Foundation Annual Reports

COMMUNITY FOUNDATION FOR GREATER ATLANTA
The Hurt Building, Suite 449
Atlanta, Ga. 30303
(404) 688-5525
http://www.atlcf.org

Period covered: Year ending June 30, 2001.

Purpose and areas of support: Created in 1951, this foundation administers approximately 500 individual funds and makes several types of grants to benefit residents of the metropolitan Atlanta area.

During its 2000-01 fiscal year, the foundation allocated grants totaling $27,860,837, up from $22,121,620 the previous year. Of those grant dollars, 52 percent came from donor-advised funds; 24 percent from designated funds; 17 percent from unrestricted funds; 4 percent from field-of-interest funds; and 3 percent from scholarship funds.

The foundation awards grants in seven program areas: arts and culture, civic affairs, community development, education and scholarships, health, religion, and social and human services. Unrestricted grants range from $5,000 to $25,000. Each year the foundation designates two priority areas for its discretionary grant making; for 2000-01, those two areas were children, youths, and families and community capacity building.

Children, youths, and families grants stressed such issues as early-childhood development and education, comprehensive services for at-risk families, youth leadership, and substance-abuse prevention and treatment.

Community-capacity grants focused on harnessing existing human and organizational resources, spurring collaborative efforts to work on local and regional issues, engaging citizens from diverse backgrounds in community-improvement activities, and helping poor people become self-sufficient.

In May 2001, the foundation set aside $750,000 in unrestricted funds for the Early Start program, which will support partnerships to promote the healthy development of children from birth through age 8.

Application procedure: The foundation accepts grant applications from nonprofit organizations that are tax exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Organizations must provide services in one or more of the 22 counties that constitute the Atlanta metropolitan area. Potential applicants should consult a copy of the current “Guidelines for Unrestricted Grants,” available at the foundation’s Web site.

Key officials: Alicia Philipp, president; Bryan Clontz, vice president for advancement; Winsome Hawkins, vice president for programs and initiatives; Lisa Williams, vice president for finance and operations; Lesley Grady, senior program officer; BryAnn Chen and Phillip Rush, program officers; Bev Jones, communications officer; Don L. Chapman, chair of the Board of Directors.

FORD FOUNDATION

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

Period covered: Year ending September 30, 2001.

Purpose and areas of support: Endowed in 1936 by Henry and Edsel Ford, the foundation operated as a local grant maker in Michigan until 1950, when it expanded its grant making to include national and international interests. Although its investment portfolio originally derived from Ford Motor Company stock, the foundation has diversified its portfolio and no longer owns stock in the company.

The foundation makes grants in three broad areas: asset building and community development, which comprises community and resource development, economic development, and human development and reproductive health; education, media, arts, and culture, which comprises the education, knowledge, and religion program and the media, arts, and culture program; and peace and social justice, which comprises governance and civil society and human rights and international cooperation.

During 2000-01, grants and program-related investments totaling $901-million were distributed among the seven program units as follows: governance and civil society received $131.8-million; human rights and international cooperation, $106.9-million; human development and reproductive health, $76.0-million; community and resource development, $75.3-million; education, knowledge, and religion, $68.6-million; economic development, $66.4-million; and media, arts, and culture, $43.0-million. The foundation also approved $14.6-million for “foundationwide actions” and $800,000 for “good neighbor” grants, which support activities in neighborhoods near the foundation’s New York City headquarters and foreign offices.

The governance and civil-society unit supports efforts to improve the performance of government, to increase public awareness of budget and tax issues, and to manage challenges arising from governmental decentralization. Recent areas of emphasis include political equality in the United States, civil-society organizations and civic participation, and global civil society and the role of transnational citizens’ coalitions in solving social problems.

The human-rights and international-cooperation unit makes grants to organizations working on international human-rights issues, including the rights of women, ethnic and religious minority groups, and refugees. The foundation is also exploring diverse approaches to justice and reconciliation through the International Criminal Court, as well as individual efforts in countries like Argentina, Nigeria, and South Africa that have experienced recent social conflict and human-rights abuses. Grants made through the international-cooperation component emphasize conflict resolution, foreign policy, nuclear nonproliferation, and peace efforts. In addition, the foundation supports efforts that highlight economic issues in developing countries stemming from the regulation of global markets and the actions of multilateral financial institutions.

The human-development and reproductive-health program supports organizations and promotes policies that help families mobilize resources in order to overcome poverty and discrimination and that address the often-complex social, cultural, and economic factors that affect sexuality and reproductive health. The foundation places strong emphasis on activities that enable women to participate more fully in improving reproductive-health policy and practice.

The goal of the community- and resource-development unit is to help create conditions leading to the development of sustainable and equitable communities. Specifically, it supports efforts to purchase, protect, and sustain land, water, forests, and other natural resources in ways that help reduce poverty and injustice. It also seeks to enhance the quality of life for people in urban and rural areas by leveraging philanthropy, investment capital, human resources, and natural resources in fair and sustainable ways.

Grants made through the education, knowledge, and religion unit stress education reform, higher education and scholarship, and the role of religion in strengthening cultural values and social practices that promote cooperation, democracy, equity, and justice. Economic-development grants go mainly to projects that can improve the lives of disadvantaged people, including job creation, the development of marketable skills and personal assets, economic revitalization, and related policy research.

The media, arts, and culture unit focuses on artistic creativity and resources, cultural expression and preservation, the role of arts in society, and the role of the news and other media outlets in encouraging democratic values and pluralism.

The foundation made a one-time commitment of $280-million to start up the International Fellowships Program, a 10-year, $330-million program with two components.

Application procedure: Prospective applicants should submit a brief letter of inquiry to the foundation with the following information: the purpose of the proposed project, the problems and issues the project will address, information about the organization conducting the project, an estimated overall project budget, the length of time for which funds are requested, and the qualifications of those engaged in the project. Letters regarding projects in the United States and Central and Eastern Europe should be sent to the secretary at the address above or sent via email to office-secretary@fordfound.org. Letters regarding projects in other countries should be sent to the nearest foundation office. Detailed information about the foundation’s grant making is available on its 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 for education, media, arts, and culture; Melvin L. Oliver, vice president for asset building and community development; Bradford K. Smith, vice president for peace and social justice; Linda B. Strumpf, vice president and chief investment officer; Alexander W. Wilde, vice president for communications; Paul A. Allaire, chairman of the Board of Trustees.

Program directors: Frank F. DeGiovanni, economic development; Cynthia M. Duncan, community and resource development; Michael A. Edwards, governance and civil society; Virginia Davis Floyd, human development and reproductive health; Alan Jenkins, human rights and international cooperation; Janice Petrovich, education, knowledge, and religion; Margaret B. Wilkerson, media, arts, and culture.

GOLDSEKER FOUNDATION

Symphony Center
1040 Park Avenue, Suite 310
Baltimore, Md. 21201
(410) 837-5100
http://www.goldsekerfoundation.org

Period covered: Year ending December 31, 2001.

Purpose and areas of support: The foundation was established in 1975 through the will of Morris Goldseker (1898-1973), a Polish immigrant who became a Baltimore real-estate owner.

The foundation awards grants to nonprofit institutions that benefit disadvantaged people in the Baltimore metropolitan area. In 2001, it made 72 grants totaling $5.3-million to 60 organizations.

The foundation instituted a new two-track grant-making program, with four “established” program areas — community affairs, education, human services, and neighborhood development — and three “priority” grant areas — community development, regionalism, and the nonprofit sector. Awards include a mix of foundation-initiated programs and projects suggested by grant seekers.

The fund allocated 20 community-development grants totaling $1,784,000. Among them: $250,000 to The Reinvestment Fund (TRF), a Philadelphia venture-capital firm that invests in community-development efforts, to establish an office in Baltimore. TRF will manage the Baltimore Fund, a venture-capital fund created by George Soros through his Open Society Institute-Baltimore. The fund seeks to raise at least $15-million to invest in businesses that create job opportunities for the poor while also providing a financial return to investors.

Grants in other program areas included $50,000 to the Center for Poverty Solutions to review and revise its financial and management systems, and $90,000 over three years to the Greenmount School to enable this private school run by teachers and parents to seek donations.

In all, the foundation made approximately 20 management-assistance grants to local nonprofit groups. For example, $10,000 went to the Village Learning Place, a library and after-school program in the Charles Village neighborhood, for board-development activities.

The foundation concluded its 12-year affiliation with the Baltimore Community Foundation and moved its offices to the new Symphony Center complex in Baltimore.

Application procedure: Potential applicants whose proposed projects fall within the objectives and interests of the foundation should submit a brief letter that includes the following: evidence of tax-exempt status under Sections 501(c)(3) and 509(a) of the Internal Revenue Code, background information about the applicant organization, objectives of the proposed project, methods for accomplishing those objectives, a projected program budget, and the amount requested from the Goldseker Foundation. Foundation staff members will review the materials and notify the applicant as to whether a fully developed proposal should then be sent.

Key officials: Timothy D. Armbruster, president; Sally J. Scott, program officer; Paul C. Brophy and Carol A. Gilbert, program consultants; Sheldon Goldseker, chairman of the Board of Trustees.