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Published on 11/09/1998 All articles from this issue

Los Altos-based Packard Foundation

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By Clyde Noel

Special to the Town Crier

to give away $400 million in 1999

The David and Lucile Packard Foundation has announced a 1999 grants budget of $400 million, to be disbursed worldwide. The Los Altos-headquartered foundation is now the third largest in the country.

At a press conference in San Francisco, Nov. 12, the foundation announced a new five-year plan of spending in each of the key areas in the budget.

The foundation will give away $400 million during 1999 in the following areas: slowing the growth rate of the world's population; conserving the earth's resources; expanding scientific knowledge through research; ensuring the healthy development of children and the arts.

"We expect to undertake these programs while retaining our core values of integrity, respect for all people, and belief in individual leadership," said Cole Wilbur, executive director of the foundation.

The Packard Foundation has tripled in size since Hewlett-Packard Company co-founder David Packard died in 1996. As of last Oct. 30, the Packard Foundation's assets were more than $8.6 billion. Since more than 85 percent of the assets are Hewlett-Packard stock, the assets of the foundation vary according to the price of the stock.

By federal law, the foundation must give away 5 percent of the trust's value every year.

Wilbur said the foundation plans to use the funds strategically to make positive, long-lasting partnerships with outstanding nonprofit organizations that work in the foundation's key program areas.

"We estimate the foundation will make approximately $400 million in grants during 1999. This is enormous compared to the original $17,000 the foundation distributed in 1964," Wilbur said. "But, there is no question in our minds that the needs and opportunities we identified will require far more money than we have available."

The foundation recently granted $175 million over five years to preserve 250,000 acres of open land along California's Central Coast, the Central Valley and the Sierra Nevada.

With the world population expected to reach more than 6 billion next year, the foundation plans to dispense $375 million over the next five years for programs intended to slow population growth. For the first year, grants totaling $75 million will go to nonprofit reproductive health programs and population initiatives worldwide.

The Wall Street Journal said the grants are likely to focus on ways to get contraceptives to the estimated 150 million women worldwide who want them, but lack adequate access.

In 1997, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation contributed more than $1.4 million to programs in Los Altos and Los Altos Hills.

Wilbur, 64, announced his intention to retire from day-to-day management of the foundation next year, but will continue in several programs as a member of the foundation's board of trustees. He has been executive director of the Packard Foundation since 1976 when David and Lucile Packard invited him to be the first professional staff person for the family foundation.

"I am enthusiastic about making the transition to trustee," Wilbur said. "We have completed our five-year plan and our program directors are in place to carry out the vision of the board."