By Charles R. Halpern
President, Nathan Cummings Foundation

We have now completed our second grant making cycle. In some ways our jobs are easier now. Procedures are in place and the relationship of Board and staff smoother. But we have discovered something that is known only to people who have started new foundations-that the first year of grant making is the easiest. In that year the Foundation has the opportunity to locate promising and significant projects and to make appropriate grants to the extent of its resources. In the second year, the task is more diffficult-we want to continue to support those projects we had funded in the first year, while making room for new programs. Since the Foundation's resources are finite, this year is radically more difficult than the first. Nonetheless, we are pleased with the grants we made in our second year, and we feel it a privilege to be able to provide financial support for some of the worthwhile applicants who sought funds from the Foundation.

Our program areas at the Foundation lead us to confront some of the most intractable problems in the world today. The environmental crisis continues to deepen. It is a reality today: there are millions of environmental refugees in Africa. Hundreds of thousands of acres of farm land are lost each year because of soil erosion, desertification, and salinization. Ozone depletion has increased the incidence of skin cancer. It is particularly frustrating that the President and many other people with policy-making responsibility continue to ignore the degradation of the environment which threatens to undermine the way of life of our children. At the same time the polarization of rich and poor continues to grow. As the rich become richer, the idea of social equity disappears from public policy-and fundamental needs such as adequate nutrition and health care are unmet.

We are pleased to support the work of those who are seeking solutions to these problems. Our grantees are taking the lead in developing imaginative approaches to the environmental crisis; in reforming health systems riddled with inequities, high costs and depersonalized service; in rebuilding a new sense of Jewish identity encompassing traditional values and social justice; and in promoting multiculturalism and free expression in the art world. We must try to build a sense of kinship and common purpose which could bind the country and the world together. Recent years have been a period of indifference to the common good, and selfish attention to individual advancement. Materialism has displaced the commitment to interdependence and spiritual values in the United States. If the fall of the Communist dictatorships sees the spread of this attitude to Eastern Europe-merged with historic ethnic hatreds-western triumph over Communism will be a tragic victory.

This is a time when the issues confronting the world demand wisdom-attention to the long-term, recognition of the interdependence of all human beings, reverence for the earth-qualities that go beyond operational skill and manipulation of knowledge. Regrettably, we seem to have lost the very idea of wisdom in public discourse. If one were to ask which of the presidential candidates was the wisest, it would seem like an ironic joke. We are anxious to see the quality of wisdom re-valued in our society.

In many areas, our grants are supporting good people who are fighting a good fight, and we will continue such support. We will also seek some new directions which might reverse the trends that threaten our security and the future of the human race. We believe that fundamental ~changes are required. These must be changes at the material level-in the ways in which we relate to each other; utilize our resources; care for those who are helpless; nurture the young. They must also address less tangible concerns: the way we define our responsibilities for preserving a wholesome environment; assure that all people have adequate health care; seek wisdom in our Jewish traditions; open the art world to values of diversity and free expression.

During the course of the past year, there have been a number of changes at our Foundation. Our beloved founding president, Herbert Cummings, died on April 18, 1992. He is responsible in large part for building the infrastructure on which our Foundation programs rest. We will miss him sorely. The cancer initiative which we began in 1992 will be a living memorial to him; it was shaped with his wise counsel in a series of meetings over the past year. Our founding Chair, Beatrice Cummings Mayer, set a tone of enthusiasm, hard work, and devoted service. We are fortunate that her service to the Foundation will continue as a board member and that she will be succeeded as chair by another strong leader with high energy and broad experience, Ruth Cummings Sorensen. The fruitful dialogue between staff members and Board will also be enriched by the addition of two new members.

We are impressed with the diligence, hard work and imagination of many people working in the non-profit community, and their capacity to pursue their objectives despite inadequate resources. We are pleased to align ourselves with these people and lend our material support to their efforts to build a just, beautiful, spiritually fulfilling, and ecologically sustainable world; in rebuilding a new sense of Jewish identity encompassing traditional values and social justice; and in promoting multiculturalism and free expression in the art world. We must try to build a sense of kinship and common purpose which could bind the country and the world together. Recent years have been a period of indifference to the common good, and selfish attention to individual advancement. Materialism has displaced the commitment to interdependence and spiritual values in the United States. If the fall of the Communist dictatorships sees the spread of this attitude to Eastern Europe-merged with historic ethnic hatreds-western triumph over Communism will be a tragic victory.

This is a time when the issues confronting the world demand wisdom-attention to the long-term, recognition of the interdependence of all human beings, reverence for the earth-qualities that go beyond operational skill and manipulation of knowledge. Regrettably, we seem to have lost the very idea of wisdom in public discourse. If one were to ask which of the presidential candidates was the wisest, it would seem like an ironic joke. We are anxious to see the quality of wisdom re-valued in our society.