In addition to providing grants, Whitaker moved from western Pennsylvania to a suburb of Washington DC, where it could be closer to public policy makers and become a catalyst for interest in the biomedical engineering field. The Foundation expanded its staff and developed relationships with other organizations. However, it deliberately never developed an extensive bureaucracy. At its largest, when it was giving out $70 million in grants in a year, the foundation employed 13 people. Key to its functioning was the hands-on committee, advised by a circle of experts in the biomedical engineering field.

The result of Whitaker's investment was the accelerated establishment of biomedical engineering, and its transformation from a fledgling enterprise to a mature field. Whitaker supported the creation of at least 30 academic departments and enhancements at many others. Freestanding research institutes now address the collaboration of engineers and medicine. New technologies have begun to come out of the laboratories. The NIH, which did not fund projects in the field when Whitaker started its work, established a new institute of radiology and bioengineering and several other foundations began funding the field.

For Miles Gibbons, the key to Whitaker's success was "focus." The Foundation had a single area of interest, and pursued that goal single-mindedly. Gibbons feels that the 15-year spend-down period worked well because the Foundation had already established its mission, and knew what it was going to do during that period.

Gibbons brought the same kind of discipline to the operation of the Helen F. Whitaker Fund, which was established in 1984 after the death of Uncas Whitaker's widow. The only donor stipulation for this smaller foundation (with starting assets of $16.9 million) was that it not fund biomedical engineering, and the governing committee - Helen Whitaker's daughter, her niece, and Gibbons - eventually focused on western classical music, a passion of the donor's. After several years of consultation in the field, it found a niche: advanced training for classical musicians, support for composers, and, unusually, classical music service organizations, such as the American Symphony Orchestra League - membership organizations that have limited fund-raising appeal for most donors. The Fund consistently supported the same organizations over its lifetime, ultimately distributing nearly $60 million in grants.

Helen Whitaker suggested that the Fund spend down in 20 years, feeling that this was the best way to make an impact with a relatively small amount of money. In 1992, when the committee made the decision to spend down, they again did research, and determined that the best use of the remaining assets would be endowing the programs that their annual giving had been supporting, such as the management fellowship program at the American Symphony Orchestra League. The Fund invited some of its regular grantees to make endowment proposals, and offered a dozen challenge grants with various terms. While some of these groups had little endowment capability, most were able to use the challenge grants to successfully build endowment. Others ultimately found the challenge difficult, since the timing coincidentally corresponded to a stock market slump, and were only able to receive some of the promised Whitaker funds, even under renegotiated terms. In all, the challenge grant program ended up providing about $16 million in grants and leveraging an additional $27.6 million in matching funds for the organizations.

[ << INTRODUCTION | 1 | 2 | THE LEARNING CURVE >> ]

  Resources

• Executive Summary
• Full Report
• Order Print Copies

  Report Contents

• Introduction
• Focus: The Whitaker Foundation and the Helen F. Whitaker Fund
• The Learning Curve: The Beldon Fund
• Retooling for Spend Down: The Atlantic Philanthropies
• Giving While Living: The Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund and the Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Foundation
• Quick Spend Down: The Haigh-Scatena Foundation
• Raising the Payout: Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund
• Giving 5.5%: The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation
• More than Investment Returns: The Needmor Fund
• Ramping Up: The HKH Foundation
• Using All the Models: Endswell Foundation / Renewal Partners
• A Different Strategy: Omidyar Network
• Conclusion
• Selected Bibliography
• Resources
• List of Profiled Foundations
• Acknowledgements

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