With the State of the USA, Americans will now have a source of reliable, objective information about our increasingly complex society, which they can assimilate, find meaning in and act on to improve the country.

Vartan Gregorian, President of the Carnegie Corporation of New York

Funders

The State of the USA (SUSA) is seizing an unprecedented opportunity to empower and inform the public by building a system of key national indicators to measure the country’s progress. But developing SUSA’s full potential requires the interest and attention of influential Americans. SUSA is working closely with leaders in nonprofit groups, foundations, the private sector, academia, the media and government to be personally and organizationally involved—from elected officials and CEOs to journalists and entrepreneurs. Such leaders will continually help SUSA to shape its most strategic choices and support it with crucial resources.

Many individuals and institutions have already contributed enormous time and energy. They have invested financial or in-kind resources and are providing important leadership, advice, skills and expertise. In particular, vital strategic ideas, relationships and start-up funding to launch the first public version of SUSA’s indicators website in 2009 is being provided by the following foundations:

 

The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation has been making grants since 1967 to support educational and cultural institutions and to help solve serious social and environmental problems.

The foundation has grantmaking programs in education, the environment, global development, the performing arts, philanthropy, and population, and it also makes grants to aid disadvantaged communities in the San Francisco Bay Area. Since its inception, the Hewlett Foundation has made grants of over $2.5 billion to thousands of organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area, across the United States, and around the world.

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The Rockefeller Foundation

The Rockefeller Foundation was established in 1913 by John D. Rockefeller, Sr., to "promote the well-being" of humanity by addressing the root causes of serious problems. With assets of more than $3.7 billion, it is one of the nation’s largest private foundations.  The foundation supports work around the world to expand opportunities for poor or vulnerable people and to help ensure that the benefits of globalization are shared more widely.

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The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is a private, independent grantmaking institution helping to build a more just and sustainable world. Through the support it provides, the foundation fosters the development of knowledge, nurtures individual creativity, strengthens institutions, helps improve public policy, and provides information to the public, primarily through support for public interest media. With assets of more than $6.4 billion, the foundation makes approximately $260 million in grants annually.  More information is available at www.macfound.org. 

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The Carnegie Corporation of New York

Carnegie Corporation of New York was created by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 to promote “the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding.” For more than 95 years the corporation has carried out Mr. Carnegie’s vision of philanthropy by building on his two major concerns: international peace and advancing education and knowledge. As a private grantmaking foundation, the corporation will invest more than $100 million this year in nonprofits to fulfill Mr. Carnegie's mission, “to do real and permanent good in this world.”  The corporation’s capital fund, originally donated at a value of about $135 million, had a market value of approximately $3 billion on September 30, 2007.

The corporation supports two major grantmaking programs—a National and an International program—as well as initiatives to revitalize journalism education, invest in new opportunities outside of current funding priorities and to disseminate the scholarship and research that advance the goals of the two major programs.

The International Program focuses on the seemingly inexorable growth of globalization, the danger of deepening fragmentation along cultural, regional and religious divides and the role of developing countries in advancing global cohesion and prosperity.

The National Program aims to contribute to a robust democracy fueled by increased educational opportunity, improved institutions of learning, increased civic participation, and immigrant integration.

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The F.B. Heron Foundation

The F.B. Heron Foundation was created in 1992 with the mission of helping people and communities to help themselves. The Foundation supports organizations with a track record of building and preserving wealth for low-income people and communities.
 
Toward this end, the Foundation provides core support grants to and investments in organizations that promote the following five wealth-creation strategies for low-income families in urban and rural communities in the U.S.:

  • advancing home ownership;
  • supporting enterprise development;
  • reducing the barriers to full participation in the economy by providing quality child care;
  • increasing access to capital; and
  • employing comprehensive community development approaches with a strong focus on the wealth-creation strategies.

The Foundation also supports practical, effective means of assessing impact.

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