MacArthur Foundation, John D. and Catherine T.

Overview: The Foundation is dedicated to helping groups and individuals foster lasting improvement in the human condition. The Foundation pursues this mission by supporting research, policy development, dissemination, education and training, and practice. J. Roderick MacArthur’s Foundation is not directly related to his father's institution, although it does award $5 million annually for civil liberties and free speech issues.

MANAGEMENT NOTE: According to a note from the foundation Robert Gallucci, dean of the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, became the fourth president of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in July 2009. He takes over the foundation, one of the country's largest, at a time when its assets, like those of most other foundations, have fallen while demands for its help are increasing. Before joining Georgetown in 1996, Mr. Gallucci held a variety of posts at the State Department, including serving as chief negotiator during the North Korean nuclear crisis in 1994 and as deputy executive chairman of the United Nations commission overseeing disarmament in Iraq after the first gulf war.

Recently, the Foundation has increased its support for international organizations.

Three Grantmaking Areas

1. Program on Global Security and Sustainability (fka International Program)

a. Conservation and Sustainable Development

b. Human Rights and International Justice

c. International Peace and Security

d. Global Migration and Human Mobility

e. Population and Reproductive Health

f. Universities in Russia and Nigeria

g, Focus Countries (varies by year)

2. Program on Human and Community Development (fka United States Grantmaking):

a. Affordable Housing, especially rental housing

b. Community Change

c. Digital Media, Learning & Education

d. Juvenile Justice

e. Mental Health

f. Policy Research

g. Regional Policy

h. Research Networks

i. Program-Related Investments

3. General Program

a. Intellectual Property and the Public Domain

b. Media

c. Arts and Culture in Chicago

d. MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions

Other Programs:

a. MacArthur Fellows: The MacArthur Fellows Program awards unrestricted fellowships to talented individuals who have shown extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for self-direction. There are three criteria for selection of Fellows: exceptional creativity, promise for important future advances based on a track record of significant accomplishment, and potential for the fellowship to facilitate subsequent creative work.rganizations, especially in the areas of human rights policies and research.

b. Chicago Large Institutional Support

• Arts:
• Arts & Culture, Artists Support:
• Chicago:
  1. Arts in Chicago
  
  Purpose
  Support for arts and cultural organizations in Chicago and the region is an expression of the Foundation’s civic commitment to Chicago. Grants are designed to help sustain the cultural life and vitality of the city and region.
  
  Approach
  The MacArthur Foundation awards multi-year grants for general support of arts and cultural organizations. It considers requests from, and directly awards grants to, arts and cultural organizations with budgets of $2 million or more.
  
  2. Community Capacity
  
  The Program on Human and Community Development supports efforts to strengthen communities for the benefit of individuals and families and for the positive contribution that healthy communities make to their cities and regions. The Foundation hopes that this support will also generate new knowledge about community change and the economic interdependence of neighborhoods, cities, and regions, and that such knowledge will lead to improved public policies.
  
  Purpose
  The Foundation's grantmaking to strengthen communities supports organizations in Chicago in their efforts to make neighborhoods healthy and sustainable places for family life and economic success. It also seeks to learn from these activities, and to communicate lessons based on practical experience to multiple audiences, including policymakers, practitioners, and other funders.
  
  Strategies
  In 2003, the Foundation expanded the number of community areas in which it works. This expansion is made possible through a partnership with the Chicago office of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC). With Foundation funding and other grant and financing resources, LISC is implementing an initiative called the New Communities Program in 16 Chicago communities.
  
  3. Stable and Affordable Housing:
  
  A stock of affordable housing is essential to a vibrant and competitive city. Newer research suggests that stable and affordable housing is also central to reducing poverty because it provides a foundation from which families can more easily find and keep jobs, attend to the health and education of their children, and move toward self-sufficiency. The Foundation is engaged in two efforts designed to improve access to stable and affordable housing: public housing transformation in Chicago and preservation of affordable housing across the country.
  
  Purpose
  The Chicago Housing Authority is implementing an ambitious Plan for Transformation, which includes the redefinition of the functions of the agency and a $1.6 billion capital program to demolish more than 16,000 units of housing and to rehabilitate or build approximately 25,000 units over the next seven to ten years.
  
  Through its grantmaking and other work, the Foundation seeks to help Chicago take advantage of this historic opportunity to improve the quality of public housing; to diminish the isolation of public housing and its residents; to support the development of well-designed, mixed income communities where public housing is located; and to provide a model of neighborhood revitalization that will be useful to other cities.
  
  Grants are intended to help ensure that participating groups and agencies have the capacity to meet the challenge, that new development meets high standards of quality in urban planning, architectural design, and execution, and that residents receive the support they need in making major changes in their lives.
  
  Strategies
  Recognizing that the transformation of public housing is the work of many agencies and organizations, private and public, grantmaking:
  
  a. Encourages the involvement and cooperation of business, religious, nonprofit, resident, government, and foundation leaders and provides a neutral ground for engagement around challenging issues
  
  b. Supports efforts to ensure that critical processes, such as relocation and counseling, work well for current residents of public housing and that residents receive reliable information and support as they make important life choices
  
  c. Provides support to build the capacity of the agencies and organizations whose combined efforts are needed if the transformation of public housing is to succeed.
• Communities:
• Crime/violence prevention:
• Education, Higher Education:
• Education, Public Education/Public Education:
• Environment, Natural Resources:
• Health, Mental Health:
• Health, Mental Health, Crisis Services:
• Housing/Shelter:
• Human and Community Development: This program supports the development of healthy individuals and effective communities.
  
  1. Regional Policy and Practice
  
  Research and practical experience indicate that the interests of cities and their regions increasingly overlap and what were once "local" problems now call for regional solutions.
  
  Issues of economic competitiveness, sustainable development, economic opportunity, transportation, and housing are in many ways interdependent and cut across municipal boundaries.
  
  Purpose
  The Foundation's grantmaking is intended to increase the competitiveness of regions by advancing the development of a regional perspective and framework for action on the national level, in metropolitan Chicago, and in Southeast Florida.
  
  The Foundation hopes to help demonstrate the validity of regional approaches to issues; define a commonly accepted set of standards, benchmarks, and best practices for the regional field; identify and support the efforts of regional leaders and the emergence of new leaders; and build networks of strong organizations that promote regional thinking and problem-solving.
  
  2. National Work
  
  Strategies
  Grants are made to a limited number of major organizations whose work includes national policy research and analysis, development of leaders, and the exchange of information and best practices among regions
  
  3. Individuals and Society
  
  In a society that respects individual differences and values distinct contributions, strong communities offer opportunity for individuals to realize their full potential.
  
  The Foundation believes that individuals who are in trouble, in need, or face obstacles that impede their full participation in society should have the support they need to integrate into and contribute to society and lead their lives with dignity and respect.
  
  The Foundation believes that there is an important coincidence of interest between such individuals and society as a whole as investments in people who need help return powerful dividends to the community and the economy.
  
  a. Juvenile Justice
  
  Purpose
  The Foundation supports research, model programs, policy analysis, and public education related to juvenile justice. The goal of this work is to promote an effective juvenile justice system that is linked to relevant agencies, that is acknowledged to play a critical role in the community, and is held accountable for public safety and the rehabilitation of young offenders.
  
  Strategies
  The Foundation supports efforts to expand knowledge about the origins, development, prevention, and treatment of juvenile crime and delinquency.
  
  This grantmaking includes support for the Research Network on Adolescent Development and Juvenile Justice, which seeks to expand and to communicate this knowledge; to improve decision-making in the current juvenile justice system; and to lay the foundation for future reform in policy and practice.
  
  b. Mental Health
  
  Purpose
  Psychological well-being is crucial to successful human development because of its strong influence on an individual's work life, family life, and functioning in the community.
  
  The Foundation's goals are to:
  
  i. Improve policies affecting access to high-quality mental health services
  
  ii. Improve the ways in which society deals with people with mental illnesses.
  
  Strategies
  The Foundation provides funding for public education, legal advocacy, research, policy analysis, and coalition building to:
  
  i. Improve Treatment. In many areas, the science underlying mental health treatment is still relatively under-developed compared to that of other health care fields. The Foundation seeks to help increase knowledge by supporting interdisciplinary research in depression and primary care, children's mental health, and co-occurring disorders.
  
  ii. Improve Access. Inadequate access to quality mental health services remains a substantial problem in health care. The Foundation supports research and policy work, with an emphasis on how the organization and financing of mental health care affects access, treatment standards and practices, and patient outcomes.
  
  iii. Improve the Communication of Knowledge. The Foundation supports the dissemination of scientific knowledge that can help improve practice in the mental health professions and the formation of policy. Grants support policy publications, policy forums, advocacy, training, and use of mass media. Audiences include policymakers, practitioners, providers, researchers, consumers of mental health services, and the public.
  
  The Foundation does not generally accept unsolicited proposals for work relating to mental health policy.
• International Affairs, Global Security and Sustainability:
  This program has special initiatives in Russia and Africa that include emphases on:
  
  1. International Peace and Security
  
  2. Conservation and Sustainable Development
  
  3. Population and Reproductive Health
  
  4. Global Challenges
  
  5. Initiatives in the Russian Federation and post-Soviet States
  
  6. Nigeria
  
  7. Research and Writing Competition.
• Justice:
• Media, Journalism/Publishing: The goal of the Foundation's media grantmaking is to improve the diversity of viewpoints and high-quality documentary content available in radio and television and to use media - especially television and radio production - to further the goals of the other Foundation programs.
  
  1. Documentary Film
  
  The General Program supports documentary films through grants for production, distribution, and outreach associated with the broadcast of documentaries, and through support to organizations serving the field. Grant awards for production typically range from $50,000 to $300,000 and provide partial support for documentary series and individual independent films intended for national and international broadcast.
  
  2. Public-Interest Radio
  
  The General Program supports the production and distribution infrastructure of public radio through grants to selected national networks including National Public Radio and Public Radio International. Funds are not provided for individual radio series or individual stations. (Other MacArthur program areas may support radio series that advance their program goals.)
• Public Policy:
• Reproductive Health, Sexual Health:
• Research:

Sample Grants
$ 400,000 to (Mostly) Harmless Theatre , St. Louis , MO For a project to provide research and technical assistance to state-based advocates on the financing of early child care and education (over two years). www.iwpr.org
$ 300,000 to African Wildlife Foundation , Washington , DC
$ 100,000 to Alliance of Artists Communities , Providence , RI
$ 250,000 to American Bar Association Fund for Justice & Education , Washington , DC
$ 250,000 to Arms Control Association , Washington , DC
$ 50,000 to Bioresources Development & Conservation Programme , Silver Spring , MD
$ 25,000 to Boston Center for Adult Education , Boston , MA
$ 45,000 to Boston Women's Health Book Collective , Boston , MA
$ 50,000 to Brown University , Providence , RI
$ 600,000 to Catholics for a Free Choice , Washington , DC
$ 50,000 to Center for Effective Philanthropy , Boston , MA
$ 400,000 to Center for Health & Gender Equity (CHANGE) , Takoma Park , MD
$ 100,000 to Chicago Women in Trades , Chicago , IL
$ 500,000 to Community Builders , Boston , MA
$ 850,000 to Community Catalyst, Inc. , Boston , MA
$ 85,000 to Conservation & Research Center Foundation , Front Royal , VA
$ 200,000 to Council of Juvenile Correctional Administrators , Braintree , MA
$ 1,500,000 to Dartmouth College , Hanover , NH
$ 385,000 to Development Training Institute , Baltimore , MD
$ 250,000 to Dwight D. Eisenhower World Affairs Institute , Washington , DC
$ 60,000 to Humanitarian Project , Takoma Park , MD
$ 240,000 to Initiative for a Competitive Innercity , Boston , MA
$ 150,000 to Institute for Energy & Environmental Research , Takoma Park , MD
$ 225,000 to Institute for Medical Risk Studies , Lincoln , MA
$ 25,000 to Institute of Arctic Studies , Hanover , NH
$ 25,000 to Kids Cultural Books , Stamford , CT
$ 500,000 to Marlboro College , Marlboro , VT
$ 1,100,000 to Massachusetts Institute of Technology , Cambridge , MA
$ 150,000 to Mental Health Association, National , Alexandria , VA Blueprint for Responding to Public Mental Health Needs in Times of Crisis
$ 300,000 to National Conference of State Legislatures , Denver , CO
$ 150,000 to National Mental Health Association , Alexandria , VA
$ 225,000 to Native American Rights Fund , Boulder , CO
$ 200,000 to Oxfam America, Inc. , Boston , MA
$ 4,000,000 to Physicians for Human Rights , Boston , MA
$ 350,000 to Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs , RomeItaly three year grant
$ 50,000 to RAND Corporation , Arlington , VA
$ 10,000 to Real Art Ways , Hartford , CT
$ 225,000 to Social and Economic Rights Action Center , Takoma Park , MD Protect economic, social, and cultural rights in Nigeria
$ 1,278,000 to Union of Concerned Scientists , Cambridge , MA
$ 15,000 to United Church of Christ of Cleveland , Cleveland , OH
$ 100,000 to University System of New Hampshire , Durham , NH
$ 5,000 to University of Illinois at Chicago, Institute of Government and Public Affairs , Chicago , IL
$ 150,000 to University of Michigan , Ann Arbor , MI
$ 100,000 to University of New Hampshire , Durham , NH
$ 3,900,000 to University of Virginia , Charlottesville , VA
$ 225,000 to Violence Policy Center , Washington , DC
$ 200,000 to W E T A-Greater Washington Educational Telecommunications Association , Arlington , VA
$ 100,000 to WGBH Educational Foundation , Boston , MA
$ 300,000 to Wayne State University , Detroit , MI School of Social Work
$ 1,000,000 to Women Employed Institute , Chicago , IL
$ 10,000 to World Affairs Council of Northern California , San Francisco , CA

Application Procedures:: How to Apply

THE LETTER OF INQUIRY

The first step in learning if grant support from MacArthur is available is to thoroughly review the grantmaking guidelines that are on the Foundation's Web site. At the end of the description of each grantmaking area is a brief item about the availability of grants. If support is available, the next step is to submit a cover sheet and a letter of inquiry about the work being proposed. Send it by mail to the Office of Grants Management at the Foundation's Chicago address or by email to 4answers@macfound.org.

LETTER OF INQUIRY: COVER SHEET

In order to expedite a letter of inquiry it is important that it include a cover sheet with the following information:

a. Information regarding who will carry out the work

b. Name of your organization (and acronym if commonly used)

c. Name of parent organization, if any

d. Name of chief executive officer or person holding similar position

e. Organization’s address (and courier address if different)

f. Organization’s phone number, fax number, and e-mail address, if any

g. Name and title of the principal contact person, if different from the above

h. Address (and courier address if different), phone number, and fax number of principal contact

i. E-mail address of principal contact

j. Web address, if any.

LETTER OF INQUIRY: FORMAT

There is no set format,but letters of inquiry generally include the following:

a. Name or topic of the proposed project or work to be done

b. A brief statement (two or three sentences) of the purpose and nature of the proposed work

c. The significance of the issue addressed by the project and how it relates to a stated MacArthur program strategy

d. How the work will address the issue

e. How the issue relates to your organization, and why your organization is qualified to undertake the project

f. Geographic area or country where the work will take place

g. Time period for which funding is requested

h. Information about those who will be helped by and interested in the work and how you will communicate with them

i. Amount of funding requested from MacArthur and total cost (estimates are acceptable).

THE FOUNDATION'S RESPONSE

We will send you an acknowledgment that your letter of inquiry was received, and we will direct it to the appropriate staff members for review. If as a result of that review the Foundation concludes that there is no prospect of Foundation funding, we will notify you promptly. Please allow up to eight weeks for the Foundation to reply.

If the Foundation decides that your project might qualify for a grant, we will contact you to discuss next steps and what further information is required.

As is now the case with most charities in the United States who make grants to organizations based outside the United States, the Foundation checks the names of foreign based grantees, and the principal officers and directors of such grantees, against one or more lists maintained by the U.S. government, the European Union, and the United Nations, which contain the names determined by such entities to be terrorist organizations or individual terrorists. This process is a result of legislation passed by the U.S. Congress, Executive Orders issued by the President, and suggested guidelines issued by the U.S. Department of the Treasury. A memorandum on this topic is available upon request.

All material submitted becomes the property of the MacArthur Foundation. The Foundation sometimes submits inquiries or proposals to confidential outside review.

DEADLINES With few exceptions, as noted elsewhere, there are no fixed deadlines.

MacArthur Area Offices in Other Countries

India
MacArthur Foundation India
India Habitat Centre
Zone VA, First Floor
Lodhi Road
New Delhi 110 003
India
Phone 1: (91-11) 2464-4006
Phone 2: (91-11) 2461-1324
Fax: (91-11) 2464-4007
E-mail: info@macfound.org.in

Mexico
MacArthur Foundation México
Vito Alessio Robles 39-103
Ex-Hacienda de Guadalupe, Chimalistac
México, D.F. 01050
México
Phone and Fax: (52-55) 3004-1692
E-mail: mexico@macfound.org

Nigeria
MacArthur Foundation Nigeria
Fourth Floor Amma House
Plot 432 Yakubu Pam Street
(Opposite National Hospital)
Central Business District, Abuja
Nigeria
Phone: (234-9) 234-8053 or (234-9) 234-8054
Fax: (234-9) 234-8046
E-mail: info-ng@macarthur.org
www.nigeria.macfound.org

Russia
MacArthur Foundation Russia
Khlebnyi Pereulok 8
Suite 2
Moscow 121069
Russia
Phone: (7-495) 737-0015
Fax: (7-495) 956-6358 (within NIS)
(7-503) 737-0015 (international satellite)
E-mail: moscow@macfound.org
www.macfound.ru

Grants Paid

1999 ($159,000,000 )

2000 ($164,000,000 )

2001 ($175,000,000 )

2002 ($193,000,000 )

2004 ($209,996,176 )

2005 ($194,200,000 )

2006 ($216,757,056 )

2007 ($281,261,000 )

2008 ($252,254,918 )

2009 ($241,596,000 )

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