The Morris & Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation

This year, we awarded more than $13.4 million in grants to 394 nonprofit organizations, and of that number, 42 were new programs.

During our current fiscal year, the Foundation emphasized the creation of effective community partnerships with increased opportunities for residents. The interconnectedness of the region and the benefits that nonprofit collaborations bring to neighborhood communities in the Washington metropolitan area have been impressive.

We participated with other funders in regional conversations that shed light on issues affecting everyone in our community. One such initiative led to the formation of the Partnership for Prince George’s County. Another joint effort produced the report, Civic Contributions: Taxes Paid by Immigrants in the Washington, DC, Metropolitan Area, commissioned by the Washington Area Partnership for Immigrants. This timely study by The Urban Institute, Pew Hispanic Center and Migration Policy Institute offers valuable information for policymakers, businesses, nonprofits and residents.

The strength of the metropolitan Washington area stems from developing and sustaining strong communities throughout the entire region. To assist nonprofits engaged in this work, the Foundation has continued to emphasize grants for general support and has made it a long-standing practice to identify and fund promising emerging organizations. This year, we assisted many outstanding nonprofits that are helping to improve the lives of DC-area residents – among them, the 35 Cafritz grantees that were included in the 2006-07 Catalogue for Philanthropy. These exemplary organizations span the spectrum of Foundation giving: education, arts and humanities, community services, health and environment.

One of our main priorities is serving Washington-area youth. We believe that every child deserves an excellent education and we support strong academic programs in public and private schools. In addition to other initiatives, recent Cafritz grants have increased opportunities for students. For instance, we helped fund the DC Preparatory Academy’s expansion to an additional campus in northeast DC and supported the creation of a new school in Ward 7 by KIPP DC (Knowledge Is Power Program DC). Likewise, the Foundation is proud to have contributed to the new green middle school building at Sidwell Friends School, the first K-12 school in the world to win platinum certification, the highest possible LEED rating.

The Foundation also has lent its support to organizations that meet special community needs or provide out-of-school-time programs. For example, Kidsave International recently launched its Weekend Miracles Program in DC to help older youth find permanent adoptive families before they “age out” of the foster care system. Also, every summer, Hoops Sagrado takes 15 to 20 low-income teen-agers from DC to a rural, mountainous region of Guatemala populated by indigenous people of Mayan descent. With the game of basketball as a common bond, these at-risk youth from the District spend a month teaching basketball skills to Mayan children, while learning another language and gaining new perspectives on life.

This year, another Cafritz grantee and important provider of out-of-school-time programs, the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Washington (BGCGW), celebrated a major achievement. After nearly four years of comprehensive strategic planning in partnership with Venture Philanthropy Partners (VPP), the Clubs received VPP’s largest investment to date – $4.25 million – which will enable them to develop and strengthen their infrastructure and enhance and expand their programs.

The Washington area is also home to many excellent arts programs that serve youth. The DC Arts and Humanities Education Collaborative (a Cafritz grantee) – one of eight programs in the U.S. sponsored by the Ford Foundation – has developed an Arts Education Initiative, which has become a national model. The Collaborative engages teachers, principals, students, parents and artists in providing a variety of high-quality arts instruction tied to the classroom curriculum.

Other grantees included the Patricia M. Sitar Center for the Arts in the Adams Morgan neighborhood. In 2006, the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities chose the Sitar Arts Center as one of 50 semifinalists for the Coming Up Taller Awards. Selected from a pool of 350 nominations from 48 states, the Sitar Arts Center was praised as “one of the top arts and humanities-based programs in the country serving youth beyond school hours.”

The creative and performing arts still play an important role in transforming communities throughout the region. The Foundation supported such projects as: the Next Stage Campaign for Arena Stage, Studio Theatre’s campaign to provide housing for visiting artists and interns, and the Cultural Development Corporation’s preservation and renovation of Source Theatre. This season saw the completion of several cultural spaces, including the Dance Institute of Washington in Columbia Heights, World Arts Focus in Mount Rainier and Signature Theatre in Arlington, all supported by the Foundation. The Atlas Performing Arts Center also celebrated the opening of its state-of-the-art complex of classrooms, performance venues and rehearsal spaces. These will be used by resident companies, including Joy of Motion and the Washington Savoyards (also Cafritz grantees).

A major cultural collaboration took place from January through June 2007, as the DC area hosted the Shakespeare in Washington Festival, conceived by Michael Kaiser, President of the Kennedy Center, and curated by Michael Kahn, Artistic Director of the Shakespeare Theatre Company (both organizations are Cafritz grantees). Audiences had the opportunity to view more than 100 presentations by 60 local, national and international companies. In addition to the festival organizers, participants included such Cafritz grantees as the Folger Shakespeare Library (which celebrated its 75th anniversary), Washington Performing Arts Society, the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center and the Cathedral Choral Society.

AIn the area of community services, the Foundation has helped sustain numerous nonprofits, often providing incentives for building additional support or developing key partnerships. For example, we assisted Casa of Maryland in meeting a matching grant for its multi-year capacity-building campaign. We also helped to further the partnership between Enterprise Community Partners and GreenHOME by providing a challenge grant for the new Green Communities Initiative. This initiative is bringing funding, technical expertise and additional resources to help developers and others in the community respond in a timely and economical way to the requirements of the DC Green Building Act of 2006. Because of this forward-thinking legislation, the Washington area has the chance to help lead the country in providing green affordable housing, which in turn will result in healthier, more sustainable communities.

The Foundation’s giving in the area of the environment has focused especially on watershed issues in the region. This year, with the successful launch of the Captain John Smith Four Hundred Project and the creation of the first national water trail, the Foundation was pleased to see the results of an earlier grant that enabled The Conservation Fund to begin research on Captain Smith’s experience 400 years ago. In the spring of 2007, 12 explorers retraced the 1,500-mile journey in a replica of the small open boat or shallop that John Smith used to make his famous exploration of the Chesapeake in 1608. The John Smith Shallop and its recent voyage were also featured in the summer Smithsonian Folklife Festival on the National Mall.

In the advocacy area, the work of two Cafritz grantees, Empower DC and Youth Education Alliance (YEA), has been notable. Through its Child Care for All Campaign, Empower DC trains low-income working parents to serve as advocates in the DC budget process. The Campaign reversed $6 million in cuts to the Child Care Subsidy Program for fiscal year 2007 and helped to end the waiting list for child-care vouchers (which had grown to 1,600 families). The Child Care Subsidy Program provides vouchers for free and reduced-cost child care, based on family size and income.

Since 2001, YEA has promoted reform in the DC public schools, bringing attention to such issues as the overwhelming work load of guidance counselors, who are each expected to serve 400 to 900 students. During the past school year, YEA advocated for increased support so that students will receive the curricular and college-preparatory counseling they need.

As always, I would like to offer my appreciation to our Board of Directors and Advisory Board for their commitment and excellent advice throughout the year. To our talented staff members, I would like to express my gratitude for their dedicated service to the Foundation.

Calvin Cafritz
Chairman