Foundation Annual Reports

GREATER CINCINNATI FOUNDATION
300 West Fourth Street, Suite 200
Cincinnati 45202-2603
(513) 241-2880
Period covered: Year ending December 31, 1996.

1996

Purpose and areas of support: This community foundation was established in 1963; it makes direct, field-of-interest, designated, and donor-advised grants to benefit residents of the Cincinnati metropolitan area. The foundation defines that area as including Ohio’s Butler, Clermont, Hamilton, and Warren Counties; Indiana’s Dearborn County; and Kentucky’s Boone, Campbell, and Kenton Counties.

In 1996, 69 new constituent funds were created, for a total of almost 900 funds, and grant payments of $13.6-million were distributed as follows: grants from donor-advised funds totaled $9.2-million; grants from unrestricted and field-of-interest funds, $2.2-million; and grants from restricted funds, $2.2-million.

New unrestricted and field-of-interest grants totaling $2,318,849 were approved for distribution to approximately 380 organizations. Grants focused on six program areas: education, which received $1,054,040; “community progress,” $526,843; human services, $344,355; health, $221,381; arts and culture, $163,634; and the environment, $8,596.

Education-related grants included $55,764 to the Central Psychiatric Clinic in Cincinnati for the “Tips on Tots” program to prevent child abuse. The “Learning Links” mini-grants program distributed approximately $100,000 among 159 teachers and teachers’ groups for innovative classroom projects. The “Summertime Kids” program distributed almost $90,000 among 121 groups to provide educational summer activities for disadvantaged children.

The community-progress program focused on neighborhood revitalization, low-cost housing, job training, and small-business development and entrepreneurship. For example, $10,000 went to the Pleasant Ridge Development Corporation to rejuvenate the commercial and historic MacFarland Corner area of Cincinnati.

Human-services grants included $20,000 to Clermont Senior Services in Batavia, Ohio, to expand its kitchen facilities to enable it to serve more meals to residents.

Grants in the health program included $9,100 to the Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Cincinnati for a project to gather information on why expectant mothers, especially those on Medicaid, tend to use emergency-room services in place of regular pre- and post-natal health care.

Arts awards included $13,300 to Cincinnati’s Madcap Productions Puppet Theatre to create a series of three works, and $25,000 to the Cincinnati Arts Association to provide rental subsidies to small arts groups that use the Aronoff Center.

Application procedure: Grant requests are accepted from organizations in metropolitan Cincinnati that are tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Potential applicants should call the foundation to discuss the organization and its proposed project or need. A member of the foundation’s program staff will provide further information about proposal guidelines.

Key officials: Kathryn E. Merchant, president and chief executive officer; Lawrence D. Graziani, vice-president for operations; Ruth A. Cronenberg, program director; Celia S. Rowan, program officer; Amy L. Bick, advancement director; Michael A. Cheney, financial-services director; Dwight H. Hibbard, chairman of the Governing Board.

SID W. RICHARDSON FOUNDATION
309 Main Street
Fort Worth 76102
(817) 336-0494
Period covered: Year ending December 31, 1996.

Purpose and areas of support: The foundation was endowed in 1947 by Sid W. Richardson, a lifelong Texas resident with business interests in petroleum, cattle, and land. It makes grants for programs operating in Texas in four areas: education, health, human services, and the arts and humanities.

Education grants included $50,000 to the Cassata Learning Center in Fort Worth for a reading-improvement program, and $280,000 to the Texas A&M University Development Foundation for leadership-development programs within the College of Education for principals and other school administrators.

The foundation published a report entitled “Principals for the Schools of Texas: a Seamless Web of Professional Development,” which described successful models for — and barriers to — producing academic leaders capable of instituting positive educational reform.

The largest new appropriation was made in the health program — a $1,650,000 grant to the M. D. Anderson Cancer Network-Tarrant County in Fort Worth to help construct the Klabzuba Cancer Center.

Other health-related grants included $100,000 to the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Lubbock for the “HealthNet” program, which delivers interactive video-based educational and medical-treatment services to rural hospitals.

Human-services grants focused on children and youths, crime prevention, elderly and disabled people, emergency assistance, employment and training, housing, hunger, and substance-abuse prevention. For example, $150,000 went to the Women’s Center of Fort Worth for Project Self-Sufficiency, which provides job-training and educational services to help low-income mothers move from welfare to work.

Other human-services grants included $50,000 to the Cenikor Foundation of Texas to provide drug awareness and prevention services to children in the Fort Worth Independent School District.

Arts-related grants included $50,000 for start-up support of the Contemporary Art Center of Fort Worth, a new venue for exhibiting and promoting the work of local artists.

The foundation also supports the Sid Richardson Collection of Western Art in Fort Worth, which opened in 1982; its collection emphasizes paintings by the American artists Frederic Remington and Charles M. Russell.

Application procedure: Applicants must be organizations that are tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and not private foundations under Section 509(a). An organization may also qualify if it falls within the terms of Section 170(c)(1) and the grant is to be used exclusively for public purposes. Grant requests must be limited to programs or projects within Texas, and no grants are made to individuals. A letter of inquiry briefly describing the project or program should be submitted before filing a formal application. If the project falls within foundation guidelines and interests, a formal proposal will be requested for review by staff members. The board meets twice a year to consider proposals; applications must be received no later than March 1 and September 1 for consideration at board meetings.

Key officials: Valleau Wilkie, Jr., executive director; Jo Helen Rosacker, associate director; Cindy Alexander, business manager; Jan Brenneman, director of the Sid Richardson Collection of Western Art; Perry R. Bass, president of the Board of Directors.

WHITAKER FOUNDATION
1700 North Moore Street, Suite 2200
Rosslyn, Va. 22209
(703) 528-2430
World-Wide Web: http://www.whitaker.org
Period covered: Year ending December 31, 1996.

Purpose and areas of support: The foundation was created in 1975 upon the death of Uncas A. Whitaker, founder and chief executive officer of AMP Incorporated, which manufactures electrical connectors and connecting devices.

Grant making focuses on research and education in biomedical engineering. In recent years, the foundation has expanded support of efforts to establish biomedical engineering as an independent field of academic research and to use it to improve human health through improved medical imaging and devices, surgery and transplant techniques, drug delivery, orthopedics, and tissue engineering and implants. The foundation currently supports approximately 400 research projects, 116 graduate fellows, and 61 education and internship programs at colleges and universities.

In 1996, the foundation approved new grants totaling $58.7-million, of which $52.4-million — or 89 per cent — was awarded under the biomedical-engineering program. That represented an increase of nearly 44 per cent over the $36.3-million approved for such grants in 1995.

The Biomedical Engineering Research Grants program helps engineers and scientists in the United States and Canada establish careers in academic research. Projects must apply or develop substantive engineering methods and techniques to solve important medical problems. The program annually awards more than 100 grants of up to $210,000 over three years.

Graduate Fellowships in Biomedical Engineering are awarded to help promising individuals develop the necessary skills for successful careers in biomedical-engineering research. Approximately 30 new fellowships are awarded annually.

Through the Biomedical Engineering Development Awards program, grants of up to $5-million are allocated to create centers of excellence in biomedical-engineering education at U.S. universities and medical schools. In 1996, awards were approved for Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Rice University in Houston, and the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. The next and final phrase of that awards program will take place in 1998.

The foundation announced two new programs to support biomedical-engineering education: the Leadership Awards in Biomedical Engineering, which support innovative ideas for improving studies in the field at major research institutions nationwide, and the Teaching Materials Program, which is primarily designed to support the completion of textbooks for use in core biomedical-engineering courses.

The foundation operates a program in conjunction with the National Science Foundation that supports innovative research that helps reduce medical costs, as well as educational activities that generate an awareness among biomedical-engineering researchers of the need to expand research on cost-effective technologies.

The foundation maintains an office in Mechanicsburg, Pa., that makes a limited number of regional grants in Harrisburg, Pa., and Naples, Fla. Harrisburg grants are made to improve science education and to help welfare recipients and other low-income people become more self-sufficient. Although guidelines for the Naples program were still under development at the time the annual report was published, awards have primarily been made in the areas of health care and science education.

The foundation’s Governing Committee has decided to terminate the foundation in 2006, in keeping with Mr. Whitaker’s recommendations and with the belief that the developing field of biomedical engineering can best be supported through large investments in the near future.

Application procedure: The foundation operates a series of competitive biomedical-engineering grant programs, each of which has a published announcement that describes the rationale for the program, its goals, and guidelines for submitting applications. After identifying the appropriate program, potential applicants should contact the foundation by telephone, letter, or electronic mail. Program announcements and application forms are also available through the foundation’s World-Wide Web site. For information on any of the biomedical-engineering programs, write the foundation at the Rosslyn, Va., address. For information about the regional programs, write the foundation at 4718 Old Gettysburg Road, Suite 405, Mechanicsburg, Pa. 17055, or call (717) 763-1391.

Key officials: Miles J. Gibbons, Jr., president; Peter G. Katona, executive vice-president for biomedical engineering; Frank N. Blanchard, director of communications; Wolf W. von Maltzahn, program director; Carina S. Hreib and Jennifer L. Mizroch, grants administrators; Paula L. Libhart, administrator of the Mechanicsburg, Pa., office; G. Burtt Holmes, chairman of the Governing Committee.