunities afforded by the restructuring of the electric-utility industry to promote more-efficient and cleaner energy sources; and to ensure that governmental decisions on transportation and land use take environmental concerns into account, particularly at the state level.

The education program supports selected efforts to reform public schools and school districts in Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, and Milwaukee. Grants included $50,000 to the Community Media Workshop, in Chicago, to increase public awareness of the contributions of local school councils to education reform.

Employment grants focus on enhancing state job-training and welfare-to-work policies, translating lessons from effective work-force-preparation strategies into successful policy efforts, ensuring that welfare policies incorporate adequate education and training strategies, exploring the creation of publicly financed jobs programs, and assessing the effects of state and federal welfare restructuring. However, the foundation does not provide operating support for direct services, such as job training and placement services.

The program on gun violence seeks to reduce firearms-related deaths and injuries by addressing gun violence as a public-health problem, including strategies that emphasize prevention rather than relying exclusively on punitive measures.

The money and politics program promotes campaign-finance reform at the federal level and in the Midwest; the improved disclosure of — and public access to — campaign-finance records; the enforcement of existing campaign-finance laws; and upgraded news-media coverage of the issue. For example, $100,000 went to the Alliance for Better Campaigns, in Washington, for efforts to persuade commercial TV stations in the Midwest to give free broadcast time to candidates in local, state, and federal elections.

Culture-related grants included $115,000 to Columbia College’s Center for Black Music Research to develop a major performing-arts program.

Application procedure: Before submitting a formal proposal, prospective applicants should send to the appropriate program officer a two- or three-page letter of inquiry that briefly describes the proposed project and its goals, how it relates to the foundation’s interests, the target audience and beneficiaries, the estimated budget and duration, and plans for evaluating and disseminating its findings. Letters of inquiry are reviewed by a program officer, who will tell the prospective applicant whether the project falls within program guidelines and should be developed into a formal proposal. Additional details and deadlines are available on the foundation’s Web site.

Key officials: Paula DiPerna, president; Lawrence N. Hansen, vice president; Deborah Gillespie, chief financial officer; Ellen S. Alberding, director, portfolio investments/program officer; Peter T. Mich, technology officer/program officer; Mary O’Connell, communications officer; John T. Anderson, chairman of the Board of Directors.

Program officers: Ellen S. Alberding (culture), Roseanna Ander (gun violence), Warren K. Chapman (education), Fausto Ramos Gomez (education) Lawrence N. Hansen (money and politics), Peter T. Mich (education), Kara Kellaher Mikulich (employment), Margaret H. O’Dell (environment), Jennifer L. Phillips (employment) James Seidita (environment), and Unmi Song (employment).

TURNER FOUNDATION
1 CNN Center
Suite 1090, South Tower
Atlanta 30303
(404) 681-9900
http://www.turnerfoundation.org

Period covered: Year ending December 31, 1999.

Purpose and areas of support: The foundation was established in 1990 by Robert E. (Ted) Turner, founder of Cable News Network (CNN) and Turner Broadcasting System, and his five children.

In 1999, 645 grants totaling $72,786,100 were approved in these four program areas: air quality, energy, and transportation; habitat; water and toxics; and population.

Grants made through the air-quality and energy program emphasize protecting the atmosphere and other natural resources by promoting energy efficiency, renewable energy sources, and improved transportation policies and practices. Awards are made domestically and internationally, with priority given to efforts in Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, and South Carolina.

Through the habitat program, the foundation works to preserve biological diversity by protecting forests and other natural habitats and ecosystems. Domestic projects concentrate on Alaska and the seven states above, and projects of national scope are also considered. Internationally, priority is placed on projects in Argentina, Mexico, and Russia. However, in one priority area — protecting the world’s remaining extensive tracts of relatively unexploited forest lands — the focus is on Brazil, Canada, and Russia.

The water and toxics program supports efforts to protect rivers, lakes, wetlands, aquifers, oceans, and other water systems from toxic contamination and pollution. The geographic focus is on the seven states listed above, and consideration is also given to some national and international programs. Grants included $20,000 to Native Action, in Lame Deer, Mont., to oppose industrial-scale mining and railroad projects surrounding the Northern Cheyenne Reservation in southeastern Montana.

The population program makes both domestic and international grants to promote policies and practices that emphasize the links between population growth, global resources, the status of women and girls, and access to safe, affordable family-planning and reproductive-health services.

For example, $20,000 went to MADRE, in New York, for a program that promotes women’s rights and reproductive health in four impoverished communities in Guatemala, Haiti, Mexico, and Nicaragua.

Several grants were also made to reduce pregnancy rates among U.S. teenagers, with an emphasis on statewide coalitions in Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, and South Carolina.

Application procedure: The foundation does not provide support for individuals, buildings, land acquisition, endowments, or start-up funds. In addition, it does not finance films, books, magazines, or other specific media projects. The foundation has developed a specific format and content criteria for grant proposals; refer to its Web site for this proposal outline and a list of attachments and to print a grant-application cover sheet. Grant requests should be sent by regular mail only.

Key officials: Peter Bahouth, executive director; Kevin Kelly, director of program operations; Catherine Mickle, director of administration; Cecile Richards and Reid Detchon, directors of special projects; Edward Harris, treasurer; Rutherford Seydel, secretary; Stuart Clarke, Jackie Echols, and Stephanie Rudnick, program officers; Yvonne Edwards, grants manager; Robert E. (Ted) Turner, chairman and president of the Board of Trustees.