FN&C Now

Volume 6, Number 24 – June 30, 2005 IN THIS ISSUE JUST PUBLISHED: Community foundation investments return double-digit gains AT THE COUNCIL: July 8 marks session proposal deadline for the 2006 Annual Conference; family foundation e-newsletter launched; sign up for Breaking News NOW ONLINE: National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy expands website AWARDS ROUNDUP: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation names 43 Grand Challenges in Global Health winners; William T. Grant Foundation announces first distinguished fellows ACT NOW: Register for teleconference on raising charitable children; sign up for conference on building nonprofit capacity ON THE MOVE: Edward F. Rover (Markle); Jayne Keith, Philip Pool and Barbara Paul Robinson (Teagle); Patrick N. Naswell (Mott); Janine Steffens (McKnight); Adrian D. Abner and Joseph Martyak (American Legacy) JUST PUBLISHED RETURNS RISE: The average community foundation received a return on its assets of 10.8 percent in 2004, according to 2004 Investment Performance and Practices of Community Foundations, from the Council on Foundations. The median 15-year annualized return for participating community foundations was 9.5 percent. At the end of 2004, 65.4 percent of community foundation assets were invested in equities, 22.1 percent in fixed income, 9.8 percent in alternative strategies (a new high) and 2.7 percent in cash. The survey collected data from 169 community foundations and 189 portfolios (20 foundations are in both corporate and trust forms). Council members have online access to the report's executive summary and ten key tables (PDF) and individual multiyear and calendar year performance (Excel): http://www.cof.org/index.cfm?containerid=39&menuContainerName=&navID=0&orglink=58 . The full report will be distributed in early September, two weeks before the Council's 2005 Fall Conference for Community Foundations: http://int2.cof.org/conferences/fall2005 . AT THE COUNCIL CALL FOR SESSIONS: Time's running out! The 2006 Annual Conference Committee invites you to participate in the Council on Foundations' 57th Annual Conference by submitting a session proposal by July 8, 2005. The theme is Insight, Inspiration and Innovation, and the conference will be held in Pittsburgh May 7–9, 2006. Pittsburgh is the birthplace of some of the more notable fortunes that founded American philanthropy. Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick and Andrew Mellon built their wealth in Western Pennsylvania, and each left a strong legacy that lives on locally. We seek informative, peer-led sessions that will encourage grantmakers to excel in the legal, regulatory and governance aspects of establishing and managing foundations and corporate giving programs and the management and leadership challenges of making a positive difference in the world through grantmaking. Find out more or submit a proposal: http://www.cof.org/ files/Documents/Conferences/AC2006/2006_Call_form_-_FINAL-Post.doc . NEW E-NEWSLETTER: Family Foundation Services launched Family Matters Now, a monthly e-newsletter to provide the Council's family foundation members timely updates on the Council and its colleague organizations. The June issue highlights the new Stewardship Principles for Family Foundations database, the Family Foundation Investment Performance and Asset Allocation Survey and a new study, Moving Forward While Staying in Place: Embedded Funders and Community Change. It also provides an update on the 2006 Family Foundation Conference and a calendar of other events. Read the issue: http://www.cof.org/Content/Newsletter/Display.cfm?newsletterID=2757 . FREE NEWS SERVICE: Breaking News is a free, daily e-mail newsletter summarizing the top articles—mostly from national and regional newspapers—about philanthropy. Breaking News is available to Council members only. Subscribe by e-mailing your name, title and foundation name to media@cof.org. NOW ONLINE GROWING SITE: The National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP) expanded its website by making selected articles from Responsive Philanthropy available online. Read articles from the Spring 2000 to the Summer 2004 issues, including such topics as philanthropy after 9/11, corporate philanthropy, affirmative action and more, at: http://ncrp.org/rparticles.asp . The site also now has a blog, which will include NCRP's latest analysis of nonprofit issues: http://ncrp.org/blog.asp . AWARDS ROUNDUP GLOBAL HEALTH: The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced 43 winners of the Grand Challenges in Global Health initiative, an effort to achieve breakthroughs against diseases that kill millions in the world's poorest countries. The 43 grants total $436.6 million for a range of innovative research projects involving scientists in 33 countries. Projects include developing a more nutritious banana, encasing vaccines in harmless bacteria and designing a time-released HIV vaccine. The initiative aims to create deliverable technologies—effective health tools that are also inexpensive to produce, easy to distribute and simple to use in developing countries. The foundation launched the initiative in 2003, in partnership with the National Institutes of Health, and received additional funding recently from the Wellcome Trust and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Read more and view the list of winners: http://www.gatesfoundation.org/GlobalHealth/Announcements/Announce-050627.htm . NEW FELLOWS: The William T. Grant Foundation selected six individuals as the first class of William T. Grant Distinguished Fellows. Fellows, who receive up to $175,000 to improve connections between practice, policy and research in the youth development field, are: Rob Geen, director, Urban Institute's Child Welfare Research Program, Washington, DC; Deborah Gorman-Smith, professor of psychology in psychiatry, University of Illinois at Chicago; Joanne Nicholson, associate professor of psychiatry and family medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester; Jean Rhodes, professor of psychology, University of Massachusetts, Boston; Lauren A. Smith, associate professor of pediatrics, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston Medical Center; and Constance M. Yowell, professor of education at the University of Chicago, Chapin Hall. The program enables influential mid-career practitioners and policymakers to work and be mentored in research settings and gives researchers the opportunity to immerse themselves in practice or policy settings. Read more: http://www.wtgrantfoundation.org/newsletter3039/newsletter_show.htm?doc_id=282306 . ACT NOW CHARITABLE CHILDREN: The National Center for Family Philanthropy will hold a teleconference, Raising Charitable Children, July 13, from noon to 1:30 p.m., Eastern Time. Kathryn Agard, executive director of Learning to Give, will provide first steps parents can take to help their children become philanthropic and give examples of what parents can do specifically for their preteens (10- to 12-year-olds) and teenagers (13- to 18-year-olds) to involve them in family philanthropy. Registration is required. Find out more: http://www.ncfp.org/program-teleconferences.htm . CAPACITY-BUILDING: The Alliance for Nonprofit Management and the National Council of Nonprofit Associations will hold their third joint conference, The Communities We Serve: Building Capacity for Impact, in Chicago, July 13–17, 2005. The conference will bring together more than 500 nonprofit capacity builders, state associations of nonprofits, grantmakers and others for sessions on topics such as board governance, strategic planning and cultural competency. Peggy Saika, executive director, Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy, will deliver the keynote address. Other speakers include Elizabeth Lach, Donors Forum of Chicago; Rob Collier, Council of Michigan Foundations; Willa Seldon, Tides Center; and William Ryan, Harvard University's Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations. Register or find out more: http://www.allianceonline.org/annual_conference . ON THE MOVE Dana Foundation President EDWARD F. ROVER was named to the board of the Markle Foundation. Read more: http://www.markle.org/resources/press_center/ press_releases/2005/press_release_06282005.php . The Teagle Foundation elected JAYNE KEITH, PHILIP POOL AND BARBARA PAUL ROBINSON to its board. Read more: http://www.teaglefoundation.org/about/news/press/20050627.aspx . The Charles Stewart Mott Foundation hired PATRICK N. NASWELL as program officer for the Flint area team. Read more: http://www.mott.org/news/pr-detail.asp?newsid=38 . JANINE STEFFENS is now receptionist/administrative assistant at The McKnight Foundation. Read more: http://www.mcknight.org/about/news_detail.aspx?itemID=3042&catID=53&typeID=2 . ADRIAN D. ABNER was appointed youth board liaison at the American Legacy Foundation, and JOSEPH MARTYAK became executive vice president for marketing, communications and public policy. Read more: http://www.americanlegacy.org/American Legacy/skins/alf/display.aspx?CategoryID=907e9b8f-9978-476c-bcb2-a518dbd3c464 &ObjectID=c535bfcc-96d1-471d-91e8-e9797945b227&Action=display_user_object &Mode=user&ModuleID=ad3a024a-b2d6-4593-874f-9b66136bc614 . SUBSCRIBE FN&C Now is published by the Council on Foundations to keep you in the loop by sharing news between bimonthly editions of Foundation News & Commentary magazine (FN&C Now Web archive: http://www.foundationnews.org/now/index.htm ). Please feel free to forward this message to your friends and colleagues who might enjoy it. To subscribe (it's free) to FN&C Now, send an e-mail to fncnow@cof.org . Questions or comments about FN&C Now? Contact Paula J. Kelly at 202/467-0261. To contribute a news item for consideration, please e-mail fncnow@cof.org . To unsubscribe, send a blank e-mail to leave-fncnow-4832R@int1.cof.org . To subscribe to Foundation News & Commentary, an award-winning magazine, please send an e-mail to fncsubs@cof.org , or visit our website at http://www.icnfull.com/cgi-bin/cobolscript.exe?cof/cofmain.cbl . Council on Foundations 1828 L Street, NW Washington, DC 20036 202/466-6512 webmaster@cof.org last update: 6.30.05