January 2011

Dear Friends,

The Dewan Foundation completed a very successful and intense year in 2010. Reflecting widespread need for support in these difficult economic times, we received over 150 requests for assistance, many more than in any previous year. During the course of the year, we were able to respond with 39 grants for a total of $120,000. Our commitment to continuing steadfast support for our high-performing grantees along with our openness to new organizations not previously funded, stretched our resources considerably. The Foundation’s endowment has not come close to recovering the losses experienced in 2008 and early 2009. Yet we have managed to keep our grant spending on a slow but steady upward trajectory since then.

Our Chicago grant program focuses on the homeless, particularly on services that can assist in re-connecting them to work and stable housing. Among the programs funded in 2010 were case management, life skills training and career preparation for homeless teenagers and a host of programs providing pre-employment training or transitional employment for homeless adults. For so many of the people served by these programs, the road back from homelessness resembles a marathon run more than a sprint, and progress is measured in small increments. Nonetheless, the tireless work of our grantees is bringing about real results in job placements, stable housing and transformed lives.

The Dewan Foundation has always maintained a strong interest in addressing the needs of people in poverty overseas. We continue to be amazed at the number of U.S.-based non-profits that serve the poor in developing nations, and just how many Americans volunteer their services in the farthest corners of the world. In 2010, we made ten grants supporting international aid organizations focusing on education and economic development. The list of places where these projects operate includes Cerritos Asuncion, Comalapa and the Peten region of Guatemala, Tegucigalpa, Guaimaca, El Paraiso and Copan Ruinas in Honduras, Cochabamba Bolivia, Twapia, Zambia and Blacktom Town, Liberia. It is indeed possible for a small foundation like ours to reach out and touch the lives of people living in a host of strange-sounding and exotic locations.

While the Foundation’s grant program occupied a major role in 2010 activities, our program of direct and focused support of a few selected organizations continued as well. This direct help consisted of grant writing support and a wide variety of technical assistance.

Grant writing efforts were richly rewarded in 2010, building on the consistent successes of the last several years. Funding proposals prepared by the Foundation in conjunction with the organizations we assist received over $305,000 in grant awards. Technical assistance projects included targeted research on a number of legal and grant administration issues, ongoing work with grantee staff to implement program reporting systems, occupational projections research to support a planned vocational training program, preparation of new organization by-laws and consulting assistance and board presentations to inform strategic decision making.

The variety of tasks certainly keeps the day-to-day work interesting.

The year 2010 was the ten-year anniversary of the John and Susan Dewan Foundation. We are grateful for the blessings of these years. We hope that our support of a total of 124 organizations, mostly in Chicago but also working in eight countries around the world as well, provided hope and a future to those we serve.

Sincerely,

The Board of Directors