MENLO PARK, Calif. – From a Boston public broadcaster that wants to open its multimedia educational archive to the world, to a Dutch research group that will fund studies of how reproductive health affects economic development, a total of 144 organizations recently were awarded $100.3 million in grants from The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

Organizations receiving grants ranged across the San Francisco Bay Area and throughout the world in the Foundation’s six primary areas of interest: education, population, global development, the environment, performing arts and philanthropy.

Among the highlights of the grants are:

Education – Providing Free Educational Materials to the World

The Education Program made $23,582,500 in grants to thirty-one organizations. The new round of grants continues the Program’s pioneering work in the Open Educational Resources movement, which brings free high-quality educational materials to the Internet, where users can reorganize, augment and republish course materials to suit their needs. These grants included $900,000 to enable Boston public broadcaster WGBH to continue work to make its digital educational archive, Teachers’ Domain, available for free on the Internet. The new grant will, among other things, extend that work to support five other public stations and PBS in producing 100 new educational resources in science.

Another key grant in the Foundation’s Open Educational Resources work is $4.45 million to Open University in the United Kingdom to continue to build content and develop tools for its Learning Space and LabSpace sites. The new grant will significantly increase Open University’s interactive content and hours of course offerings.


Population – Studying the Importance of Good Reproductive Health

The Population Program, which funds work on reproductive health regionally and worldwide, made $19,395,000 in grants to thirty-two diverse organizations. Among them is a grant of $1.3 million to the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research in The Hague which will, in turn, fund scientific research on how population and reproductive health affect economic development in Africa.

In this round of funding, the Population Program also will give a total of $6.4 million in general operating support to four large organizations whose mission is to supply a wide variety of family planning and reproductive health services around the world. The four and their individual grants are EngenderHealth, of New York City, $1.5 million; Pathfinder International, of Watertown, Mass., $2 million; PATH, of Seattle, Wash., $1.5 million; and DKT International, of Washington, D.C., $1.4 million.

Global Development – Supporting Foreign Policy Research in the U.S.

The Global Development Program made $13,456,284 in grants to twenty-six organizations. A grant of $2 million made to Connect US and administered through the San Francisco-based Tides Foundation will be used to continue Connect US’s support of 400 U.S. advocacy organizations that work on foreign policy issues. The goal is for Connect US to support these groups’ efforts to promote foreign policies that acknowledge the United States must act interdependently with other nations to solve major problems like global warming. In the coming year, these groups hope to raise the profile of foreign policy issues in the U.S. presidential campaign.
As part of its partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to improve the quality of education in the developing world, the Program also made a $9 million grant to the Pratham Mumbai Education Initiative for “Read India,” a nationwide program to spread literacy and other learning skills in that country.

Environment – Restoring Rivers, Reducing Carbon Emissions

The Foundation’s Environment Program made $23,224,000 in grants to twenty-eight organizations, including $2.25 million to American Rivers, which funds the Hydropower Reform Coalition. Federal hydropower licensing has proven to be one of the most powerful and effective tools available to restore rivers, and the Coalition has used the licensing process to remove dams and improve flows and habitats at more than two dozen rivers throughout the West. The new grant will enable it to continue that work.
The Environment Program also will grant $400,000 to Environmental Defense to further that organization’s work to facilitate the transition to hybrid fuel trucks in commercial fleets nationwide. Another highlight is the Program’s $50,000 grant to Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, which works for environmental policies that will improve the quality of life in poor communities in that city.

Performing Arts – Broadening the Range of Bay Area Theater

The Performing Arts Program, which focuses on performing arts in the San Francisco Bay Area, made $5,046,000 in grants to twenty-four organizations.

Among them a $30,000 grant to Golden Thread Productions will help the San Francisco-based theater company explore Middle Eastern themes that it hopes will spark discussion of timely social issues. And a $120,000 grant to the El Campanil Theatre Preservation Fund will enable the recently restored Antioch theater to strengthen its management, leverage new support and bolster programming.

Philanthropy – Advancing the Good Works of Others

The Philanthropy Program, which funds efforts to promote effective charitable giving, made $2,124,000 in grants to six organizations. Among these, the Program awarded $190,000 to the Communications Leadership Institute to train nonprofit organizations in how to communicate with policymakers, and $1 million to the Center for Effective Philanthropy to continue its development of a database about the functioning of foundations that will help them improve their management.

A full list of the most recent organizations funded, along with links to their Web sites, is available on the Grants page of the Hewlett Foundation Web site.

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. A full list of the Hewlett Foundation’s grants can be found here.