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Published on 01/19/1998 All articles from this issue

A giving tradition grows

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By Carol Tiegs

Town Crier Staff Writer

Packard Foundation expands, and so do opportunities for nonprofit organizations

Despite its low profile, it is one of the largest employers in Los Altos. From local roots, its scope and influence have expanded globally. And even as that scope expands, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation has remained a major contributor to our community's schools, government and social service organizations.

The foundation has funneled nearly $4 million to projects in Los Altos and Los Altos Hills in the past two years alone.

Founded in 1964 by David Packard (1912-1996), co-founder of the Hewlett-Packard Company, and his wife, Lucile Salter Packard (1914-1987), the private family foundation awarded $1.5 million in grants during its first 10 years.

When Colburn S. "Cole" Wilbur came on board as executive director in the early 1970s total assets were just above $5.5 million.

Last year, the foundation made award grants totaling $201 million. Total assets are estimated at $8.9 billion, of which $5.2 billion is a receivable from the Packard Trust pending the final settlement of David Packard's estate. The renowned inventor and businessman died in 1996.

The foundation is required by federal law to give away a minimum of 5 percent of total assets - about $445 million will be available in 1999 with receipt of the Packard Trust funds.

How the foundation did business was rooted in the values and interests of its co-founders. That will not change with their deaths, Wilbur said in an interview with the Town Crier.

"One of the smartest things (David and Lucile Packard) did," Wilbur said, "was they brought their children into the foundation when each was 21. The children understood their parent's interests, they know one another's issues and they knew how to work together."

Today, daughter Susan Packard Orr heads the eight-member board of trustees. It includes daughters Julie Packard and Nancy Packard Burnett, and the Packard's son, Los Altos Hills resident David W. Packard.

That tradition will continue as the third generation of Packards come onto board committees as they turn 21, Wilbur said.

Following David Packard's death, Wilbur said, the board put together a statement of David and Lucile Packard's core set of values. Those include integrity, respect for all people, belief in individual leadership, a commitment to effectiveness and the capacity to think big.

For Packard, thinking big meant not just project size, Wilbur said, but also "how you do things - to think about the overall value of what we're doing, and to think over all of the issues involved."

Both of the Packards had broad interests, Wilbur said.

"Dave became excited about a lot of things, and whatever he became involved in he was a very quick learner," he said. "He could go through several books and then ask the right questions."

Those qualities led the Foundation to expand program areas both in scope and geographic range.

The Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute grew from Packard's involvement with the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Wilbur said, and his growing understanding of the minutia of sea life. Today the institute has a staff of 150, and a fleet that includes a submarine as well as research ships.

The foundation has moved from projects to policy in scope.

"Before, we made a few grants in an area - on food and shelter issues, for example," Wilbur said. "Now we have programs to help people get off welfare. The broader approach came with more experience and more funding."

The foundation's broad program areas include science, population, conservation, arts and film preservation, community, education and the Center for the Future of Children, established in 1989 to seek ways to protect and improve the lives of young children and their families. The center publishes a journal, "The Future of Children," and makes grants in the areas of health, child development and child protection.

In addition to the Monterey Bay ocean science programs, the science program area includes a fellowship program, established in 1988 to encourage promising young university professors to pursue their science and engineering research. Each year, the Foundation awards 20 fellowships of $100,000 annually for five consecutive years.

The Historically Black Colleges and Universities Science Program makes grants to improve the teaching of science and increase the number of black graduates qualified in science. Further supporting those goals, the Scholars Program for Chemistry, Physics and Math supports graduates of historically black colleges and universities who are admitted to doctor programs in the sciences. Similar programs are in place to support science students in tribal colleges, and tribal college graduates who pursue advanced degrees in science and mathematics.

The foundation also provides funding in several areas that are outside the general program guidelines but are of particular interest and concern to its trustees. These include organizational development, philanthropy and volunteerism. The Foundation supports the American School of Classical Studies at Athens in its efforts to excavate the Athenian agora, and considers funding for projects of benefit to Pueblo, Colo., David Packard's birthplace.

The Foundation is now in the midst of an in-depth planning process, and Wilbur calls 1998 "an interim year."

"After Dave died," he said, "we started looking at how the foundation operates - its values, operating principles and governance, as well as the program areas."

During 1997, the board solicited input from a variety of sources including staff and community volunteers. Leaders in a number of fields were asked to give their recommendations, Wilbur said.

The results were compiled, graded and are now being used in plan development.

"By summer we hope to be done with five-year plans in each program area, which would be reviewed each year for effectiveness," Wilbur said. "Each program area will be changing in some way."

Already approved is expansion to the organizational effectiveness program and a new California lands conservation program. The latter is a five-year initiative that focuses on three regions of California recognized for the important biological resources and scenic value: the Central Coast, the Central Valley and the Sierra Nevada.

The California land conservation program represents a strategic shift in the foundation's conservation grantmaking. It includes a transactions component, which sets aside funds to purchase land as well as development and water rights, and a complementary grants component, which works to advance the conservation goals of the purchases.

Wilbur emphasizes that you can't plan program growth without planning for staff support in areas such as finance, administration and communication. The foundation had 58 employees at the time of Packard's death. There are 85 today and Wilbur expects more than 100 by the end of this year.

Expanded staff requires more staff. In addition to its main office at 300 Second St., the foundation leases space in the new Gateway Building at 496 First St. It recently acquired the building at 175 S. San Antonio Road.

"At some point we will need to consolidate," Wilbur said. "We like it here in Los Altos and want to stay. It's a good place to work."