Foundation Annual Reports

CHICAGO COMMUNITY TRUST

111 East Wacker Drive
Suite 1400
Chicago, Ill. 60601
(312) 616-8000
http://www.cct.org

Period covered: Year ending September 31, 2002.

Purpose and areas of support: This community foundation was established in 1915 by Albert W. Harris. Initially, the Harris Trust and Savings Bank was its sole trustee. Today the Chicago Community Trust has two legal forms, its traditional trust form and its newer corporate form, the Chicago Community Foundation. It also maintains several supporting organizations. The trust makes grants primarily to organizations in Chicago and Cook County, but will consider projects in nearby Du Page, Kane, Lake, McHenry, and Will Counties if they benefit Cook County residents.

In fiscal year 2002, the trust and its related institutions approved grants totaling $42,541,934 in five program areas: education, which received $11,035,775, or 25.9 percent of grant dollars; basic human needs, $10,329,024, or 24.3 percent; health, $7,832,839, or 18.4 percent; arts and culture, $7,-773,025, or 18.3 percent; and community development, $5,571,271, or 13.1 percent.

This was the second year of the trust’s five-year, $50-million Education Initiative, which seeks to increase student literacy, promote the professional development of teachers and administrators, and support alternative educational models such as charter schools. Grants included $100,000 to the Chicago Public Schools to provide monetary incentives to the 48 elementary and 12 high schools that saw the greatest improvement in test scores in 2002. Other grants included $150,000 to the Chicago Metro History Education Center for a bilingual history fair.

Grants for basic human needs emphasize programs designed to meet the child-care, food, housing, transportation, and other needs of elderly and poor people. For example, the Greater Chicago Food Depository received $900,000 toward construction of a new facility. Several organizations received grants for salary support, including the Chicago Youth Centers, the Jane Addams Senior Caucus, and the San Jose Obrero Mission.

Health grants support programs that help improve lifestyles and environmental factors affecting human health, advocate change in the health-care system, and reduce and prevent violence. The trust also supports limited clinical research and studies on health-care services. Awards included $60,000 to the AIDS Foundation of Chicago for its project to expand treatment options for uninsured HIV-positive individuals.

The arts and culture program has three grant-making priorities: arts education, dance, and leadership transitions at local arts institutions. Community-development programs currently emphasize four priority areas: civic engagement, job training, improvement of the criminal- and juvenile-justice systems, and strengthening the management of local nonprofit groups, particularly those that work with Latinos.

Application procedure: Grant seekers should contact the trust or visit its Web site for a copy of its most recent grant guidelines.

Key officials: Donald M. Stewart, president and chief executive officer; Anne Blanton, executive vice president of administration; Carol Y. Crenshaw, vice president of finance; Merri Ex, vice president of external relations; Sarah Solotaroff, vice president of programs; Terry Mazany, director of the Education Initiative and senior program officer; Margo De Ley, Ada Mary Gugenheim, Michael Marcus, and Peggy Mueller, senior program officers; Sandy Chears, grants manager; Jennifer B. Jobrack, director of communications; James J. Glasser, chairman of the Executive Committee.

W.M. KECK FOUNDATION
550 South Hope Street, Suite 2500
Los Angeles, Calif. 90071
(213) 680-3833
http://www.wmkeck.org

Period covered: Year ending December 31, 2002.

Purpose and areas of support: William Myron Keck, founder of the Superior Oil Company and grandfather of the current chairman, established the foundation in 1954. Grant making is limited to institutions and programs in the United States.

In 2002, the foundation awarded 40 grants totaling approximately $27-million in the following program areas: science and engineering, which received 15 grants totaling $11,120,000; medical research, five grants totaling $10,000,000; the Southern California grant program, 16 grants totaling $3,800,000; and the liberal arts, four grants totaling $2,120,-000.

The science, engineering, and medical-research programs seek to improve research and teaching by supporting equipment, facilities, fellowships, and basic research projects. Grants are made primarily to accredited four-year colleges and universities, medical schools, and major, independent research institutions. For example, the University of Colorado at Boulder received $1,500,000 to establish a center for ultracold molecular research.

The foundation announced the fourth class of its Distinguished Young Scholars in Medical Research, part of a five-year, $25-million program for promising scientists at early stages of their careers.

Southern California grants focus on the arts, civic and community-service projects, health care, and precollegiate education. The foundation also recently established the Early Learning Program as a new focus area; grant making stresses projects that improve the quality and availability of learning activities for children ages 5 and younger who live in Los Angeles County.

Liberal-arts grants focus on innovative instruction — including curriculums that incorporate new teaching technologies — and research at leading liberal-arts colleges nationwide.

Application procedure: The foundation has a two-phase application process and awards grants twice a year, in June and December. Prospective applicants should first submit a complete letter of inquiry and supporting documents; the foundation urges interested grant seekers to contact its staff by letter or telephone before sending such a letter. Unsolicited proposals and electronic applications are not accepted. Additional information is available on the foundation’s Web site.

Key officials: Robert A. Day, chairman, president, and chief executive officer; Jonathan D. Jaffrey, vice president and chief administrative officer; Dorothy Fleisher, program director, Southern California; Roxanne Ford, program director, medical research; Maria Pellegrini and Mercedes Talley, program directors, science, engineering, and liberal arts.

WALLACE FOUNDATION

2 Park Avenue, 23rd Floor
New York, N.Y. 10016
(212) 251-9700
http://www.wallacefoundation.org

Period covered: Year ending December 31, 2002.

Note: Financial data represent combined totals for the DeWitt Wallace-Reader’s Digest and the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Funds.

Purpose and areas of support: DeWitt Wallace and his wife, Lila Acheson Wallace, founders of Reader’s Digest magazine, established several small family foundations in the mid-1950s. After their deaths in the mid-1980s, the funds became known as the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund and the DeWitt Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund.

In 2000 the funds merged but maintained legally separate entities operating as the Wallace-Reader’s Digest Funds. As of April of this year, they are one legal entity known as the Wallace Foundation. Grant making supports projects in the United States only. The foundation sold its controlling interest in the Reader’s Digest company in 2002 and plans to sell the remainder of its shares later this year.

In 2002, the funds approved grants totaling $38,626,513 for programs, research, and related activities in the following areas: education, which received $27,-024,202; the arts, $9,716,086; and communities, $1,886,225. About two-thirds of grant dollars, or $27,397,683, came from the DeWitt Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund.

Grants for education support the development of educational leadership, especially among principals and superintendents. For example, the Bridgeport Public Schools, in Connecticut, received $40,000 to develop the leadership skills of urban principals and assistant principals by organizing discussion groups and identifying “master principals.” The Alliance for Education, in Seattle, received $35,000 to bring 10 school principals together with corporate leaders to examine organizational transformation and leadership, and to help those principals in turn educate their colleagues.

Arts-related grants focus on making arts and cultural activities an “active part of people’s everyday lives.” Grant making focuses on three main programs: Leadership and Education in Arts Participation, State Arts Partnerships for Cultural Participation, and Arts4AllPeople. Awards included $450,000 over several years to the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, in New Orleans, to attract new audiences.

Grants for communities seek to augment extracurricular learning opportunities for children and their families and to strengthen relationships among institutions that provide such activities. For example, the Rand Corporation, in Santa Monica, Calif., received $400,000 to study how institutional and family support can improve informal learning opportunities. Also, the Urban Institute, in Washington, received $149,558 to identify and examine the relationships among institutions that provide informal learning programs in several cities.

The foundation also supports research that documents and educates people about “effective ideas and practices” in the program areas described above.

Application procedure: Most grants are awarded through foundation-initiated programs. Although unsolicited proposals are rarely supported, organizations may submit letters of inquiry. Additional information is available on the foundation’s Web site.

Key officials: M. Christine DeVita, president; Nancy M. Devine, director, communities programs; Richard D. Laine, director, education programs; Michael Moore, director, arts programs; Jack Booker, director, operations; Mary Geras, director, finance; Lucas Bernays Held, director, communications; Rob Nagel, director, investments; Edward Pauly, director, evaluation; Kimberly Jinnett, Sabrina Hope King, Rory MacPherson, Sheila Murphy, Jody Spiro, and Jessica Schwartz, senior officers; Walter V. Shipley, chairman of the Board of Trustees.