Grant Maker at IBM Foundation Is Honored for His Creativity

The Council on Foundations has given its top award for creative grant making to Stanley S. Litow, president of the I.B.M. International Foundation and vice president of I.B.M.’s corporate-community relations program.

The honor comes with a $10,000 prize that the recipient can use in any way that advances his or her professional development.

Mr. Litow is only the second corporate grant maker to receive the Robert W. Scrivner Award for Creative Grantmaking. Since it was first given in 1985, the award has gone primarily to private- or community-foundation leaders.

Under Mr. Litow’s direction, I.B.M. made $125-million in grants last year. Mr. Litow’s primary interest has been in the company’s $40-million “Reinventing Education” grant-making program.

The program, which seeks to help school districts concentrate on the best ways to improve student achievement, is working in 21 sites around the United States and in seven projects outside the country, including one in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Mr. Litow will receive his award at the annual meeting of the Council on Foundations, to be held in Los Angeles next month. The award was created as a memorial to the late Robert Winston Scrivner, the first executive director of the Rockefeller Family Fund.