Vol. 6, Issue 31
   July 25, 2000

Qwest Communications Founder Philip Anschutz to Donate Stock to Foundation

According to documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the donations, to begin in January, amount to roughly 4.6 percent of the 301.2 million shares Anschutz owns of the company. Qwest recently completed a merger with telecommunications company US West, making it the largest phone company in Colorado. Anschutz controls 18.4 percent of the new Qwest, a holding worth approximately $16.67 billion.

The Anschutz Foundation pledged $25 million in January to the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center to help build a new medical center complex.

FCnote: Philip F. Anschutz is donor, chairman, and a director of The Anschutz Foundation (CO), which had assets of $199,983,856 and made grants totaling $2,673,000 in the fiscal year ending 11/30/98.

FCnote: Philip F. Anschutz is president and a director of the Anschutz Collection (CO), a non-grantmaking operating foundation that had assets of $25,115 in the fiscal year ending 11/30/98.

FCnote: Philip F. Anschutz is chairman and a director of The Oz Foundation (formerly known as The Sky's the Limit) (CO), a non-grantmaking operating foundation that had assets of $349 in the year ending 11/30/98.

"Anschutz Gift Exceeds $775 Million." Associated Press in Denver Post 7/18/2000, Business section, p. C-02.

FC003533

Fannie Mae Foundation Fellowship Program Honors Community-Development Leaders

Named in honor of former Fannie Mae chairman and CEO James A. Johnson, the Johnson Fellowship program recognizes and rewards leading urban and rural affordable-housing and community-development professionals by providing an opportunity to pursue personal and professional development goals through a $90,000 grant, which includes a $20,000 educational travel and study stipend.

The grant program allows the fellows to pursue a self-designed, professional-development track to enhance their skills and field experiences and to explore new solutions to current affordable-housing and community-development challenges. At the end of the year, the six Johnson Fellows will meet to report on their progress and will have the opportunity to share their experiences and insights with other housing and community-development professionals.

The 1999 Johnson Fellows are: William Barrow of H Street Development Corporation, Washington, D.C.; Gloria Guerrero of Rural Development and Finance Corporation, San Antonio, Texas; Lynette Lee of East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation, Oakland, California; Bea Stotzer of New Economics for Women, Los Angeles; Ray Stranske of Hope Communities, Denver, Colorado; and, Mtamanika Youngblood of Historic District Development Corporation, Atlanta, Georgia.

FCnote: The Fannie Mae Foundation (DC) had assets of $385,379,385 and made grants totaling $32,738,878 in the year ending 12/31/98.

"Six Community-Development Leaders Honored Nationally By the Fannie Mae Foundation as James A. Johnson Fellows and Rewarded for Their Work in Housing." Fannie Mae Foundation Press Release 7/24/2000.

FC003532

Gates Foundation Announces $40 Million Commitment to Help Homeless

The gift will help fund the new Healthy Families Program, a $156 million public-private project to be jointly administered by the foundation, the state of Washington, the city of Seattle, and the counties of King, Pierce, and Snohomish. The program, which will provide money for more than 1,500 new transitional housing units as well as comprehensive social service programs, is expected to serve some 30,000 families over the next five years.

To help determine the most effective ways of providing aid to homeless families, the foundation has been working with the University of Washington School of Social Work and the city of Seattle in examining efforts to combine housing and services to support families during periods of crisis.

"Through our research, we discovered that housing alone may be insufficient, and supportive services, such as childcare, job training, domestic violence counseling, and other case management, along with appropriate housing can keep families together, and make a lasting difference in their lives," said Nancy Hooyman, dean of the University of Washington School of Social Work.

A steering committee comprised of experts in housing and social services will set policies on funding decisions and the operation of the Healthy Families Program. For the next three years, nonprofit organizations in the tri-county area will be asked to respond twice a year to Request for Proposals (RFP) that will encourage a team approach to support both service delivery and housing production. (The initial RFP is expected to be issued in mid-September). The University of Washington School of Social Work will evaluate the success of the initiative and the effects that it has on stabilizing families in crisis.

"Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Establishes Healthy Families Program with $40 Million Grant." Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Press Release 7/27/2000.

Shors, Benjamin. "Gates Gift Will Give a Boost to Homeless Families." Seattle Times 7/28/2000.

FC003531

Leading National Theatres Program Announces Major Grants to American Theatres

Grants of $975,000 will go to six theatres: Theater Workshop, Playwrights Horizons, Repertorio Espanol (all in New York), Long Wharf Theatre (New Haven, Connecticut), McCarter Theatre Company (Princeton, New Jersey), and Trinity Repertory (Providence, Rhode Island). The Sundance Institute in Utah will receive $1.95 million, American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco is getting $1.05 million, and the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, D.C., is receiving $1.025 million. The gifts will be used to help build income-producing endowments at the theatres to provide support for new productions.

The Leading National Theatres Program was initiated by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation specifically to help established theatres build endowments. In order to make grants of sufficient size, the Duke foundation, with assets of roughly $1.6 billion, decided to partner with the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, which holds assets of more than $4 billion.

The program invited 16 theatres that had previously received money from the Mellon Foundation to apply for the grants. While all of the theatres got money for programming from Mellon, only nine were selected to receive the extra endowment funding from the Duke foundation. The Duke and Mellon foundations also jointly provided funding to smaller, less established theatres through a $4 million grant to the Theater Communications Group for the New Generations Program.

FCnote: The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (NY) had assets of $1,432,316,025 and made grants totaling $14,406,240 in the year ending 12/31/98.

FCnote: The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation (NY) had assets of $3,436,508,062 and made grants totaling $142,216,007 in the year ending 12/31/98.

Rosenfeld, Megan. "Shakespeare Theatre Gets $1 Million Grant." Washington Post 7/26/2000.

FC003530

Bay Area Nonprofits Debate the Importance of Socially Responsible Investing

While some nonprofits specifically design their investment strategies to match their missions, donations that come from community foundations or other grantmaking entities can confuse the boundaries of such socially responsible investing. For example, the American Lung Association refuses to accept donations from tobacco companies, yet earlier this year the group received a small grant from the Community Foundation Silicon Valley, which has a portion of its assets invested in Philip Morris stock.

To prevent such conflicts of interest, advocates of socially responsible investing urge nonprofits to carefully screen not only their own portfolios but the investments of their donors as well — even though such screening can be time-consuming and costly.

For their part, the leaders of many grantmaking foundations say they see their investments first and foremost as a means of delivering the highest possible level of funding to the community. "I think most foundations operate like the newspaper business," said George Vera, chief financial officer of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation in Los Altos. "There's a wall between business and editorial. Similarly, foundations have a wall, or at least a fence, between the investment side and the program side."

Woman, David and John Boudreau. "Foundation Feeding Frenzy: Nonprofits Struggle to Manage Assets in Ways that Won't Undermine Their Social Missions." San Jose Mercury News 7/23/2000.

FC005318

Nonprofit Sector Research Fund Announces New Grants

The 23 grants awarded this year ranged from $2,500 to $50,000. Since its inception, the fund has awarded $7 million to support 300 research projects. (The deadline to submit proposals for 2001 awards is October 2, 2000.)

"Nine years ago we began providing support to university- based and other researchers to study nonprofits," said Alan J. Abramson, director of the fund." We did this because we believe that if nonprofits are to keep up with the ever-changing world and effectively serve clients, then they must be constantly learning. The studies we fund facilitate that learning," Abramson said, adding that, "Nonprofits must find new and better ways to improve their practices and enhance their contribution to society."

"NSRF Announces Research Grants Awarded in 2000; New Studies Will Examine Ways to Improve Nonprofit Management and Public Policy." NSRF News Release 7/24/2000.

FC005319

National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy Releases Report on California Social Change Nonprofits

Based on interviews with leaders of 73 nonprofit advocacy groups and eight of the state's leading foundations, the report finds that California's progressive nonprofits "play a crucial but undervalued role" in shaping public policies benefiting the state's most vulnerable communities.

In contrast to conservative public policy organizations, which receive major support from conservative foundations, corporations, and individuals, community-based public policy groups often struggle for funding. Of the 65 nonprofits engaged in public policy, the report reveals that 34 allocated less than 20 percent of their budget to influencing policy at the state level. And a third cited the lack of general support as the most significant obstacle to their doing effective policy work.

"Community-based nonprofits are a crucial link between marginalized communities and the public policies that affect those communities," said NCRP president Rick Cohen. "NCRP hopes that this report will help catalyze foundation support for community-based public policy work."

"A Democratic Landscape: Funding Social Change in California." National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy 6/15/2000.

FC005320

National Urban League Receives $1.5 Million Grant for New Research Institute

The new institute will conduct research, policy analysis, and advocacy focused on issues of critical importance to the African-American community and the United States as a whole. Dedicated to the pursuit of economic self-reliance and equal opportunity for African Americans, the new institute will concentrate on key issues such as employment and workforce development, education, housing, criminal justice, economic and community development, and macroeconomic policy.

"In recent years, financial constraints forced us to scale back our research activities, leaving policymakers, opinion leaders, and our constituents wanting for information and policy prescriptions derived from our unique community-based perspective," commented National Urban League president Hugh B. Price. "Thanks to this visionary...grant...the National Urban League can revive its historic policy research role focused on African Americans and urban communities."

FCnote: The Nationwide Foundation (OH) had assets of $53,045,687 and made grants totaling $10,794,117 in the year ending 12/31/98.

"National Urban League Establishes the Institute for Opportunity & Equality Through a $1.5 Million Grant from Nationwide Insurance." PR Newswire 7/20/2000.

FC005321

Detroit Institute of Arts to Establish Center for African American Art

"The development of the General Motors Center for African American Art is a natural extension of the DIA's commitment to African American art, and will provide a stimulating new dimension to our collections," said Graham W.J. Beal, director of the DIA. "We intend to create a center of excellence in this area, which will prove to be an invaluable resource for scholars and collectors, as it will house a specialized library related to works by African American artists."

Initially, the center will emphasize research that will lead to special exhibitions, lectures, and symposia. In addition, the center will provide resources and experience to African American students interested in preparing for a curatorial career.

FCnote: The General Motors Foundation, Inc. (MI) had assets of $148,614,025 and made grants totaling $27,823,631 in the year ending 12/31/98.

"The Detroit Institute of Arts to Establish The General Motors Center for African American Art; Center Will Focus on the Study of Achievements And Influence of African American Artists." PR Newswire 7/19/2000.

FC005322

Wallace-Reader's Digest Funds Help Museums Meet Community Needs

The funding will allow AAM to convene a series of nine regional discussions called "Common Dialogues," over the next 18 months. The meetings will give museum professionals and community leaders the opportunity to discuss ways to identify and better serve community needs. Based on those discussions, a national task force will recommend a set of service-related core values to be adopted by the AAM board of directors.

The funds' grant to AAM builds on previous support to a variety of arts organizations from 1989-99. With the help of those grants, museums organized their permanent collections in ways that elevated service to people and better reflected the interests of the audiences they wished to attract.

A recent fund publication, "Service to People: Challenges and Rewards," outlines the successful visitor-centered practices of several funds-supported museums. It is available through the publications section of the funds' Web site.

"Wallace-Reader's Digest Funds Support the Creation Of New Standards for Ways Museums Serve Their Communities." Wallace Funds News Release 7/6/2000.

FC005323

American Investor Makes $2 Million Gift to La Scala

"I've been a lover of music all my life. I started with Italian opera and I've been going to La Scala for many years," he told Reuters. "It's my way of saying 'thank you' to La Scala."

The Cuban-born Vilar has given away roughly $150 million "to keep the operatic tradition alive," making major donations to New York's Metropolitan Opera as well as Carnegie Hall, Austria's Salzburg Festival, the Kirov Opera and Ballet in St. Petersburg, and London's Royal Opera House. His funding of European institutions is intended to help bring U.S.-style private patronage to Europe at a time when many governments are scaling back their arts spending.

"There is no government arts spending in the U.S., so what we don't make in ticket sales has to be made up somewhere else," Vilar explained."The European system must begin to follow this example with a mix of both public and private funding. It will take years, but I hope that through this example there will be more private patronage of the arts in Europe."

Clark, Jennifer. "La Scala Meets the $2 Million Dollar Man." Reuters 7/22/2000.

FC005324

Save America's Treasures Announces $12 Million in Grants for Preservation Projects

Grants totaling nearly $12 million are being given to 41 nonprofit organizations across the nation to support an array of projects including preservation of endangered sites, collections, monuments, and works of art. The projects were selected by a national panel of preservation experts based on recommendations from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). An additional $3 million will support historic preservation work at six federal sites in various parts of the country.

"Save America's Treasures" was launched in 1998 as a public-private partnership of the White House Millennium Council, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and the National Park Service to protect the nation's threatened cultural resources. Congress appropriated $15 million for competitive "Save America's Treasures" grants in Fiscal Year 2000. The grants support nationally significant intellectual and cultural artifacts and nationally significant historic structures and sites. All grants must be matched dollar-for-dollar from nonfederal sources.

"White House Millennium Council Announces Recipients of 'Save America's Treasures' Grants." NEH News Release 7/19/2000.

FC005325

Joyce Foundation Funds Gun Policy Survey

The 1999 National Gun Policy Survey (NGPS), the fourth such annual survey, was conducted by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago in collaboration with the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research and the Joyce Foundation. The NGPS is a random-digit- dial telephone survey of 1,182 adults representative of the U.S. population in the fall of 1999. (For complete results of the 1999 Survey, visit http://www.norc.uchicago.edu/online/gunrpt.htm.

"Americans favor all measures to regulate firearms short of prohibiting guns in general," said NORC’s general social survey director Tom W. Smith. "First, most people, including most gun owners, believe there should be a set of common-sense regulations to control firearms, just as there are for automobiles. Second, most people's motto when it comes to firearms appears to be 'safety first.' Gun safety is a concern of the vast majority of people."

"Americans Want Congress to Hold Hearings on Gun Industry, Begin Regulating Guns for Quality and Safety, Survey Shows." Joyce Foundation News Release 7/20/2000.

FC005326

California HealthCare Foundation Report Covers Candidates Positions on Healthcare

In "Election 2000: What the Candidates Say About Health Care," the candidates discussed key election year issues including coverage for uninsured Americans, rising health- care costs, improving the quality of healthcare, shoring up Medicare, and covering prescription drugs for seniors.

"The candidates recognize health care will be a major issue in this election year and that is why they have offered detailed answers to our tough questions," said Mark D. Smith, M.D., M.B.A., president and CEO of the California HealthCare Foundation. The foundation is the sponsor of HealthVote 2000, a nonpartisan California public education campaign designed to encourage discussion of healthcare issues by political candidates, the media, and the public in the months preceding the 2000 elections.

The full report on the health policy survey is available for download at the California HealthCare Foundation's Web site: http://www.chcf.org/

"Presidential, U.S. Senate, Key Congressional Candidates Stake Out Positions on Health Care." California HealthCare Foundation 7/22/2000.

FC005327

New Study Finds Public Healthcare Benefits Not a Draw for Immigrants

According to the study's authors, the findings raise doubts about the usefulness of public policies designed to restrict access to healthcare services for immigrants in order to relieve pressure on health and other social service budgets.

"These people are coming to the country to work and be with their families. Putting restrictions on healthcare is not going to stop illegal immigration," commented study co-author Marc L. Berk, Ph.D., director of Project HOPE's Center for Health Affairs. "If states are having budget problems as a result of public health issues, it's not being driven primarily by undocumented immigrants," he added.

The study, conducted by researchers at Project HOPE, appears in the July/August issue of the journal Health Affairs.

"Health Care Not a Factor Driving Immigrants to the United States, Says New Study." Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Press Release 7/17/2000.

FC005328

Commonwealth Fund Reports on Attitudes Toward Medicare

The study, "Counting on Medicare: Perspectives and Concerns of Americans Ages 50 to 70," reports that Medicare beneficiaries ages 65 to 70 are more likely than adults ages 50 to 64 (who are generally not yet eligible for the program) to be very confident in their ability to obtain quality medical care when needed and to be satisfied with the quality of that care.

While participants in the study value the services provided by Medicare, many are struggling to pay for prescription drugs, which Medicare doesn't cover. Medicare's benefit package was designed when the program was established in 1965 and hasn't changed significantly since then, despite the fact that drugs play an increasingly important role in modern medicine.

"Americans in this age group who are or will be covered by Medicare in the next 15 years generally trust in Medicare to provide excellent health care services," said Karen Davis, president of the Commonwealth Fund and a coauthor of the report. "But many of these people fear for their financial security if they have to set aside so much personal income to pay for drugs needed to maintain good health."

The full report can be downloaded at no charge from the Commonwealth Fund's Web site: http://www.cmwf.org/

"Americans Value Medicare: Two-Thirds of Those Ages 50 to 64 Support Early Buy-In; Lack of Prescription Drug Benefit a Major Concern." Commonwealth Fund News Release 7/21/2000.

FC005329

The Foundation Center