Joyce Foundation

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The Joyce Foundation is a charitable foundation based in Chicago in the United States and operating principally in the Great Lakes region.

The Foundation primarily funds organizations in the Great Lakes states (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin).

Contents

[edit] Programs

  • Education: Focuses on public schools in Chicago, Cleveland, and Milwaukee; concentrates on teacher quality, early childhood education, and “innovations,” primarily charter schools, small schools, and similar initiatives.
  • Employment: Focuses on workforce development, education, and job training for low-income workers.
  • Environment: Concentrates on environmental issues affecting the Great Lakes region, especially water and energy issues.
  • Gun violence: Funds research and advocacy to reduce gun ownership, deaths and injuries. This includes support of anti-gun groups[1].
  • Money and politics: Supports research and advocacy around such issues as campaign finance and ethics reform.
  • Culture: Supports arts organizations, primarily in Chicago; its Joyce Awards also supports arts groups in other Midwest cities.

The Joyce Foundation funds policy-related research in its program areas.

In 2005, the Joyce Foundation paid grants in the amount of $8,385,304 in its Environment program, $7,888,380 in its Education program, $6,302,775 in its Employment program, $3,056,117 in its Gun Violence Program, $2,818,105 in its Money and Politics program, and $1,427,350 in its Culture program. Source: The Joyce Foundation 2005 Annual Report, Page 45

[edit] History

The Joyce Foundation was created in 1948 by Beatrice Joyce Kean of Chicago[2], giving small grants mostly to hospitals and other health organizations. After her death in 1972 it inherited the bulk of her estate, growing in annual grant budget by two orders of magnitude and expanding its scope to cover educational and cultural institutions and by 1980 a wide variety of other concerns.

[edit] Mission Statement

“ The Joyce Foundation supports efforts to protect the natural environment of the Great Lakes, to reduce poverty and violence in the region, and to ensure that its people have access to good schools, decent jobs, and a diverse and thriving culture. We are especially interested in improving public policies, because public systems such as education and welfare directly affect the lives of so many people, and because public policies help shape private sector decisions about jobs, the environment, and the health of our communities. To ensure that public policies truly reflect public rather than private interests, we support efforts to reform the system of financing election campaigns.[3] ”

[edit] Governance

Current members of the board of directors of the Joyce Foundation are: John T. Anderson, Chairman, Ellen S. Alberding, President, Robert G. Bottoms, Michael F. Brewer, Charles U. Daly, Anthony S. Earl, Roger R. Fross, Howard L. Fuller, Carlton L. Guthrie, Marion T. Hall, Valerie B. Jarrett, Daniel P. Kearney and Paula Wolff.

The Joyce Foundation has a staff of about 27, whose names are listed on its website.

The Foundation's management and program staff consists of: President Ellen S. Alberding

Vice President Lawrence N. Hansen

Vice President of Finance and Administration Deborah Gillespie

Director of Communications Mary O’Connell

Director of Investments Jane R. Patterson

Program Officers

Education Gretchen Crosby Sims, Program Manager John Luczak

Employment Whitney Smith, Program Manager Jennifer Phillips, Senior Program Officer

Environment Stephen Brick, Program Manager Margaret H. O’Dell, Senior Program Officer James Seidita

Gun Violence Roseanna Ander

Money and Politics Lawrence N. Hansen

Culture Michelle T. Boone

Previous notable board members include 2008 Presidential candidate Barack Obama who served on the board from 1994 through 2002.[4][5]

[edit] Past and present grantees

Since 1972, the Joyce Foundation has awarded approximately $555 million in grants.

In 2005 the Joyce Foundation awarded a total of $27,323,124 to 196 grantees. Those included 70 discretionary, membership, and employee matching grants, 35 environment grants, 25 education grants, 16 employment grants, 16 culture grants, 14 money and politics grants, 11 special opportunities grants, and nine gun violence grants[6].

A complete list of grants by The Joyce Foundation is available by program:

[edit] Gun Violence Prevention and Gun Control

Since 2003, the Joyce Foundation has paid grants totaling over $12 million to gun control organizations[10][1]. The largest single grantee has been the Violence Policy Center, which received $4,154,970[10] between 1996 and 2006, and calls for an outright ban on handguns, semi-automatic and other firearms, and substantial restrictions on gun owners.[13]

Gun rights groups including the National Rifle Association call the Joyce Foundation an activist foundation whose "shadowy web of huge donations" leads "straight to puppet strings that control the agenda of gun ban groups".[14]

[edit] Funding patterns

Joyce Foundation Funding Patterns
Joyce Foundation Funding Patterns

To the right is a mind map of Joyce Foundation funding[10] in the area of gun control. The map divides funding into several areas. Click on the picture to view it in full size.

[edit] Organizations funded by the Joyce Foundation

The organizations funded by the Joyce Foundation include:[10]:

  • Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition
  • Franklin County Prevention Institute
  • Handgun Epidemic Lowering Plan (HELP) Network
  • Indiana Partnership to Prevent Firearm Violence
  • Gun Guys
  • Legal Community Against Violence (formerly Firearms Law Center)
  • Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence
  • On-Target Coalition
  • Second Amendment Research Center
  • Violence Policy Center: $4,154,970 between 1996 and 2006.
  • WAVE Educational fund
  • Workforce Strategy Center

[edit] Law review symposia on the Second Amendment and Gun Control

The Joyce Foundation has sponsored symposium issues of some law reviews, generally offering to pay for the symposium if an external editor is selected. The editor carefully solicits and chooses the articles to appear in the symposium. The Joyce Foundation then pays for the cost of copies to be distributed to judges and legislators. Law reviews that have cooperated in this manner include:

Some of the law review symposia have attracted controversy. Professor Randy Barnett of Georgetown University says that in the case of the Chicago-Kent Law Review symposium issue, the external editor purposely solicited only one side of the debate, resulting in a "completely one-sided composition of the contributors".[15] According to the organizer, Carl Bogus, the lack of balance was intentional and meant to counter the overwhelming dominance of the individual rights position.[15]

[edit] Research into Gun Violence Prevention

The Joyce Foundation has underwritten research into gun violence prevention since 1993.[10]. The foundation funds research that is likely to have a strong impact on public policy.[16]. Almost all of this research directly or indirectly supports gun control and additional restrictions on gun ownership[10].

It has been implied that the Joyce Foundation's open solicitation of grant proposals supporting its political position against firearm ownership may taint such research.[17]

[edit] Sponsored Academic Publications

A $250,000 grant to the UCLA School of Public Health resulted in a special edition of Evaluation Review that focused on gun violence.[18]

[edit] Direct academic sponsorship

The Joyce Foundation provided a $400,000 grant to The Ohio State University's John Glenn Institute for Public Service and Public Policy to establish a Second Amendment Research Center, directed by OSU Associate Professor of History Saul Cornell.[19]

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b "Gun Panel Meets and Comes Under Fire", FoxNews.com. Retrieved on 2007-04-11. 
  2. ^ History.
  3. ^ About us. The Joyce Foundation (2004). Retrieved on 2006-10-14.
  4. ^ Kenneth P. Vogel. "Obama linked to gun control efforts", Politico, Capitol News Company LLC, 2008-04-20. Retrieved on 2008-04-21. 
  5. ^ "2008 Presidential Candidates: Barack Obama", Washington Post. Retrieved on 2007-04-10. 
  6. ^ (2005) The Joyce Foundation's 2005 Annual Report. The Joyce Foundation, 56, 45. 
  7. ^ Education. The Joyce Foundation (2006). Retrieved on 2006-10-14.
  8. ^ Employment. The Joyce Foundation (2006). Retrieved on 2006-10-14.
  9. ^ Environment. The Joyce Foundation (2006). Retrieved on 2006-10-14.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g Gun Violence. The Joyce Foundation (2007). Retrieved on 2007-06-06.
  11. ^ Money and Politics. The Joyce Foundation (2006). Retrieved on 2006-10-14.
  12. ^ Culture. The Joyce Foundation (2006). Retrieved on 2006-10-14.
  13. ^ Violence Policy Center Hails Passage of San Francisco Handgun Ban. The Joyce Foundation (2005). Retrieved on 2007-06-06.
  14. ^ Cox, Chris (12 2007). "Follow the Money". American Rifleman 155 (12). National Rifle Association of America. 
  15. ^ a b Barnett, Randy. Funding of Chicago-Kent Symposium on the Second Amendment. Retrieved on 2008-03-06.
  16. ^ Gun Violence: Common Questions. The Joyce Foundation (2007). Retrieved on 2007-06-06.
  17. ^ Proctor, P. H. (1999-01-21). "Support for New Policies to Regulate Firearms". New England Journal of Medicine 340 (Number 3): 234–236. 
  18. ^ "Volume 30, No. 3" (2006-06-01). Evaluation Review 30 (3). SAGE Publications. 
  19. ^ About Us. Second Amendment Research Center. Retrieved on 2008-03-06. “...and supported by a generous grant from The Joyce Foundation of Chicago, Illinois...”