|
INVESTMENT POLICY
We do not accept unsolicited requests for funding. Grants to qualified organizations are made in several categories from the following funds:
- Income to the General Fund is primarily focused on programs for those children, youth and their families who are severely disadvantaged economically. Grants are made in two categories:
- Grants responding to proposals we solicit from organizations about which one or more of the Trustees are personally and directly knowledgeable. These grants may be seed or startup grants, grants for specific projects of a limited duration, and may evolve into annual general support grants if appropriate.
- Annual support grants. These are currently made to those programs so indicated on our grant list.
- Income to the W. E. Edwards Fund is distributed annually to a number of organizations specified under the will of the donor.
- The Arts Fund and Astronomy Fund are unendowed, pass-through funds. Grants from these two funds are suggested by the donors.
Because of our programmatic focus on economically disadvantaged people, we make most of our investable assets available for investments in institutions involved in economic development in poor neighborhoods. In addition we may also make grants from time to time to qualified organizations in support of their economic development activities. These investments include:
- Deposits in community development banks (such as South Shore in Chicago and Community Capital in Brooklyn) and Federal community development credit unions.
- Loans for low income housing and other real estate, either directly or through intermediaries such as community loan funds.
Other investable assets are held in socially responsible money market or mutual investment funds. We do not solicit proposals for these investments or grants, nor do we make investments in or grants to individual enterprises.
The Board of Trustees adopted the above policy to increase our responsiveness to our grantees and to more effectively distribute the limited funds available for grants and investments. As a small, unstaffed foundation, we feel we cannot adequately evaluate proposals from organizations which are not directly familiar to us. Our experience has been that our most successful grants have been to groups with which one or more Trustees are closely acquainted. We want to be able to respond to the special needs of small organizations - both for predictable sources of general support, and for quickly available funds to take advantage of special opportunities or respond to unforeseen challenges.
|
