Foundation Roundup

“Bowling Alone” Author Receives Foundation Funding for Social Capital Study
Harvard University professor Robert Putnam, the author of the book, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000), has been awarded more than $1 million by the Ford Foundation and dozens of community-based foundations to conduct a national survey and local opinion polls gauged at measuring America’s supply of social capital. “Social capital” refers to the collective value of all “social networks” and the motivation that individuals derive from these networks to do things for each other.

The new survey and polls will be conducted under the direction of the Saguaro Seminar, which is based at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

New Report Finds Racial Disparities Pervasive in Juvenile Justice System
Minority youth experience more severe treatment than their white peers at every stage of the juvenile justice process, finds a comprehensive new report commissioned by the Building Blocks for Youth initiative, a national project to address unfairness in the juvenile justice system. According to the study, entitled And Justice for Some, the harsher treatment of youth of color puts them at a “cumulative disadvantage” that has led to an over-representation of minority youth in confinement across the United States. The report was prepared by the National Council on Crime and Delinquency (NCCD) and funded by the Justice Department and the Ford, MacArthur, Rockefeller, Walter Johnson and Annie E. Casey foundations and the Center on Crime, Communities and Culture of George Soros’s Open Society Institute.

According to the new report’s findings, when white youth and minority youth were charged with the same offenses, African-American youth with no prior admissions were six times more likely to be incarcerated in public facilities than white youth with the same background. Latino youth were three times more likely than white youth to be incarcerated. Minority youth were also much more likely to be waived from juvenile court to adult criminal court than white youth when charged with the same offenses.

Kaiser Family Foundation Poll Reveals Misconceptions about America’s Uninsured
Americans are aware of the problems facing the uninsured, but their perceptions about the 44 million people without health insurance largely miss the mark, a new poll reveals. The results of the survey were released by PBS’s NewsHour with Jim Lehrer and the California-based Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation as part of an ongoing partnership between the two to provide in-depth information about health issues to the public.

According to the survey, 57 percent of respondents incorrectly stated that the majority of the uninsured are unemployed or from families where no one works. In fact, more than 8 in 10 uninsured Americans are employed or are dependents of people who work, according to data compiled by the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured.

Still, Americans are aware of some of the problems facing the uninsured. More than 6 in 10 know, for example, that the uninsured are less likely to have visited a physician recently, to have regular access to medical care, and to use preventive health services than people who have health coverage. But less than half (43 percent) of those surveyed knew that the uninsured are more likely to have health problems overall.

While Americans support action on the issue, there is little agreement on what remedies to pursue. Survey respondents were widely divided, for example, when asked about various options for expanding insurance coverage, with only 41 percent saying they would pay $50 a month or more to extend coverage to the uninsured.

New Directions/New Donors — $42.5 million for the Arts
The Ford Foundation has announced a landmark program, New Directions/New Donors for the Arts: A Ford Foundation Cultural Initiative. This initiative will provide $40 million in one-time challenge grants to 28 nonprofit organizations across the country from every artistic discipline. It is designed to capitalize on two concurrent national trends: an expanding economy, which has created a new generation of potential donors, and the fresh energy and vision exemplified by arts organizations working in creative new directions.

The challenge grants will be used to generate donations from individuals over the next 3 to 5 years, raising an additional $73 million in endowed funds for artistic and operating expenses. The initiative also includes a $2.5 million grant to the Nonprofit Finance Fund, which will document the grantees’ lessons in building support among individual donors and use this information to develop publications, web-based resources and training opportunities for the benefit of the larger arts field.

Group’s Message: “Don’t Blow It”
A new web site created by the Technology Project lets citizens voice their support for nuclear reductions at the click of a mouse. Visitors can send a free, paperless e-postcard to President Bill Clinton in support of strong arms reductions and against a new $60 billion “Star Wars” anti-missile system. The site also enables citizens to invite friends to DontBlowIt.org, become a virtual volunteer and learn more about nuclear disarmament.

To support their cause, DontBlowIt.org leaders cite a study by the Mellman Group that finds about 70 percent of Americans believe reducing or eliminating the more than 36,000 nuclear weapons around the world should be one of the country’s top policy priorities.

A supporting organization to the Rockefeller Family Fund, the Technology Project is a nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating social and political change by using technology to build community collaboration and citizen engagement.

DontBlowIt.org is funded by the W. Alton Jones Foun-dation and the Ploughshares Fund and is expected to remain up until the end of the year.

MacArthur Foundation Makes Grants to Twenty-Three Media Centers
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation has awarded $500,000 in grants to 23 media centers and national media organizations throughout the nation. The awards were made to media centers in 10 states and the District of Columbia for film and video projects in three categories: those that foster community engagement; those that serve and involve children and youth; and those that stimulate community discussion about issues related to welfare, workforce development, and economic inequality. Under the program of support for media centers, the Foundation makes 15 to 25 grants ranging from $10,000 to $30,000 each year.

Media centers provide community-based and independent film and video producers with access to training and other resources needed to produce, exhibit, and distribute film and video. National media organizations provide support for independent producers, services to the field, or exhibition and distribution of independent media to the public. Since 1986, the MacArthur Foundation has provided nearly $15.3 million in support for more than 100 media centers, with an increasing focus on community-based centers that promote social justice and democracy through media and that serve people and communities typically at a disadvantage with respect to the media.

Pew Internet Study Shows Surge of Women Online
More than nine million women have gone online for the first time in the last six months, bringing a measure of gender parity to the Internet population, a study released by the new Pew Internet & American Life Project, a research center created to explore the social impact of the Internet, reports.

According to the report, the rapid increase in Internet use by women is helping to reshape America’s social landscape as women in growing numbers use e-mail to enrich their relationships with family and friends as well as enlarge their social networks. This finding counters the conclusions of earlier studies that reported a correlation between Internet use and social isolation. The Pew Internet & Amer-ican Life Project is funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts through a grant to the Tides Center. The Washington, DC-based initiative will explore aspects of the Internet that have not received sustained attention from policymakers and scholars: its effect on children and families, communities, schools, the workplace and civic and political life.

Three-Sector Collaborative to Address Social Change
In order to more proactively address the changes the communications revolution is introducing into business, government and the nonprofit sector, six national infrastructure organizations have joined together to form the Three-Sector Collaborative. The organizations—the Conference Board, the Council on Foundations, Independent Sector, the National Academy of Public Administration, the National Alliance of Business and the National Governors’ Association—will share their organizational knowledge and resources in an effort to help institutions in all three sectors work more effectively to benefit local communities and society in general.

The collaborative has identified and will seek to address several major trends affecting the roles and relationships of organizations and institutions in all three sectors. These include the delivery of social service programs by corporations, the creation of for-profit subsidiaries by nonprofits, and the increasing willingness of government officials to collaborate with members of the for-profit and nonprofit sectors. The group, which plans to sponsor online conversations and will convene regional forums later this year, has already issued an initial discussion paper, Changing Roles, Changing Relationships: The New Challenge for Business, Nonprofit Organizations, and Government.

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