MENLO PARK, Calif. – After more than a year of intensive exploration, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation will integrate its Global Development and Population grant-making programs to further the work of both, Foundation President Paul Brest explains in an essay accompanying the Foundation’s newly released 2009 Annual Report. The integration is expected to formally occur in 2011.

In his essay, Brest writes that the new Global Development and Population Program will build on its predecessors as it makes grants to improve the lives of the world’s most vulnerable people, especially women and girls. It will do this by also making grants that seek more accountable governance, improved reproductive health and rights, quality education, and better economic opportunities.

In its grantmaking, the Population Program has long been concerned not just with population growth but also with reproductive rights and helping governments maximize human well-being and sustain the environment, Brest notes. Increasingly, the Population Program has broadened its grantmaking to consider the relationship between human well-being and access to a good education, as well as exploring the relationship between population and economic growth. All these areas found a natural affinity with the work of the Global Development Program, whose goal is to improve the lives of those living on less than $2 a day.

“As the conversation evolved, it became clear that the work of each program could benefit from the integration,” Brest said.

The Foundation’s annual disbursal of grants to support hundreds of nonprofit organizations worldwide reflects its position as one of the country’s largest foundations. In addition to population and global development, the Foundation makes grants in the areas of education, the environment, and performing arts, as well as grants to support disadvantaged communities in the San Francisco Bay Area.

In 2009, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation awarded a total of $235,100,000 in grants and gifts, and disbursed approximately $345,200,000 in grant and gift payments.

Visit the Hewlett Foundation website to view the President’s Statement and the full Annual Report, or see past Annual Reports dating back to 1966.

To learn more about the integration of Global Development and Population programs, visit the GD-Pop Integration page and the Frequently Asked Questions.

About The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation has been making grants since 1967 to help solve social and environmental problems at home and around the world. The Foundation concentrates its resources on activities in education, the environment, global development, performing arts, philanthropy, and population, and makes grants to support disadvantaged communities in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Contact:
Jack Fischer
Hewlett Foundation Communications Officer
(650) 234-4500 x5744
jfischer@hewlett.org