A Message from the President and CEO
When W.K. Kellogg gave birth in 1930 to the private foundation that bears his name, he gave us a clear mandate, coupled with wide latitude to achieve it. “I don’t want to restrict you in any way,” he told his new staff. “Use the money as you please so long as it promotes the health, happiness, and well-being of children.”
This inspiration came from his own life, his compassion for children, and a visit to the White House. President Herbert Hoover invited Mr. Kellogg as a delegate to the 1930 White House Conference on Child Health and Protection. This experience influenced his early ideas, causing him to start the W.K. Kellogg Child Welfare Foundation. At the time of the Great Depression, when national needs were so strongly felt, Kellogg realized that by serving children principally, the Foundation could help the world at large.
As stewards of this legacy, the trustees and staff of the Kellogg Foundation have a special responsibility to periodically review the work of the Foundation and to consider what structures and strategies offer the most promise of having a positive effect on the lives of children. Accordingly, throughout this past year, we have asked ourselves how – in the spirit of our times – we might best focus our resources to promote the health, happiness, and well-being of children. We’ve asked ourselves what the world needs from us today.
A NEW STATEMENT OF OUR MISSION
The first fruit of this reaffirmation and a sharpened sense of purpose is reflected in the adoption of a new statement of our mission for the Foundation. It states that the Kellogg Foundation’s mission is:
To support children, families, and communities as they strengthen and create conditions that propel vulnerable children to achieve success as individuals and as contributors to the larger community and society.
This new mission statement – the collaborative product of our staff and trustees – powerfully captures the key elements of our mandate, our vision, and our core belief that helping people help themselves lies at the heart of our strategic approach to positive social change.
Our vision that all children should have the opportunities to thrive and reach their full potential has historically led us to focus on those children who face obstacles and barriers that severely reduce their chances of success. Our society has used many different terms in recent decades to describe these children, each perhaps revealing its own context and awareness. Words like “disadvantaged,” “underprivileged,” and “at-risk” have all been applied in their time. As a part of this evolution, we have chosen the word “vulnerable” and by it we mean to say children and families who face the socioeconomic conditions of poverty along with one or more additional risk factors.
AN ABIDING COMMITMENT TO RACIAL EQUITY
As part of the Underground Railroad that carried so many to freedom, our hometown of Battle Creek played a significant role in the fight against slavery. This struggle is not over. Today, a growing number of foundations are addressing racial disparities, seeking to apply a racial equity lens both internally and within the communities in which they work. In recent decades, the Kellogg Foundation has increasingly devoted resources and attention to the challenges and obstacles that racism creates for the success of all. Everywhere we look, the increasing racial and ethnic diversity of our communities challenges us to embrace a multicultural ethic that builds upon the strengths of our differences and helps us find common ground for mutually supportive efforts.
Yet, the impact of modern and structural racism persists. Racial disparities are particularly evident in outcomes we seek for vulnerable children of color, where the persistent impact of racial inequity in our society only exacerbates the challenges poverty itself presents. The Foundation has pledged to work effectively against racism and seeks to eliminate racial disparities wherever we find them.
TO IMPROVE ONE GENERATION OVER ANOTHER
Mr. Kellogg consistently expressed his concern for vulnerable children, and had first-hand experience of the challenges they faced. When reflecting on the challenges he faced securing care for his own grandson after a tragic fall from a second-story window, Mr. Kellogg said, “This caused me to wonder what difficulties were in the paths of needy parents who seek help for their children when catastrophe strikes, and I resolved to lend what aid I could to such children.” Today, for many vulnerable children, catastrophe comes in smaller, daily doses, but the consequences are catastrophic nonetheless.
In Mr. Kellogg’s day, and up until he died in 1951, the prospects for children in the United States seemed inevitably and naturally to be improving. For many children today, however, this is no longer the assumed outcome. For the first time in our nation’s history, many worry that the next generation faces diminishing prospects. Perhaps more than ever before in the history of the Foundation, some of the most quoted words of Mr. Kellogg take on prophetic meaning.
“Relief, raiment and shelter are necessary for destitute children, but the greatest good for the greatest number can come only through the education of the child, the parent, the teacher, the family physician, and the community in general. Education offers the greatest opportunity for really improving one generation over another.”
Thus, we stand at a crucial time in the history of the United States. Almost 25 years ago, the National Commission on Excellence in Education issued a report, declaring – in its very title – that we had become A Nation at Risk. It stated:
Part of what is at risk is the promise first made on this continent: All, regardless of race or class or economic status, are entitled to a fair chance and to the tools for developing their individual powers of mind and spirit to the utmost. This promise means that all children by virtue of their own efforts, competently guided, can hope to attain the mature and informed judgment needed to secure gainful employment, and to manage their own lives, thereby serving not only their own interests but also the progress of society itself.
Against this promise the report shared this troubling observation:
Each generation of Americans has outstripped its parents in education, in literacy, and in economic attainment. For the first time in the history of our country, the educational skills of one generation will not surpass, will not equal, will not even approach, those of their parents.
Finally, the report noted a growing tension between hope and frustration:
What lies behind this emerging national sense of frustration can be described as both a dimming of personal expectations and the fear of losing a shared vision for America.
We choose hope and the challenge of making hope real.
A private foundation has the truly unique opportunity and responsibility to assess the spirit of its times and set a long-term course to help shape the fate of its communities and its nation. Our willingness to acknowledge, name, and confront the historic challenges we face can help us set a course toward hope and regeneration. Our longstanding commitment to some of the country’s most depressed economies in the Mid South Delta region – and more recently, our vigorous support of Gulf Coast communities ravaged by natural disasters – are emblematic of the ways in which we choose to bring energy and assets to those who are most in need. The success of our country, its economy and its democracy, is inextricably linked to the success of our vulnerable children and families, and ultimately the prospects for all children throughout the world.
CHANGE AND CONTINUITY
Such momentous challenges cause us to ask: Should we do different things or do things differently? The historic work, the partnerships, and relationships that the Kellogg Foundation has created in recent years provide the opportunity for the Foundation to capitalize on its core programs: food systems and rural development, health, philanthropy and volunteerism, and youth and education. Separately, they constitute strong portfolios of work, but if we could better link and integrate our efforts, the potential for greater impact might grow exponentially and the whole would far exceed the sum of its parts.
This genetic makeup of the Foundation naturally invites us to consider how our philanthropic DNA might be organized to maximize our adaptability and ultimate efficacy in a changing social environment. We are committed to these four areas of focus, and believe they present the Foundation with a unique opportunity to help communities where we choose to be geographically focused to create the conditions that propel vulnerable children to success.
CONSIDER HEALTH AND WELL-BEING
From the very beginning and throughout our 77 years, the Foundation has emphasized health and well-being – in community health, health care access, health institutions, health professions, and public health. Today, we are increasingly applying the insights pertaining to the social determinants of health. In this context, the linkages that health and well-being have to education, to community assets or deficits, to nutrition, and physical activity are recognized as important – or even more important – than access to formal health care systems.
Our program directors on the health team will find themselves working as often in community settings, or school settings, in neighborhood or housing settings, as they do in formal health care settings. Rather than accepting the boundaries of “health grantmaking,” we have begun to build bridges to our other program areas.
ADD FOOD AND FOOD SYSTEMS
The Kellogg Foundation has been a pioneer in its support and development of food systems that seek to link integrated farming enterprises with local markets in order to increase the availability of healthy foods derived from sustainable agricultural practices. Our grants have helped link land-grant colleges to urban food production, schoolyard gardens to farmers’ markets, and big city mayors’ offices to farms on the edge of major metropolitan areas. More than ever before, food and food systems are coming to be seen as one of the key determinants of health. And these systems connect rural communities to urban settings, link federal agencies to what is served in local school lunches, and juxtapose an apparent food and cooking craze in our popular culture while the troublesome fact that vulnerable children and families in inner cities experience widespread “food deserts,” where healthy foods for sale are nowhere to be found.
As healthy food and sustainable food systems are attracting more interest from private donors and foundations, we intend to build upon our prior work. We want to link it even more powerfully to our efforts and the work of others as we welcome more partners into this vital arena.
EMBED THE EDUCATION OF THE WHOLE CHILD IN COMMUNITY
Equally fundamental to the Foundation’s legacy and DNA – echoed consistently in Mr. Kellogg’s words – is our long experience and commitment to education and learning as the key to the success of vulnerable children. As in health and food systems, the blurring of the educational and youth development grantmaking boundaries have also become apparent.
Earlier this year, staff from across the four domestic program areas along with members of our Greater Battle Creek programming team met in dialogue with trustees to consider the developmental stages of children. They examined childhood development from conception to the time they enter kindergarten and through the completion of third grade. Taking a whole-child approach, program staff embraced the physical, cognitive, social, emotional, and the cultural and spiritual aspects of a child’s development. We challenged ourselves to look across all our program competencies and the emerging and multifaceted knowledge about early childhood development that we might practically apply to create more integrated programming strategies.
I am pleased to report that out of these dialogues came the decision to expand the Foundation’s emphasis on early childhood-linked family and community development. This will be done within the context of our commitment to fostering success for vulnerable children across the entire age spectrum from birth to adulthood. The initial age framework of zero to eight will give the Foundation the opportunity to explore how the integration of our core programs in geographically focused areas can together create the conditions for success by third grade for more vulnerable children. This increased attention to investments in a child’s earliest years reflects the wisdom of timing that W.K. Kellogg spoke of when he said:
“All my life, I have seen children – some very near and dear to me – who suffered misfortunes that could have been either cured, or at least greatly helped, by correct attention at the time it most counted. This should be the heritage of every child of the world.”
EMPHASIZE RURAL COMMUNITIES
Perhaps one of the most distinguishing aspects of the Foundation’s program work is our historic commitment to rural communities here in the U.S., Latin America and the Caribbean, and southern Africa. Domestically, 30 percent of vulnerable children – with even greater percentages in many foreign countries – live in rural areas. Not surprisingly, here in the U.S. our support for rural communities has routinely exceeded our annual program budget formally earmarked for Rural Development. Just as we have outside the U.S., we intend to strengthen our commitment to rural communities through integrating our work in rural health, rural schools, and rural philanthropy. Also, our experience in promoting economic development in rural areas can strengthen our emerging work in developing family assets and economic resources of vulnerable families everywhere.
STIMULATE CIVIC AND PHILANTHROPIC ENGAGEMENT
The Foundation has long believed that the capacity of ordinary people to give their time, talent, and treasure is fundamental to our notions of community spirit. We’ve also believed that a strong nonprofit sector, characterized by effective and ethical charitable organizations, is critical to the success of vulnerable children and families. In the coming years, we want to expand this platform of good works to that part of our civil society that invites neighbors, residents, and citizens into more active roles concerning public problem-solving.
In this regard, our commitment to helping people help themselves applies as much to their democratic capacities as it does to their economic and community resources. Indeed, the American Dream has always embraced both. Underlying the hope for economic opportunity and individual advancement has always been the dream of collective self-governance, of the freedom and responsibilities that draw people to the public square, the meeting hall, and the voting booth. In addition to countless acts of private kindness, we also want to stimulate many more dialogues, deliberations, and conversations on matters of common concern that critically depend on the quality of public judgments. We can help foster the creation of a shared vision by supporting the public work of common people that our democracy depends upon.
EVERYDAY DEMOCRACY
Logically, foundations should have a special interest in the democratic capacities and habits of their people, especially when it comes to their abilities to engage in public problem-solving, to frame issues, to make difficult choices, and to allocate resources to achieve their common purposes. When we make grants to support community leaders, experimenters, risk-takers, innovators, or model builders, we do so out of a belief that these endeavors are all in service to improve our collective ability to achieve a shared vision. Years ago, when Paul Ylvisaker famously described foundations as “society’s passing gear,” he assumed the driver and passengers in the metaphorical car all knew and agreed where it is they wanted to go. We believe that the fates of vulnerable children are shared by all. We also believe that we have it in our power to create the conditions of success for all children that will always rise to the top when people together reflect deeply on what it is they care about and what it is they want to create together. This is the world we can build together.
FROM INFORMATION TO ENGAGEMENT
It was the hope and belief when A Nation at Risk was released in 1983 that “the American people, properly informed, will do what is right for their children and for the generations to come.” Today, some of the best practitioners in public dialogue practices are suggesting that being properly informed is insufficient and less and less likely, unless the American people are properly engaged. In the coming years, we hope to support innovation among civic entrepreneurs, informal leaders, and social innovators who will be applying the knowledge and tools under development to revitalize public dialogue in the part of our civil society that shapes public issues for deliberation.
A CALL TO ACTION
We live in a time when national needs are again being strongly felt, and the future of our children is very often at the center of these concerns. When it comes to vulnerable children, the statistics are disturbing and the trends alarming. The spirit of our times calls directly to foundations such as ours to confront the challenges we face with renewed hope and vision. We cannot let a nation at risk become a nation divided, or in decline.
As stewards of the resources and legacy bequeathed by W.K. Kellogg, we will expect better and demand better. In practice, this means we are committed to the promises made by our nation’s founders, and those made by the founder of our Foundation. For what W.K. Kellogg said in 1930 still holds true: we want to “help children everywhere face the future with confidence, with health, and with a strong rooted security in their trust of this country and its institutions.”
Sterling K. Speirn
President and CEO