Grantmakers in the News
April 1, 2004
Name: The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation
Year founded: 1995
Contact: Deva Hirsch, V.P.; or Elise Eplan, V.P.
Address: 3290 Northside Pkwy., N.W., Ste. 600, Atlanta, GA 30327
Telephone: 404-442-0991
URL: www.blankfoundation.org
The Atlanta-based Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation has
named Penelope McPhee as president. McPhee, who will assume her new position in April, joins the foundation from the
John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, where she was vice president and chief program officer and was responsible for
directing Knight's $1.8 billion grants program. A former president of Grantmakers in the Arts, McPhee serves on the board
of the Council on Foundations and is a former board member of the Council of Southeastern Foundations and the former chair
of the Dade County Art in Public Places Trust.
As president of The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, McPhee will initially direct the implementation of the
foundation's strategic plan, which will focus its grant-making and other resources on promoting positive change in people's
lives and building and improving the communities in which they live. McPhee also will oversee the operations of the Atlanta
Falcons Youth Foundation.
The trustees of the Atlanta-based Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation announced on March 30 a new strategic direction that
sharpens the foundation's focus on providing opportunities to children and youth and will commit $100 million to the effort
over the next five years.
The foundation launched a strategic planning review in early 2003 after reaching the $100 million milestone in giving.
Through a process involving foundation trustees, staff, grant recipients, civic leaders, and community partners, the
foundation sought to assess what it had learned from its grantmaking and to determine how it could have a greater impact in
the future.
To that end, the foundation will work to promote positive change in people's lives and to build and enhance the communities
in which they live, with a strong interest in improving the circumstances of low-income youth and their families. Over the
next five years. The foundation will continue to work in three communities where the
Blank family has deep roots: Atlanta; Maricopa County, Arizona; and Beaufort County, South Carolina.
The strategic direction builds on experience the Foundation has gained in broad-based support of youth development and
quality of life issues since 1995. The Foundation has identified specific focus areas as part of each initiative:
Fostering Opportunity supports efforts to provide a fair chance for everyone by helping low-income youth and their
families overcome barriers imposed by the inequities of poverty and origin. It targets two critical stages in youth
development:
- Better Beginnings — To ensure equal access to opportunity for all young children between birth and age 5,
the Foundation will support and promote high quality early care and education services for low-income children
and their families, preparation for parenthood, and abuse prevention, beginning in the City of Atlanta.
- Pathways to Success — To improve the life chances of young people, the Foundation will support work to
expand educational opportunities for low-income youth beyond high school. This work will begin in the City of
Atlanta; Maricopa County, Arizona; and Beaufort County, South Carolina. Strategies will support initiatives that
guide and encourage youth, and provide information on how to prepare and qualify for postsecondary programs and
financial aid.
Enhancing Quality of Life extends the Blank family’s interest in green space preservation and the arts. Its goal is
to help ensure that growing communities remain desirable places to live by protecting the environment, increasing
recreational opportunities, and fostering diverse arts and cultural activities. The Foundation will support activities in two
quality-of-life focus areas:
- Inspiring Spaces — To help develop a system of great parks in the City of Atlanta, through planning,
land acquisition, maintenance and public support.
- The Art of Change — To develop the new world-class home for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and to
explore ways that the new facility can be a resource to strengthen the broader arts community.
The Foundation will use a proactive grant making process going forward. It will identify and invite potential partners to
receive grants around its initiatives, supporting efforts that focus on specific goals. The Foundation will no longer
accept unsolicited grant requests.
While the Foundation will utilize grant making as a primary strategy, it will support additional tools to support change.
The Foundation will seek partners in business, civic, governmental, foundation and nonprofit sectors who share interest in
the goals of its initiatives. Foundation staff will engage partners in efforts that include: developing and expanding
promising practices and model programs; convening people and organizations around issues; developing knowledge to
inform policy decisions through research; communicating findings to the community and decision-makers through publications
and educational forums; and spurring civic action and community involvement for positive change.
"Our family is committed to being a partner in promoting positive change — in individual lives and in entire communities,"
said Arthur Blank. "We've listened to our partners, and we've learned a great deal about grantmaking.... This plan is a
natural evolution of our work and our desire to go deeper in areas where we think we can help make a lasting difference."
Arthur M. Blank founded The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation in 1995 to share his civic values and the joy of giving
with his family. The foundation awards grants in communities where
members of the Blank family have community roots, including Georgia and coastal South Carolina. It also supports two
affiliated funds: the Atlanta Falcons Youth Foundation and the Mountain Sky Guest Ranch Fund in Montana.
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