The 23 worldwide foundations established by Andrew Carnegie during his lifetime have announced the names of the recipients of The Andrew Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy 2005.
The recipients of the awards, which are regarded as the Nobel prize for philanthropy, will be:
His Highness, the Aga Khan
Anna Southall, Chair of the Barrow Cadbury Trust, on behalf of the Cadbury family
Eleanor Hewlett Gimon, on behalf of the Hewlett family;
Susan Packard Orr on behalf of the Packard family;
Sir Tom Farmer, Scots founder of Kwik-Fit
Agnes Gund, chair of the New York Museum of Modern Art.
Named after Scots-American philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, who left the equivalent of $15 billion to philanthropy, the Medal is awarded to inspiring philanthropists. The Award Ceremony will take place at the new home of Scotland’s Parliament in Edinburgh on 4 October, preceded by an international philanthropy symposium.
The events are being organized by the UK-based Carnegie trusts.
For more details, see www.carnegieuktrust.org.uk
The announcement comes on the anniversary of Carnegie’s death on August 11, 1919. The Scots American gave away the equivalent of nearly $15 billion dollars, establishing a family of foundations worldwide.
These foundations have been responsible for providing incalculable benefits such as 2,500 free libraries across the world, the Carnegie Hall in New York and the International Peace Palace in The Hague. Carnegie’s philanthropy funded JK Galbraith’s The Affluent Society and the discovery of insulin. Even the children’s favourite, Sesame Street, was supported by Carnegie.
Today the Carnegie foundations support cutting edge scientific research into global ecology; millions of dollars of educational and social development projects in Africa; conflict resolution and democracy-building in the former USSR, China and the Middle East; and civil society and community development initiatives in Europe and North America.
For the first time, the medal ceremony will take place in Scotland, where Andrew Carnegie was born. The Debating Chamber of Scotland’s Parliament at Holyrood, Edinburgh, will be the setting of the presentation on October 4 to six philanthropists and their families, deemed to have contributed their philanthropy to improve the conditions of mankind. They will be presented in front of an invited audience of over 400 from the worlds of philanthropy, politics, the media and non-governmental organisations, who will have taken part in an international philanthropy symposium organised by Carnegie earlier in the day.
Presented every two years to inspirational philanthropists and their families who have dedicated their private wealth to public good, previous recipients of the awards include the Gates, Rockefeller and Sainsbury families, media tycoon Ted Turner and financier George Soros.
William Thomson, a great grandson of Andrew Carnegie, is Chair of the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy 2005 Organising Committee and the International Selection Committee 2005. He said:
“The Medals of Philanthropy commemorate Carnegie’s philanthropic legacy and belief that private wealth should be used to benefit mankind. Recipients of the medal share Andrew Carnegie’s vision that distributing one’s accumulated wealth for the common good is just as important a task as building up that wealth.
“Philanthropic work must also reflect a range and depth of endeavours and a sustained record of accomplishment. Additionally the impact of the philanthropy on a field, a nation or on the international community needs to be strong and continuous.
“I need hardly say that the 2005 Medals will be presented to people whose philanthropic works more than fit these criteria and the Selection Committee, in announcing their names today, looks forward to an event which honours philanthropy throughout the world, past and present.”
The event is being supported by the Scottish Parliament, the Scottish Executive, EventScotland, Visit Scotland, the Royal Bank of Scotland, the City of Edinburgh Council and Fife Council and has been organised by the four UK-based Carnegie Trusts.
NOTE TO EDITORS:
Below please find:
Biographies of each of the recipients and their foundations, along with details of some of their philanthropic work. Media contact details are at the end of each biography
Pictures of the recipients are available from Frances Donald. See contact details below.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
Alex Barr +44 (0) 141 333 9585
Frances Donald +44 (0) 1592 643 200
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ON THE SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT OR HOLYROOD, PLEASE CONTACT:
Sally Coyne +44 (0) 131 348 6265
BIOGRAPHIES OF MEDAL RECIPIENTS
1. MEDAL RECIPIENT: ANNA SOUTHALL, ON BEHALF OF THE CADBURY FAMILY
Anna Southall is Chair of the Barrow Cadbury Trust and Fund, a charitable foundation which promotes civil rights, racial justice, peace and democracy.
She was previously Chief Executive at Resource: the Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries, and before that Director of the National Museums and Galleries of Wales (1998-2002). She was a member of the Commission on Women and the Criminal Justice System, and is currently a member of a similar commission looking at young people's experiences of the system. She also serves on the Department of Culture, Media and Sport's Spoliation Advisory Panel.
THE CADBURY FAMILY
The Cadbury family has a long established tradition of philanthropy. Driven by a passion for social reform linked to the family’s Quaker beliefs, John Cadbury, who founded the chocolate business in 1831, was committed to public service and a significant supporter of charitable causes, notably child labourers. John’s sons, Richard and George, who took over the business in 1861, continued their father’s work in support of voluntary and public work that promoted a more just society.
George Cadbury was a modest yet extremely generous philanthropist who notably established the UK’s first self-supporting garden city, ‘Bourneville Village’ in 1878, designed to provide affordable quality homes in a healthy environment for industrial workers. In 1901, George gave the village to the Bourneville Village Trust which today continues to provide social housing to some 25,000 people.
Richard’s son Barrow continued the family’s charitable tradition by establishing the Barrow Cadbury Trust (as the Barrow & Geraldine S Cadbury Trust) in 1920. The Barrow Cadbury Trust’s endowment is today worth around £65 million following a merger with the Paul S Cadbury Trust in 1994. Although the funds originally derived from the Cadbury family’s income, the Trust is a wholly separate foundation whose financial, and political, independence is crucial to its aims. Since its launch the original endowment has been significantly added to by a number of the founder’s descendants.
The Barrow Cadbury Trust is unique in its long-standing status as a family run foundation. The Board of Trustees has only ever included direct descendants of its founders and has now reached its fifth generation of members. Currently chaired by Anna Southall, the Board includes Cadbury family members ranging in age from mid 20s to mid 50s and representing a broad spectrum of philanthropic experience and interest.
The Barrow Cadbury Trust is a charitable foundation that seeks to encourage an equal, peaceful and democratic society. As an independent body, the Barrow Cadbury Trust funds innovative, even risky community projects, usually charities, that help provide solutions to local problems and drive social change. Each year Barrow Cadbury spends in the region of £4 million on grants spread across about 200 groups. Since its foundation, the Barrow Cadbury Trust has invested over £150 million in some of the most deprived communities in the UK and in conflict-torn regions across the globe.
Inspired by the pioneering work of its ancestors dating back to the nineteenth century, the Cadbury family as a whole continues to pursue a philanthropic approach to promoting social reform in the present day.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Barrow Cadbury Trust: http://www.bctrust.org.uk/
Bourneville Village Trust: http://www.bvt.org.uk/
MEDIA CONTACT:
Rosie Bain
Fishburn Hedges, 77 Kingsway, London, WC2B 6SR
Tel: 020 7839 4321, Fax: 020 7242 4202
http://www.fishburn-hedges.com
2. MEDAL RECIPIENT: SUSAN PACKARD ORR, ON BEHALF OF THE PACKARD FAMILY
Susan founded Telosa Software, Inc. (formerly named TRAC, Inc.) in 1986. Telosa provides fundraising and donor management software for nonprofit organizations, and Susan has served as Telosa’s Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board since the company’s inception. Prior to starting Telosa, Susan worked as a programmer at Health Computer Services at the University of Minnesota and as an economist at the National Institutes of Health. Susan is currently Chairman of the Board at the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and is a trustee of Stanford University, the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, the Stanford University Hospital, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health, and the Packard Humanities Institute. She served for seven years on the board of Hewlett-Packard Company. Susan holds a M.S. in computer science from New Mexico Tech, and both an M.B.A. degree and a B.A. in economics from Stanford University.
THE DAVID AND LUCILE PACKARD FOUNDATION
The David and Lucile Packard Foundation was created in 1964 by David Packard (1912–1996) and Lucile Salter Packard (1914–1987). David and Lucile Packard shared a deep and abiding interest in giving back to the community and dedicated themselves to philanthropic causes throughout their lives.
In establishing the Foundation, David and Lucile chose issues for support that were close to them and that they believed could improve the quality of life for many individuals: ensuring opportunities for all children to reach their potential, enhancing women’s reproductive health and stabilizing world population, conserving and restoring earth’s natural systems, and encouraging the creative pursuit of science.
The Foundation continues to be guided by the core values that David and Lucile passed on—integrity, respect for all people, belief in individual leadership, commitment to effectiveness, and the capacity to think big—and to build on its history of family involvement and past program successes. The Foundation is governed a Board of Trustees that includes five members of the Packard Family and other individuals with wide-ranging expertise.
The Foundation provides national and international grants, and also has a special focus on the Northern California Counties of San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, and Monterey. The Foundation’s assets were approximately $5.2 billion as of December 31, 2004. General program grant awards totalled approximately $217 million in 2004. The Foundation has a grant-making budget of approximately $200 million in 2005.
MEDIA CONTACT:
John Walker
Communications Officer
The David and Lucile Packard Foundation
300 Second Street · Los Altos · CA · 94022
T 650.917.7122 · Fax 650.941.0663
jwalker(at)packard.org· www.packard.org
3. MEDAL RECIPIENT: ELEANOR HEWLETT GIMON, ON BEHALF OF THE HEWLETT FAMILY
Eleanor Hewlett Gimon, the former Eleanor Louise Hewlett, was raised in Palo Alto, California. After working for the American Institutes of Research in Palo Alto, she moved to Europe with her husband in 1970. While raising their four children, she served on the board of directors of the American Section of the Lycée International de St. Germain-en-Laye, in France. In 1977 she joined the board of directors of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Family Foundation of North America. Mrs. Gimon was also a trustee of Brown University for six years. She is also involved with the Flora Family Foundation, a foundation she created with her siblings to encourage the next generation to become active in philanthropy. Mrs. Gimon received her bachelor's degree from Stanford University in 1964 and has a master's degree in education from Stanford's department of education.
WILLIAM AND FLORA HEWLETT AND THE HEWLETT FOUNDATION
Nearly forty years after Bill and Flora started the Hewlett Foundation in the living room of their Palo Alto house, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation is one of the largest private foundations in the US, with assets of more than $6 billion. The Foundation now makes hundreds of grants per year totalling hundreds of millions of dollars, but the principles that guide its grantmaking are the same as those that inspired Bill and Flora to begin the institution so many years ago – a sincere and heartfelt commitment to help build strong institutions that make a difference in the community and around the world.
Entrepreneur William R. Hewlett established the Hewlett Foundation in 1966 with his wife, Flora, and their eldest son, Walter B. Hewlett. For the first ten years, the Foundation, then known as the William R. Hewlett Foundation, made approximately $15.3 million in grants to organizations in education, population, the arts and Social Services.
In 1977, Mrs. Hewlett died and the Foundation was renamed The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and her oldest daughter, Eleanor Hewlett Gimon, replaced her on the board. The bulk of Mrs Hewlett’s fortune was transferred to the Foundation.
Highly respected for its work in the fields of Conflict Resolution, Education, Environment, Performing Arts, and Population, the Foundation was a key source of funding to a host of institutions that provide vital services to disadvantaged Bay Area communities.
The Foundation’s assets increased to more than $2 billion, and annual grantmaking rose from $35 million in 1993 to $84 million in 1998. They focused at that time on environmental grantmaking on the Western United States and Canada, education funding, neighborhood improvement initiatives, and the U.S.-Latin American Relations Program.
Another foundation, the Flora Family Foundation was set up in 1998 and it made a total of 351 grants for $19.4 million in its first four years of operation. Perhaps as important is the fact that the Flora Family Foundation has given the next generation of Hewlett family members an opportunity to learn about philanthropy and to make a positive difference in the lives of others.
MEDIA CONTACT:
Eric Brown
Communications Director
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
2121 Sand Hill Road
Menlo Park, Ca. 94025
ebrown@hewlett.org
650-234-4500 ext. 5743
4. MEDAL RECIPIENT: AGNES GUND
Agnes Gund was president of The Museum of Modern Art since 1991 and is currently President Emerita. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1938, her mother used to take her to Saturday morning art classes at the Cleveland Museum. Her father collected western painting. She was only 15 when her mother died, since she was the oldest she had to help take care of the five younger children. Her father was George Gund, Jr. He was president of Cleveland Trust Company for twenty five years. He made a lot of money when he sold his rights to Sanka Coffee. Agnes has always been interested in art. She once had a twelve foot high steel and lead baseball mitt on her front yard in Greenwich. She was elected a trustee of The Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1976. In 1977, after New York City budget cuts eliminated art classes in the public schools she founded the Studio in a School Association. It brought artists to New York City public schools to help children develop their own sense of art at an early age. The program even helped raise the reading scores of the students. Ms. Gund was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Clinton in 1997. Agnes Gund is married to Daniel Shapiro, the lawyer, has four children and lives in New York City.
Ms Gund is Chairman of the Mayor’s Cultural Affairs Advisory Commission, New York and a member of numerous charitable trusts, including the J. Paul Getty Trust, Los Angeles and the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation, NY.
MEDIA CONTACT:
Jamie Bennett
Office of Agnes Gund
The Museum of Modern Art
Tel: (212) 708-9765
Fax: (212) 708-9415
http://www.MoMA.org/
5. MEDAL RECIPIENT: SIR TOM FARMER CBE KCSG
Sir Tom Farmer is acknowledged as one of Scotland's foremost entrepreneurs and philanthropists. The youngest of seven children, he was born and grew up in Leith, Edinburgh. Married for forty years to his wife Anne, and with two adult children, he enjoys a life of both personal and business success. Throughout his commercial and private life, Sir Tom has applied a profound Christian and Philanthropic ethic. This has driven an outstanding career in business. Sir Tom set up his first business in the motor trade in 1964 selling it just four years later. In 1971 he set up Kwik Fit selling tyres and exhausts. Sir Tom built Kwik Fit into one of the most admired retailing organisations in Europe with over 2000 centres, and a recognised leader in the development and training of its people, standards of customer service and corporate social responsibility. In 1999, Ford purchased Kwik Fit for over £1 billion. Sir Tom now oversees an extensive portfolio of retailing, commercial property and other business investments.
The leadership that Sir Tom provided at Kwik Fit led to a number of public service appointments, including founding board member of Scottish Enterprise, Chairman of Scottish Business in the communicty and board member of Investors in People. Sir Tom is currently Chairman of the Duke of Edinburgh Award. Sir Tom received a CBE in 1990 and a Knighthood in 199. International recognition of his work includes Officier in de Orde van Orange-Nassau of the Netherlands and the Knight Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland.
A devout Roman Catholic, Sir Tom devotes much of his time to the work of the church. He was appointed a papal knight of St Gregory the Great in 1997. He is a strong supporter of inter faith activities and believes that all faiths and churches can play a valuable role in the development of good citizenship and improvements in society.
In both his business and personal life, Sir Tom has committed himself to using the resources available to him to help others. Amongst his many activities, he opened up his Kwik Fit centres to receive aid from the public for victims of the war in Kosovo, chaired the Scotland Against Drugs campaign and supports the opening up of public access to the arts. Sir Tom has established the Farmer Foundation to provide support to local communities, both at home and abroad, to develop self sufficient means of community and personal development.
Says Sir Tom: "It was a pleasant surprise to be nominated to receive the Andrew Carnegie Medal. Throughout my life I have tried to encourage people to support each other in their family, work and community so that we can all develop together. The Carnegie Foundations provide so much throughout the world to people in terms of opportunities for education and self development. It is a great honour to be recognised by them".
MEDIA CONTACTS:
Robin Dunseath 07770 831 728
Sir Tom Farmer 0131 315 2830
6. MEDAL RECIPIENT: HIS HIGHNESS, THE AGA KHAN
His Highness the Aga Khan became Imam (spiritual leader) of the Shia Imami Ismaili Muslims on July 11, 1957 at the age of 20, succeeding his grandfather, Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah Aga Khan. He is the 49th hereditary Imam of the Ismaili Community and a direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) through his cousin and son-in-law, Ali, the first Imam, and his wife Fatima, the Prophet’s daughter.
In the late-nineteenth century, Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah created a number of agencies to meet the social and economic needs of the Community in South Asia and East Africa. Over the last four and a half decades, the present Aga Khan has expanded the scope and geographical reach of these agencies and brought them together as the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN). The AKDN works for the common good of all citizens regardless of their origin, gender or religious affiliation. It has become one of the largest private development organisations in the world.
The AKDN’s mission is to improve living conditions and opportunities in poor regions of the developing world, specifically in sub-Saharan Africa, South and Central Asia and the Middle East. Its approach is multi-faceted, encompassing economic, social and cultural initiatives, and includes the mobilisation and participation of volunteers. Its efforts may include education and skills training, health and public services, conservation and revitalisation of cultural heritage, infrastructure development, urban planning and rehabilitation, rural development, water and energy management and environmental control. AKDN’s approach also features a long-term engagement with programmes in ways that allow local organisations to gain the experience and confidence they need to become self-reliant.
Many of these efforts attempt to address the feelings of subordination and vulnerability among people in the developing world – a sense that they are victims of an economic and cultural globalisation in which they cannot be full partners but from which they cannot remain apart. Development efforts as varied as microfinance and the restoration of cultural landmarks therefore work to restore hope and dignity in communities where decline was once considered inevitable.
The promotion of pluralism and the strengthening of civil society are two other critical aspects of the Aga Khan’s work. He has often spoken of the need for pluralism as both a precondition for successful development and a way of building trust between communities that are ignorant of each other. A new initiative to establish a Global Centre for Pluralism is an attempt to ameliorate this dangerous “clash of ignorance”. He has also expressed his hope that in the near future, new or expanded civil society organisations ranging from universities to village organisations will assist the developing world build confident, self-reliant societies. Philanthropy can play an important part in assisting these nations, and the Muslim ummah in particular, establish a new era of flourishing economies, progressive legal and political systems and institutions of higher education that are on the frontiers of research and knowledge.
PRESS CONTACT:
Semin Abdulla
Information Officer
Secrétariat de Son Altesse l'Aga Khan
Aiglemont
60270 Gouvieux, France
Tel: +33 3 44 58 40 00
Fax: +33 3 44 58 42 79