Black movers and shakers in philanthropy - presidents and executive directors of private foundations

WHFN it comes to philanthropy, Blacks are no longer relegated to the role of hat-in-hand recipients. An increasing number of Blacks now head major foundations, giving new meaning and color to grantsmanship.

Franklin A. Thomas, for example, runs the Ford Foundation, the world's largest private philanthropic organization, and james A. joseph sits at the pinnacle of the field as president of the Council on Foundations, an influential non-profit trade association representing 1,200 community, independent and c-orporate foundations. No less visible is Dr. Bernard C. Watson, president of the William Penn Foundation in Philadelphia, which has assets of $551 million.

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In addition to these philanthropic veterans, Steven A. Minter heads the Cleveland Foundation, the nation's second largest community foundation. It awards about 30 million in grants each year. Anna Faith jones, the daughter of' Mordecai johnson, the late president of Howard University, heads the Boston Foundation, another major community foundation that gives roughly $17 million in grants annually. She is the first Black woman in America to head a major community foundation.

And the number of Black chief executives of major foundations isn't limited to community and independent groups. In a new and interesting development Black executives have been named to lead major corporate foundations.

Dr. john L. Mason, for example, leads the Monsanto Fund, which gave away $11.5 million last year. Atty. Sanford Cloud jr. is vice president and director of the Aetna Foundation, which has an asset base of $40.2 million and granted $11.8 million in 1991. Dr. Reatha Clark King, a former college president, is president and executive director of the General Mills Foundation, which has assets of $36.9 million and distributed $10.9 million last year. Paula Banks, president of the Sears Foundation, oversees an endowment that distributed $2.7 million last year. And judy Barker is president of the Borden Foundation, which gave away $2.4 million in 1991.

Other presidents and executive directors of major foundations that give more than $1 million annually include Lauren Casteel of the Hunt Alternatives Fund in Denver; Handy Lindsay of the Field Foundation of Illinois; Mahlon Martin of the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation in Little Rock, Ark.; Carrone Perry of the Philadelphia Foundation, and Israel Tribble of the Florida Endowment for Education in Tampa, Fla.

Richard H. Glanton, a corporate lawyer, heads a different kind of foundation. Unlike active organizations, the Philadelphia-based Barnes Foundation has an asset base of 800 paintings collected by a Black physician, the late Dr Albert C. Barnes. The paintings are worth an estimated $3 billion.

Besides holding major executive positions, Blacks have made inroads into other levels of philanthropy. The nation's Black foundation presidents and executive directors make up 3 percent of the total number of chief executives, an increase over the 2 percent reported in 1988. Blacks hold 5 percent of trustee and board director positions, according to a 1991 Council on Foundations survey

Another 200 Blacks, the survey revealed, hold staff positions with the overall responsibility of developing grant proposals for board consideration. "Black professionals can lift up important issues," says Jacqui Burton, a program officer at the Lilly Endowment and chair of the Association of Black Foundation Executives. "They can help these foundations become accountable to the Black community because a majority of them don't have large numbers of minorities on their boards."

Blacks have made some progress in philanthropy, but most executives agree that much more can be done to increase Black and minority participation in organized philanthropy. "There are now African-Americans in highly visible positions in organized philanthropy, but there is still a long way to go before achieving anything that would approach equity," joseph says. "My point is that people will look at Franklin Thomas at Ford and Steve Minter at Cleveland and think that African-Americans have it made. But if you consider the total number of foundations, then it's all relative. "

For the select group of Black executives who do sit at the pinnacle of philanthropy, overseeing multimillion-dollar endowments is no penny-ante venture. They oversee budgets, investments, strategic planning and the long-term policies of their philanthropic organizations. They also manage to funnel significant funding into economic development and educational, health-care and religious programs that affect the Black community-both domestically and

Have Black executives made a difference? Have the Ford Foundation and other major philanthropic organizations with Black presidents changed?

Yes, says james joseph and other Black executives, who add that the mere presence of a Black chief executive sends a positive message to Black and White constituencies.

Dr. Bernard C. Watson believes that Blacks bring a new perspective to the table of power. "We bring a special sensitivity because of our experiences as African-americans in this country," he says. "So we're concerned, sensitive and more aware of things than somebody from a different background would be aware of or sensitive to. "