1996 Annual Report
The Ben & Jerry's Foundation mission is to support and contribute to progressive social change in the United States. By progressive social change we mean efforts to change the underlying conditions that create social problems such as racism, sexism, poverty and environmental destruction. We primarily fund small grassroots organizations, and are will to take risks funding new projects and small organizations struggling to survive.
Each year the Foundation receives a portion of the Ben & Jerry's company philanthropic dollars, which amounts to 7.5% of pre-tax profits, for these purposes. In 1996 the Foundation gave away $323,000 in 64 grants. The average grant was approximately $7,500. The smallest grant was $250 and the largest grant was $15,000.
The company divides the 7.5% pool of funds between the Foundation, employee Community Action Teams at each site, and corporate philanthropy. Each company manufacturing and administrative site in Vermont has an employee Community Action Team (CAT) , which gives small community service grants (under $1,000) within a specified region of the state. The Foundation grantmaking committee is an all employee team with representatives elected from each CAT.
The nine-member Foundation Grantmaking Committee is entirely composed of employees, with representatives from each Community Action Team. This innovative, employee-led grantmaking structure which we initiated in 1994 is working better than we could have hoped. One thing we've realized over the past two years is that in order to truly empower employees as grantmakers, it is vital to actively support and encourage their philanthropic work with us. In 1996 we instituted a much more proactive training and development program for the employee grantmaking committee, starting with a highly interactive, two-day off-site retreat in August. Other training activities we initiated were an orientation in understanding community organizing put together by the folks at the Haymarket People's Fund in Boston, a Diversity Training workshop by the Racial Justice and Equity Project in Burlington, and a field trip to Boston, in which we benchmarked with other foundations and made a site visit to one of our grantees, the Food Project.
This year we plan to do even more in the way of committee development, by sending members to relevant outside meetings, conferences and funders tours. We also plan to bring in experts to speak on issues relating to economic, social and environmental justice. Our goal is to help educate not only committee members but to share these educational opportunities with other members of the Ben & Jerry's community as well.
Because of the highly selective nature of our grantmaking process, we encourage all potential applicants to review our application materials carefully in order to assess the appropriateness of their project for a Ben & Jerry's Foundation grant. We look forward to another year reviewing exciting and innovative proposals for social change work.