Funding Briefs

Following Through For Children The Thrasher Research Fund of Salt Lake City, Utah, is preparing to launch a program to strengthen its ongoing interest in research on childhood diseases. This fail the fund will begin a program to encourage organizations to implement discoveries made in the laboratory. The fund hopes to devote about 25% of its more than $1 million annual expenditures to this effort. The fund, which was launched by California inventor E.W. Thrasher, is affiliated with the Mormon Church and focuses on research relating to nutritional deficiencies and microbiology. It does not support studies in the area of reproductive physiology. For more information, write The Thrasher Research Fund, 50 East North Temple St., 7th floor, Salt Lake City, Utah 84150, or call (801) 240-3386. Texas Tea And Hospitality The Robert J. and Helen C. Kleberg Foundation of San Antonio, Texas, which spends nearly $3 million annually on medical research, has an unusually open policy toward applicants. Its hands-on board of directors reviews each deserving proposal individually, without benefit of outside scientific panels or full-time, staff. It encourages applicants to telephone its offices for advice on pending proposals. And It tries to help those whose applications do not fit the foundation’s mission of supporting cancer research and work in brain chemistry, especially neuroendocrinology. “We ask applicants to tell us in plain English, in just a few pages, what they want to do with the money and why,” says Robert L. Washington, the foundation’s grant coordinator, who screens each proposal and refers to the board any that “remotely stand a chance.” Washington also acts promptly on those proposals that are denied, a valuable service given that the board meets only twice each year. “It takes time and money to launch a proposal,” he says. “I think that it’s wrong to make somebody sit around for six months waiting for a polite turndown. The foundation was established in 1950 with a gift of mineral shares from Robert Kleberg, the proprietor of the King Ranch who was immortalized in the film Giant. Kleberg was motivated to support expenmental genetics by his desire to produce a man-made cow. For more information and guidelines for grantees, write the Robert J. and Helen C. Kleberg Foundation, 700 North Saint Mary’s St., Suite 1200, San Antonio, Texas 78205, or call (512) 271-3691. The Population Option Population research has become an increasing concern for The Educational Foundation of America. The foundation, established in 1959 by Prentice-Hall founder Richard Prentice Ettinger, has traditionally focused on higher education programs, devoting a limited amount of funds to research on heart disease, cancer, and gerontology. In the past five years, however, the board has strengthened its program in these areas and expanded it to include work on contraceptives for men and women. The size of individual grants varies widely, within a total annual expenditure of about $2 million. The foundation is officially based in Connecticut, but application guidelines and an annual report are available from its West Coast office. For more information, write The Educational Foundation of America, 23161 Ventura Blvd., Suite 201, Woodland Hills, Calif. 91364, or call (818) 999-0921. Facing Up To it Anyone who suffered through acne as a teenager can certainly identify with the idea that Frank W. Bireley once had: to find a cure to eradicate this embarrassing and painful skin condition. But Bireley did more than dream. He endowed a small family foundation with such a goal. Thirty years later, the Califomia-based foundation awards. more than $400,000 annually for research and treatment of adolescent skin diseases. Grants are concentrated in the Golden State but available to researchers throughout the country. For more information, write The Bireley Foundation, 144 N. Brand Blvd., Glendale, Calif. 91203, or call (213) 245-3131.

Funding Briefs

The Scientist Staff

Following Through For Children

Texas Tea And Hospitality

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