1992 was a year of significantly expanded grantmaking for the Foundation. Our commitments exceeded $24 million, an increase of almost $8 million over 1991. Much of this increase was due to a $10 million contribution to the Great Lakes Museum of Science, Technology and the Environment, clearly the Foundation’s leadership grant for the year. The Museum, to be located at North Coast Harbor, is a forceful expression of the Foundation’s interest in lakefront improvements in Cleveland and its commitment to science and environmental education. We note with pleasure the state of Ohio’s major financial commitment to the museum and look forward to joining with other funders to support construction of this facility.

Neighborhood Progress, Inc. expanded its community development agenda with continued Foundation support, reflecting our longstanding interest in Cleveland’s many and diverse neighborhoods. This intermediary organization continues to serve as a primary resource for city revitalization efforts and is expanding its role as a technical resource and think tank for neighborhood groups pursuing the difficult task of housing and commercial development.

The Foundation’s concern about how people in our community relate to one another is reflected in a newly defined category in our civic affairs program, “civility.” Our support for gun control, race relations improvement and neighborhood safety projects are included in this evolving agenda and represent attempts to meet the challenges presented by the violence and racial animosity in our society.

The Foundation’s interest in promoting a diverse arts community included grants to strengthen cultural institutions in Greater Cleveland’s minority communities as well to encourage mainstream organizations to expand programming and audiences. We also took a leadership role in encouraging collaboration among arts organizations through a grant to the newly formed Professional Alliance of Cleveland Theaters. This group includes several small, competent – though often struggling – local theaters, and our grant will help them establish a joint box office and explore other resource sharing possibilities.

In the human services arena, we expanded grantmaking that should positively affect the development of public policy related to welfare reform at both state and local levels. Grants to the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, Ohio Council of Churches and League of Women Voters for basic research and for educating a variety of constituencies reflect the Foundation’s interest in this important and timely issue.

We also continued to fund programs to assist both individuals and families in making the difficult transition from reliance on public assistance to self-sufficiency. Grants in 1992 to the Family Development Project of the Cleveland Housing Network, the New Life Community and Cleveland Works supported this agenda. Additional assistance to a joint project of MetroHealth Medical Center and the Cleveland Public Schools for the Central Family Resource Center also buttressed our commitment to this cause.  It also should be noted that the Foundation’s cumulative support during the last four years for programs related to AIDS surpassed $1 million in 1992.

The Foundation expressed its growing interest in further development of the Cuyahoga River corridor through grants to the Cuyahoga County Planning Commission and the North Cuyahoga Valley Corridor, Inc. Grants supporting efforts to improve the environmental quality of the Great Lakes watershed remained a high priority, as did leadership development in environmental organizations.

The Foundation’s deep involvement in the future of Cleveland’s public schools, and K-12 education in general, is expressed in this report through the compelling photographs of Judith Joy Ross.  Her striking portraits of Cleveland public school students present the promise and beauty of these young people who often contend with great difficulties as they attempt to find a productive and satisfying place in the world.

Our continuing substantial support of the Cleveland Initiative for Education, a coming together of the local business and philanthropic sectors in support of the schools, and the Cleveland Summit on Education, an ongoing community-based process that has built constituency for, and interest in, the Cleveland Public Schools, is indicative of our long-term commitment to the system’s improvement.

1992 has been a busy and, we think, productive year at The George Gund Foundation.  We hope that a perusal of this report confirms our view.  As always, the quality of our work, Trustees and staff, is best displayed by our grantmaking and through the successes of our grantees.

David Bergholz, Executive Director