Foundation Annual Reports

CHICAGO COMMUNITY TRUST
222 North LaSalle Street, Suite 1400
Chicago 60601-1009
(312) 372-3356
Period covered: Year ending September 30, 1996.

Purpose and areas of support: This community foundation was established in 1915; it makes direct and donor-advised grants to non-profit groups that serve residents of metropolitan Chicago and Cook County, Ill.

In 1995-96, grants totaling $35,172,152 were awarded in five program areas: social services, which received 31.6 per cent of grant dollars; the arts and humanities, 25.9 per cent; health, 20.0 per cent; civic affairs, 14.1 per cent; and education, 8.4 per cent.

In all, 63.2 per cent of grants were awarded through donor-advised funds, 33.4 per cent through discretionary funds, and 3.4 per cent through designated funds.

The trust’s Children, Youth, and Families Initiative — a 10-year, $30-million effort to develop integrated, community-based programs in several of the city’s most-disadvantaged neighborhoods — marked its halfway, five-year point. Awards included $98,360 to Association House of Chicago for the West Town Leadership Development and Community Organizing Project.

Other social-services grants focused on improving housing, homelessness, employment, and welfare-to-work programs for at-risk adults and families, and on programs on aging and the elderly.

The trust completed its program to build capital endowments for mid- and large-sized Chicago-area cultural institutions. It continued to support arts groups and cultural programs, particularly those that reach out to youths and to minority and underserved audiences. Grants included $100,000 to the Foundation for the Joffrey Ballet, which supported the Joffrey Ballet Company in its move from New York to Chicago.

Health-related grants included $53,325 to the University of Illinois Foundation for the Chicago Project for Violence Prevention. Civic-affairs grants included $100,000 to the Legal Assistance Foundation of Chicago for 1996-97 support of its legal services.

The trust sponsored a statewide survey in conjunction with the Chicago Foundation for Women that asked women to assess their personal and professional lives and accomplishments and the obstacles that they faced. The results of the survey were released in September 1996.

The trust has four affiliated organizations: the Chicago Community Foundation, the Chicago Area Foundation for Legal Services, the Human Relations Foundation of Chicago, and the Protestant Foundation of Greater Chicago. The Young Leaders Fund is a special endowment created by young Chicago-area professionals that enables them to make grants to local non-profit groups.

Application procedure: Contact the trust to request a copy of its “Grant Guidelines” publication and additional information about the trust and its grant-review process. All applicants are urged to speak with a program officer in the appropriate area of interest before submitting a proposal for consideration. The trust generally does not make grants for scholarships, to individuals, for religious purposes, for endowment, or for operating support of government agencies. All grants are approved by the trust’s Executive Committee at its annual January, May, and September meetings. While there are no formal deadlines for submitting proposals, materials should be submitted to the grants manager well in advance of the anticipated need for a grant award. Grants are scheduled for consideration at each Executive Committee meeting on a first-come, first-served basis.

Key officials: Bruce L. Newman, executive director; Anne Blanton, assistant director; Sandy Chears, grants manager; Susan Herr, director of the Children, Youth, and Families Initiative; Carol Crenshaw, chief financial officer; David R. Luckes, director of external relations; Clarence N. Wood, president of the Human Relations Foundation of Chicago; Shirley W. Ryan, chair of the Executive Committee.

Senior staff associates: Janice B. Bennett and Michael S. Marcus (social services and civic affairs); Ada Mary Gugenheim, Sarah Solotaroff, and Maria Whelan (arts, health, and education); Margo De Ley and Daryl Woods (children, youth, and families).

RICHARD KING MELLON FOUNDATION
One Mellon Bank Center
500 Grant Street, Suite 4106
Pittsburgh 15219-2502
(412) 392-2800
Period covered: Year ending December 31, 1996.

Purpose and areas of support: The foundation was endowed in 1947 by Richard King Mellon, former chairman of the board of the Mellon National Bank and Trust Company.

The foundation maintains two major areas of interest: programs to improve the quality of life in Pittsburgh and southwestern Pennsylvania and efforts to preserve open space, scenic views, and historic sites nationwide. In 1996, allocations totaling $51.8-million were made in these program areas: conservation, which received $24.2-million; human services, $16.0-million; medicine, $4.9-million; civic affairs, $3.6-million; education, $2.3-million; and cultural activities, $0.8-million.

The foundation’s American Land Conservation Program was established in 1988. It identifies and purchases areas of historical or environmental importance and is the fund’s single largest grant-making priority. Through it, six tracts of land were acquired and donated in 1996, including property in South Dakota on the banks of the Big Sioux River, which was donated to the South Dakota Department of Game, Fish, and Parks, and in the Fishing Bay Wildlife Management Area of Dorchester County, Md., which was donated to the State of Maryland.

Human-services grants emphasize Pittsburgh-area organizations that work with at-risk children and families, and the elderly and disabled. A $10-million grant went to the United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania for its Early Childhood Initiative, a five-year effort to strengthen care and parental support for infants and young children in Allegheny County.

Other major appropriations in the human-services area included $800,000 to complete construction of the Ligonier Valley Y.M.C.A. in Ligonier, Pa., and $500,000 to the Holy Family Institute in Pittsburgh to construct a new educational and training center.

The foundation approved a $3-million award for the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, a joint program of Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh that it helped to create several years ago.

Civic-affairs grants included $600,000 over three years to the Urban League of Pittsburgh for the Pittsburgh Youth Collaborative for Serious Offenders, part of a county-wide crime-prevention effort.

Education grants focused on improving and supplementing public education in Pittsburgh and on higher-education institutions. For example, $500,000 went to Carlow College in Pittsburgh to construct a new science and technology center.

Application procedure: Proposals should include a completed application form, obtainable from the foundation, and should be addressed to Michael Watson, vice-president and director. In addition to the application form, applicants must include a copy of the latest Internal Revenue Service letter indicating tax-exempt status under Sections 501(c)(3) and 509(a); an executive summary providing an overview of the organization, the proposed project, the problem concerned, the population to be served, and how the project will be operated; a list of board members and officers; the background of the organization, including its history, purpose, and types of programs provided; audited financial statements for the last two years; operating budget and timetable for the proposed project; annual reports, brochures, and catalogues, if available; other sources of support and an explanation of how the project will be financed at the expiration of the proposed grant; and the method to be used in evaluating the project’s success. The foundation does not make grants to individuals or to organizations outside the United States.

Key officials: Seward Prosser Mellon, president and chairman of the Executive Committee; Michael Watson, vice-president, secretary, and program director; Scott Izzo, program officer; Ann Marie Helms, program associate; Richard P. Mellon, chairman of the Board of Trustees; Andrew W. Mathieson, vice-chairman.

NORTHWEST AREA FOUNDATION
332 Minnesota Street, Suite E-1201
St. Paul 55101-1373
(612) 224-9635
Period covered: Year ending February 28, 1997.

Purpose and areas of support: The foundation was created in 1934 by Louis W. Hill, whose father, James J. Hill, built the Great Northern Railway. It makes grants to non-profit organizations located in and serving Idaho, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, and Washington State.

Throughout the 1996-97 fiscal year, the foundation was engaged in a planning process to study the changing demographics and conditions in those eight states, to evaluate the effect of its grant making, to identify new grant-making programs and opportunities, and to analyze its organizational procedures. The foundation plans to wrap up that process and make revised grant-making guidelines available this fall.

The foundation appropriated 100 grants totaling $18.4-million. Of that amount, $6.8-million or 37 per cent went to public-policy projects; $5.3-million or 28 per cent went to economic-revitalization projects; $3.3-million or 18 per cent went to community-building projects; $2.5-million or 14 per cent went to conservation and natural-resource-management projects; and $0.5-million or 3 per cent to miscellaneous projects.

Public-policy grants focused on strengthening non-profit groups, responding to federal-budget cuts and the “devolution” of responsibilities from the federal to the state and local levels, and on other critical policy issues. For example, $466,026 went to the Idaho Women’s Network in Boise for a statewide effort to help non-profit groups, government agencies, and citizens to respond to cuts in the federal budget and to bolster local decision-making authority.

Economic-revitalization grants stressed improving work-force training, increasing the supply of high-quality jobs, and creating sustainable industries that do not harm the environment and are not prey to “boom-and-bust” economic cycles. The largest award was a $1-million commitment to Ecotrust in Portland, Ore., to establish a community-development bank devoted to conservation-based projects in the Pacific Northwest.

Grants for community-building projects emphasized the arts, low-cost housing, and community collaboration. Awards included $340,000 to the Center for Community Change in Washington, D.C., to work with Latino organizations in the eight-state region to establish and promote stronger economic-development and business networks.

Environmental and conservation grants focused on preserving water resources and fishing stocks.

Application procedure: The foundation is engaged in a planning process and is not accepting new grant applications until it concludes that process later this fall. New guidelines for grant applications will be available at that time.

Key officials: Karl N. Stauber, president; Jean Adams, director of operations; John Foster-Bey, Ruth L. Goins, Tripp Somerville, and Cris E. Stainbrook, senior program officers; Vicki Itzkowitz, director of communications; W. E. Bye Barsness, chair of the Board of Directors.