Understanding our nation's progress toward widely accepted goals is imperative in an age where most of us know far too little about the problems and opportunities we face.

Derek Bok, The 300th Anniversary University Professor and President Emeritus of Harvard University

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 mission of the F.B. Heron Foundation is helping people and communities to help themselves. The Heron Foundation makes grants and investments within three wealth creation strategies to support our mission: Home Ownership: Advancing and preserving home ownership in low- and moderate-income communities; Enterprise Development: Supporting enterprise development in distressed communities; Access to Capital: Increasing access to capital and preserving assets for low-income families and communities.

The Foundation also supports research and policy efforts that advance these strategies:

  • Demonstrably incorporate people with disabilities as beneficiaries of the wealth-creation strategies on which the Foundation is focused.
  • Develop systems and approaches for reliable, credible data, research and technology systems that inform and expand practice and policy in wealth creation.
  • Encourage effective practices in philanthropy, specifically to expand social impact through mission-related investing, as well as to promote core support funding, practical means of assessing impact, and high quality customer service to our partner grantees and investees.
  • Provide financial or technical assistance to community-based development organizations or coordinate practitioner networks to exchange lessons learned.

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The Charles H. Revson Foundation

The Charles H. Revson Foundation was founded in 1956 by Charles H. Revson, the founder of Revlon, Inc., as a vehicle for his charitable giving. Mr. Revson willed half his estate to the Foundation upon his death in 1975.

The initial board of directors, chaired by Judge Simon H. Rifkind, decided to ground the Foundation's giving in the founder's personal philanthropy, which expressed, as Judge Rifkind put it, Mr. Revson's commitment "to the spread of knowledge" and "the improvement of human life." With Mr. Revson's giving as a guide, the board established four program areas: urban affairs, Jewish philanthropy and education, biomedical research and education.

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The Peter G. Peterson Foundation

The Peter G. Peterson Foundation is dedicated to increasing public awareness of the nature and urgency of several key challenges threatening America's future, and to accelerating action on them. To address these challenges successfully, it will work to bring Americans together to find sensible, long-term solutions that transcend age, party lines and ideological divides in order to achieve real results.

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The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives. In developing countries, it focuses on improving people's health and giving them the chance to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty. In the United States, it seeks to ensure that all people—especially those with the fewest resources—have access to the opportunities they need to succeed in school and life. Based in Seattle, Washington, the foundation is led by CEO Jeff Raikes and Co-chair William H. Gates Sr., under the direction of Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett.

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