Dear Friends,
The Dewan Foundation completed 2007 having successfully accomplished a wide range of activities in support of charitable organizations in the Chicago area and overseas.
The Foundation awarded 35 grants totaling $121,109 during the year. In the Chicago area, the focus was on providing help for the homeless to connect with employment and stable housing. Dewan Foundation grants provided employment stipends to homeless women working as artisans in a social enterprise, life skills instruction for homeless teenage girls, occupational therapy for homeless AIDS patients trying to re-connect with the world of work, training in building maintenance and construction for transitional housing residents, vocational training for recently released and homeless ex-offenders, employment related support services for homeless men, women recovering from drug addiction, food pantry customers and victims of domestic violence attempting to re-start their lives. Grants to U.S. non-profits working internationally were directed to a variety of educational purposes mostly for facilities, equipment and supplies as well as employment generating efforts for those living in poverty. In all our grants we look for smaller organizations serving the most marginal people in society who can transform their lives giving them hope and a future.
Much of the Foundation’s work is oriented toward direct charitable assistance to grantees. This assistance often grows out of relationships developed over the years, and it takes a variety of forms. For example, early in the year we assisted a provider of services for homeless men to compile information for their strategic planning process by conducting interviews with government and foundation funders. In another case, over the summer, we connected a couple of needy, and very worthy, grantees with a family foundation on the East coast that had approached us for help in their search for local organizations that fit a very specific profile. The new relationships we brokered resulted in a combined $6,400 in grants for them.
Our largest commitment of time and effort takes the form of grant writing assistance. We have found that this assistance is most helpful for projecting very effective small non-profits toward their next stage of growth. We followed up on the tremendous success of our 2006 grant writing with another strong performance last year. In 2007, proposals prepared by the Dewan Foundation resulted in grant awards of $445,000 for the selected organizations we help.
Since the Foundation’s inception, a significant commitment of direct help has been made to Mission Honduras International. During 2007 we once again assisted with the preparation of their regular newsletter, annual fundraising video script and facilitating the weekend retreat meeting of their Advisory Group. As we have done since 2004, the Foundation coordinated the scheduling and paperwork for the Mission Honduras International volunteer program that sent 33 groups and 13 individuals to Central America for mostly short-term project work.
The Mission Honduras initiative in Liberia, Africa was the impetus for major project assistance in 2007 to ship a container of relief supplies to the new school and orphanage recently constructed in that war-ravaged recovering country. In May, the Foundation arranged contacts and tours for mission staff at two overseas relief supply warehouses in downstate Springfield, Illinois. The staff there was most helpful in answering the many questions that surround a first time effort to ship goods in quantity overseas. Then, over the course of the summer, the Foundation assisted with the packing and transportation arrangements for 23,000 pounds of food, medicine, school supplies, furniture and other items to Liberia.
As the years go on, Dewan Foundation assistance takes on greater variety.
We look forward to continuing this work in 2008, and, as always, we are grateful for your interest and support.
Sincerely,
The Board of Directors
John and Susan Dewan Foundation
Click here to read last year's annual letter to supporters.
