As revenue falls at newspapers and local television stations and they eliminate reporters, cultural coverage often is the first casualty. This loss can have dire effects on a community’s arts organizations, which rely on journalists to spread word of their offerings. With this in mind, the Hewlett Foundation joined the National Endowment for the Arts …

  “Foundations” is an occasional series of informal question-and-answer sessions with employees and others affiliated with The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation to give them an opportunity to explain their work. Ron Ragin is an associate officer with the Foundation’s Performing Arts Program, which makes grants to support artistic expression and encourage public participation in …

    The Foundation welcomes back John McGuirk as the new director of the Performing Arts Program. He will be replacing Moy Eng, whose eight-year term ended in November. McGuirk was a program officer with Hewlett from 2002 to 2006 before leaving to lead the James Irvine Foundation’s performing arts program. In addition to his …

Jenna Valentine and her husband wanted to give to charity for the holidays, but they also wanted to be sure their giving made a difference. And that’s where the problem was. “I was really frustrated,” says Valentine, a stay-at-home mom from Palo Alto, California. “I looked locally first, but there’s no easy way to know …

MENLO PARK, Calif. – Nonprofit organizations that receive money from The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation give it high marks for achieving its goals, but wish it did more to communicate those goals and the strategies for achieving them to grant recipients. Those are among the key findings of a survey of more than 800 …

MENLO PARK, Calif. – Nonprofit organizations need flexible funding to thrive, but whether a funder provides general support or underwrites a specific project depends on the compatibility of their interests, writes Paul Brest, president of The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, in an essay accompanying the Foundation’s recently released 2008 Annual Report. In the essay, …

The American Institutes for Research is one of the largest behavioral and social science research organizations in the world. Its 1,100 employees conduct explorations into a broad range of areas to improve everyday life, from early childhood development to the workplace. As a Hewlett Foundation grantee, the American Institutes for Research is helping three California …

SOMEWHERE ABOVE RIFLE, Colorado – Pilot Bruce Gordon banks his Cessna Turbo Centurion II six-seater over Rifle’s small airstrip and frowns. The air space just to the north, over the dramatic Roan Plateau, is socked in like a wet wool blanket. Visibility: zero. For Gordon, this isn’t just a navigational problem. As the founder and …

“Foundations” is an occasional series of informal question-and-answer sessions with employees and others affiliated with The William and Flora Hewlett  Foundation to give them an opportunity to explain their work. Peter Belden is an officer with the Foundation’s Population Program, which makes grants to enhance the reproductive health and rights of individuals worldwide. It also …

On September 30, 2009, a coalition of 26 conservation, Native American, ranching, farming, fishing, and dam owners announced an historic agreement that, once implemented, will remove four dams on the Klamath River which spans the boundary of California and Oregon. Once the dams come down, over 300 miles of river that has been blocked since …