Dear Friends,
We are happy to report to you that 2006 was once again a busy and successful year for the Dewan Foundation.
The Foundation’s grant program was a major focus for the year as we concluded the Hurricane Katrina Relief Effort and funded a variety of worthy projects both in the Chicago area and overseas. Grant awards were made to 34 different organizations and totaled $112,500. Twelve of these organizations received support from the Dewan Foundation for the first time. We believe it is important to develop new grantee relationships every year, even as we provide continuing support to programs that have shown growth, progress and good results.
The Foundation made three grants for Hurricane Katrina Relief for a total of $25,650. These grants supported school rebuilding, replacement of school supplies and equipment and a skill training effort to place jobless and underemployed people in higher wage positions.
In the Chicago area, the Foundation made 24 grants for various purposes with an emphasis on assisting the homeless to obtain employment and stable housing.
We continue to support a number of U.S.-based organizations that work for the long-term development of people in poverty overseas, mainly through education and employment projects. We provided a grant to support the building of an orphanage and school outside the city of Monrovia in Liberia, Africa, an after school program for girls in Comalapa, Guatemala, a school supply project in Copan Ruinas, Honduras, a school uniform making employment project in Opatoro, Honduras and a spoon-making employment project in Peten, Guatemala. We believe much can be accomplished with a modest amount of money in these areas.
The Foundation’s in-kind support of Mission Honduras represented a major commitment of staff time for the year. For the last three years, the Foundation has coordinated scheduling and information for the mission’s volunteer program. In 2006 32 groups and 32 individuals, altogether totaling 540 people, showed their solidarity with the poor through short-term project work or longer-term service in Honduras.
To expedite the scheduling process for volunteers, the Foundation worked with technical experts to implement an on-line reservation request system for space in the volunteer house. We redesigned application documents and prepared a narrative package specifying expectations and responsibilities of volunteers and disclosing potential risks of service in a developing country.
We helped facilitate the second annual meeting of the Mission Honduras Advisory Group, drawing in nearly 20 supporters from around the country to brainstorm ideas for fundraising and better communication. We distributed a template at the meeting for a fundraising speech to be used at weekend mission appeals, an activity the Advisory Group is promoting among its members.
The Foundation also provided some assistance to edit and provide English voice overs for a Spanish language video about Mission Honduras prepared by the Honduran staff in Central America.
The Foundation’s grant writing effort in support of a few selected local organizations experienced tremendous success in the last year. Awards for proposals prepared by Foundation staff totaled $561,000. This was largely the result of major capital development grants for the rehabilitation of a former industrial building to house the homeless. This success represents the culmination of years of effort gradually building up experience and knowledge about the operations of a non-profit organization and then conveying in writing their unique strengths to a funder. While this was a great achievement, it was a one-time opportunity in which the Foundation was well positioned to assist. It is unlikely to be repeated any time soon.
Even with all this activity, we found the time to continue ongoing in-house projects and participate in other activities that we deemed to be worthwhile.
The Foundation’s support of inner city Catholic schools moved ahead during the year with the completion of Reading Challenge projects at Our Lady of Guadelupe and St. Dorothy Schools. We are always impressed with the responsiveness and excitement of students when we go on-site to conclude the project, give a short educational presentation and distribute awards to the top readers.
It was a wonderful opportunity for Foundation staff to give a lecture to students in the Civic Leadership Certificate Program at the University of Illinois Chicago. These students were an engaging audience for the “Philanthropy Primer” we presented. We were also honored to participate in the judging of these student’s proposals for the Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter Academic-Service Entrepreneur Award competition.
All of these activities continue to keep us energized. We are looking forward to the year ahead. We remain 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.
