BATTLE CREEK, Michigan – The W.K. Kellogg Foundation reported today that it awarded nearly $273 million in grants during fiscal year 2007-08.
Also during the past year, the organization continued to refocus its programming priorities, as staff identified ways to more effectively support communities as they work to propel families and children to success.
“The world’s financial systems are in crisis,” noted Sterling Speirn, the Foundation’s president and chief executive officer, in his annual message. “Its markets, credit institutions, banks, corporations and government overseers are struggling to stabilize an economic system that, until very recently, we all took for granted.”
In a different year, he said, the foundation might have focused more strongly on education, health, or myriad other issues of particular concern to the United States and other parts of the world.
“This year,” Speirn said, “the challenges that we face necessarily move our field of attention away from specific parts of our world to the very nature of our world. We are called away from public problem-solving to the greater task of public future-building. And our children are the heart and soul of the future we must build.”
The foundation’s annual report takes a serious look at what is needed to become a nation – and a world – where all children thrive. Featured are five guest essayists with their own perspectives on this issue, as well as thoughts from Speirn and Joseph Stewart, chair of the foundation’s board of trustees.
“Society cannot exist at our best when more than a third of our children are existing at our worst,” said Stewart in his annual letter. “Our work can – and must – be done better.”
Stewart challenges others in the philanthropic sector to take on a more aggressive leadership role in attacking and eliminating the barriers that have historically undermined the nation’s commitment to equality for all.
“Let us not be afraid to face things the way they really are,” he said. “Let’s see inequities as they harshly exist and make a change. Let’s not allow those inequities to chip away at the effectiveness of our social capital investments.”
Theme
The theme of this year’s Kellogg Foundation annual report is “Facing Up to the Future.” It asks the question, “What do today’s children need from us now?”
According to Speirn, restoring opportunities for all children is the central task that lies before us.“Never in my lifetime have I seen our field of philanthropy called upon so urgently to transform itself,” he said. “Suddenly thinking outside the box is no longer optional; the box itself has been crushed. Never before have I seen so convincingly the truth that our common fates – across race, gender, class, and country – are so clearly and inextricably connected.”
In the past year, the trustees and staff of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation have set their compasses to their founder’s vision that all children grow up strong and secure, according to Speirn.
“We have reshaped our organization, refocused our efforts, and renewed our commitment to working with others who seek to create the conditions of success that all children need to thrive,” he said.
Over the past year, the foundation has focused much more intently on creating the conditions that children need to thrive: Family Income and Assets; Community Assets, Education and Learning; Food, Health and Well-Being; and Civic and Philanthropic Engagement. Within the United States, the organization will intentionally focus a portion of its resources in Michigan, Mississippi and New Mexico to leverage past investments and build upon work already under way in those locations. Other grants will continue to be made elsewhere in the United States when appropriate partners and projects are identified.
As detailed in the annual report, program payments during the past fiscal year included more than $254 million in the United States (including nearly $48 million in Michigan); nearly $37 million in southern Africa; and more than $15 million in Latin America and the Caribbean.
In Greater Battle Creek, Michigan – the foundation’s hometown – more than $15 million was invested. This included more than $8 million through its Greater Battle Creek program area and the rest via other program areas, corporate giving and special grantmaking opportunities.
Annual Meeting Activities
During its annual meeting in December, the foundation’s board of trustees re-elected Joseph M. Stewart of Battle Creek as chair. Three trustees – Fred P. Keller of Grand Rapids, Michigan; Hanmin Liu of San Francisco, California; and Wenda Weekes Moore of Minneapolis, Minnesota – were re-elected to three-year terms.
Other foundation board members are: Roderick D. Gillum of Detroit, Michigan; Dorothy A. Johnson of Grand Haven, Michigan; Cynthia Milligan of Lincoln, Nebraska; Bobby D. Moser of Columbus, Ohio; Ramon Murguia of Kansas City, Kansas; and Sterling K. Speirn of Battle Creek, Michigan.
Re-elected as foundation officers were Speirn, president and chief executive officer; Gregory A. Lyman, senior vice president and corporate secretary; James E. McHale, senior vice president for programs; La June Montgomery-Talley, senior vice president, chief financial officer and treasurer; Paul J. Lawler, vice president and chief investment officer; Gail C. Christopher, vice president for programs; Richard M. Foster, vice president for programs; Gail D. McClure, vice president for programs; and Gregory B. Taylor, vice president for programs.
Elected to the board’s Audit Committee were Johnson, chair; Liu; Moser; Murguia; Speirn (ex-officio); and Stewart (ex-officio). Elected to the Board Development Committee were Moore , chair; Gillum; Milligan; Murguia; Speirn (ex-officio); and Stewart (ex-officio). Elected to the Budget Committee were Liu, chair; Keller; Milligan; Moser; Speirn (ex-officio); and Stewart (ex-officio). Elected to the Finance Committee were Keller, chair; Gillium; Johnson; Moore; Speirn (ex-officio); and Stewart (ex-officio).
Established in 1930, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation supports 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. Grants are concentrated in the United States, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the southern African countries of Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland and Zimbabwe.
The 2008 annual report will be available online in January, visit www.wkkf.org.