President’s Letter

I was 10 in the fall of 1962 when the San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers tied for the National League pennant and were to meet in a three-game playoff. Unhappily, our TV was broken and my parents couldn’t afford to fix it but they agreed to let one of my brothers and me stay a few days with two elderly great aunts who lived on the other side of our town of Fremont, Ohio. I was especially excited to watch one of my heroes, the Giants’ star Willie Mays, who played baseball with greater skill and enthusiasm than anyone.

As it turned out, events far from the ballfield intruded. While Mays dazzled the Dodgers, a man I had never heard of, James Meredith, was trying to enroll in the University of Mississippi and become the first Black American to do so. The university and the state repeatedly tried to block him. Whites rioted. A reporter and a bystander were killed. The nation was riveted.

All of this entered America’s homes through the evening TV news, which was a staple at our aunts’ house. During a broadcast of the turmoil surrounding Meredith, one of my aunts remarked, “I just don’t see why he has to go there and cause all that trouble.”

Her words hit me like a slap—for the simple reason that Meredith had the same color skin as Willie Mays. If Meredith could not attend that school, then neither could my hero, and the unfairness of that was obvious even to my young mind.

It took the legal and military power of the federal government to open that door for Meredith and those who followed him. Racism had long since shriveled the hearts of the men running Mississippi. They did not worry about electoral consequences for their acts because they continually appealed to the worst fears and racial hatred of many whites and because they used the law to control who voted.

 

So, here we are nearly 60 years later struggling yet again with similar issues. The challenge of this moment is once more free and fair access to the ballot box. This time it is not Democrats setting up the barriers; it is Republicans. This time it is not a battle focused primarily in the South; it is nationwide. This time the racial dimension of the battle is less overt but the same ultimate question looms: What sort of country do we want America to be?

Do we want a democracy that keeps striving to live up to its founding ideals? Or are we willing to let an elite minority continue to distort the democratic process in order to cement its hold on power?

Their democracy-corrupting weapons are many: Torrents of unaccountable cash from unknown sources. Extreme gerrymandering. Outrageous lies about voting fraud, stoking fears that elections are being stolen. Suppressing the turnout of low-income, elderly and Black and Brown voters by making it harder and less convenient to cast a ballot.

 

The right to vote is the very essence of democracy. Throughout our history we have gradually expanded that franchise but each expansion followed a long struggle. Now, as the country’s demographics are evolving to become less white, the Republican Party has grasped for ways to seize or maintain control of power, even if it means undermining the right to vote.

 

“The right to vote is the very essence of democracy.”

Donald Trump was a godsend to these anti-democracy forces because he is uniquely unmoored from truth and from any respect for the democratic system. When he could see that he was losing his grip on power, he began shouting the Big Lie that the election would be stolen from him. He has not stopped. The Big Lie fueled the murderous insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6. And even more ominously, it is being wielded by most of the Republican Party to justify state-by-state restrictions on voting, including in Ohio.

Four out of five Republicans have swallowed the Big Lie. Trust in the fairness of elections has been shaken. Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney, daughter of the former vice president and one of the few members of her party to stand up to Trump, quite accurately wrote in May, “The 2020 presidential election was not stolen. Anyone who claims it was is spreading THE BIG LIE, turning their back on the rule of law, and poisoning our democratic system.”

How much more of that poison can our democracy withstand?

American democracy has always been imperfect. We have rid our Constitution of some of the founders’ compromises but we still live with others. In addition, societal supports for the constitutional order are weaker. Institutions of all kinds have less legitimacy. The media information sources that we shared in prior eras are now fragmented and some are mere propaganda. And now a major political party has become a cult in thrall to a megalomaniacal liar. The most dire warnings about the threats to democracy no longer seem far-fetched. It now seems possible that a Republican-controlled Congress could refuse to certify the results of a future election if the American people choose a Democrat.

Yet, as a wise man once said, the solution to the problems of democracy is more democracy: More people engaged as active citizens with their communities and country. More avenues for that engagement. More accountability for lying, for inciting division and animosity. More respect for facts and truth. More people voting.

These are not easily achieved but all of us—including foundations—can help to move the country toward them. By being vigilant and active citizens. By organizing with others. By demanding truth and calling out lies. By advocating for policies and candidates in support of democracy. By standing with those who are targets of hatred and victims of prejudice. And as long as there are elections—free and fair elections—there is hope.

That hope, that faith is captured in the photo essay featured in this annual report. Brian Palmer, an award-winning photographer and journalist, portrays Clevelanders exercising their citizenship rights even with the nation in the grip of a pandemic. The fact that voting turnout increased at such a time is testament to the captivating appeal of democracy. This is what democracy looks like.

 

As I think back, I realize the turn my life took on that day in the fall of 1962. It began the never-ending process of opening my eyes to a world of issues and injustices beyond my narrow direct experience. It helped to set me on my own course of trying to live out active and constructive citizenship. A career embracing journalism, politics, government, nonprofits and philanthropy has given me countless opportunities for engagement. I loved them all but no role has been more gratifying than being at this incomparable institution for nearly two decades. It will soon come to a close. The time for transition to new leadership will arrive when I retire at the end of 2021. I owe endless thanks to our trustees for their wise insights and their unwavering commitment and backing; to my staff colleagues for the passion, conviction and dedication they always bring to our work; to our many grant partners who undertake the inspiring efforts I have been honored to help support; and to Cleveland, which has been and will remain my favorite place from which to face the world.

New paths await.

 

David Abbott
President

 

This November, I will step down as President of The George Gund Foundation after serving 25 years as its President and as a Trustee since 1976. I am fortunate to have been able to be so deeply involved in philanthropy, and particularly fortunate to have engaged in that work in Cleveland. The Foundation’s deep roots in Cleveland mirror my own roots: my strong attachment to this city has fueled my interest in maintaining Cleveland, Northeast Ohio, and the state of Ohio as the focus of the Foundation’s charitable endeavors.

This occasion affords me the opportunity to review a little of the Foundation’s history as I have seen it unfold, focus on some of our important initiatives during this period, comment on a few of the many people with whom I am especially happy to have been associated, and conclude with a brief look toward the future of the Foundation.

It has been a special joy to be involved with The George Gund Foundation. During my tenure I have seen the Foundation’s grantmaking expand from $3.5 million annually, in 1976, to more than $25 million annually today, and from a staff of two to our current staff of twelve. Our localized funding, our collaborative work with other foundations, and our ability to leverage our knowledge of the community and the organizations within it, allows us to have a depth of impact that would not exist without concentrated grant making within a geographical area.

Our work in education is just one of many examples of the fruits of such a focus. Our Foundation began with a mission to aid education; that mission has been long defined by important steps to support the public school system in Cleveland. Our Foundation has been a part of such key initiatives as the 1998 school governance legislation, the development of the Cleveland Plan in 2012, the launch of our city’s high-quality preschool program, PRE4CLE, in 2014, and the recently announced Say Yes to Education Cleveland program, which will—for the next 25 years—award a tuition scholarship to Cleveland residents who graduate from the Cleveland Metropolitan School District so they have the opportunity—and the support—to earn a postsecondary credential. Say Yes is so promising that I found it personally important to contribute alongside the Foundation to make sure the program began in a most timely fashion.

In 1997, our Foundation helped form and fund the Community Partnership for Arts and Culture (now called Arts Cleveland) as the vehicle to pursue local public funding for the arts. A successful vote in 2006 and again in 2015 for a cigarette tax has generated more than $180 million in public support for the arts for more than 400 large and small organizations in Cuyahoga County.

A member of our staff now co-chairs the Climate and Energy Funders Group, which seeks to expand the network of funders responding to global climate change through investments in state-based advocacy.

These are all examples of how our Foundation goes beyond a simple giving relationship with grantees and directly engages in policy, planning, strategy, and implementation to help advance important work in our community. The ability to do this effectively stems from our place-based focus.

 

Our localized funding, our collaborative work with other foundations, and our ability to leverage our knowledge of the community and the organizations within it, allows us to have a depth of impact that would not exist without concentrated grant making within a geographical area.

I could not have had the experience I have had without wonderful and unfailing support of the executive director and program and support staff over many years. The longevity of our staff is testimony to their loyalty and dedication to the Foundation and its mission. I have enjoyed working with three extremely able executive directors: Jim Lipscomb, who moved the Foundation to finance the study leading to the creation of Cleveland Tomorrow, a private economic development organization; David Bergholz, who, along with me, was responsible for the Foundation’s incredible annual report photography collection, exhibited at The Cleveland Museum of Art and published in 2002 in A City Seen: Photographs from The George Gund Foundation Collection; and currently David Abbott, who suggested the idea for a two-year fellowship at the Foundation for young professionals to both enhance the Foundation’s work as well as train future leaders in the nonprofit sector.

 

These individuals, along with two acting executive directors, Richard Donaldson and Henry Doll, make up the executive leadership of the Foundation since 1969. I also note the importance of my predecessor as President of the Board, Frederick Cox, in shaping the mission and leadership of the Foundation during his tenure from 1973 to 1994. None of the Foundation’s work would be possible without the dedicated staff and board members we have had over the years.

The expansion of the Board of Trustees to include the third generation of the family has been one of my most important endeavors as President. Happily, that process began when my niece, Catherine Gund, became a Board member in 1998, and has continued to the present day. Five others of her generation have joined the Board since that time. I have great confidence in the next generation of family and non-family trustees and the challenging and changing work in which they will engage.

Neither would this work be possible without the many incredible grantees with whom our staff so frequently interacts and the relationships that grow between and among them. It has been a hallmark of our life and achievement as a Foundation to develop and maintain long-standing commitments to programs that enhance the community. Nonprofit organizations are at the core of our work, and there is much we can learn from our developing and developed expertise in the community.

As I look to the future, the divisiveness of public debate and the continuing demonization of government and the press have eroded our ability to collectively face problems squarely and solve them at the federal level. The increasing friction in our politics for the sake of short-term political gain makes it hard to imagine and to put into place the kinds of policies that will solve the many problems we face as a country. Where the government fails to act, such as in the long-term existential threat of climate change, we must be at the forefront of public policy and action. Where the government has erected barriers to programs that help those in need, we must maintain and enhance programs supporting those in need.

 

Where the government has erected barriers to programs that help those in need, we must maintain and enhance programs supporting those in need.

At the same time, we must accommodate ourselves to justice for the diverse and varied society we always have been, but are just beginning to recognize in critical social justice concept. We must help to nurture and develop those organizations that contribute to the well-being of society. We must help make sure the poor and dispossessed have the means of gaining the opportunity that we have said all Americans should have. To that end, we will move to help businesses to develop in poor and blighted areas, to give minorities their place in the arts, to make the environment heathy for all peoples, and to promote justice for young people and adults, while also focusing on the development of a more complete democracy.

America is uniquely fortunate to have a robust charitable sector that can make use of the American propensity to dream and to act on behalf of the greater good of society. In an obvious sense, philanthropy is a privilege, and there are responsibilities that come along with that privilege. One is to make the most of the opportunity. And that means to be aware and alive to the possibilities of change and growth at all times.

Geoffrey Gund
President