The Edna McConnell Clark Foundation
The story of the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation begins with Edna's father,
David Hall McConnell. A door-to-door book salesman in New York State in
the 1880s, he offered potential customers a vial of homemade perfume that
proved to be more popular than the books. Recognizing a market when he saw
it, he formed the California Perfume Company in 1886 and recruited housewives
to sell the perfume as a way to augment their family income. The company
added a number of other household products and cosmetics, and in 1936 it
was renamed Avon. Mr. McConnell died in 1937. Edna's husband, Van Alan Clark,
worked at Avon and became chairman of the board in the 1950s.
As Avon prospered, so did the family, and Mr. and Mrs. Clark decided to
put some of their resources into a small family foundation. The Clarks and
their three sons, Hays, Van Alan, Jr., and James, were directly involved
in grantmaking activities. When Edna and Van Alan Clark decided to expand
the Foundation in 1969, they donated enough Avon stock to double the size
of the Foundation and charged their sons, who continued as trustees, with
overseeing the staffing and development of what would become one of the
largest foundations in the country. Total assets as of September 30, 1995,
were valued at $525 million.
Despite the size of the Foundation, the Clark family wanted a no-nonsense,
no-frills approach to philanthropy. After carefully considering a wide range
of possible grantmaking opportunities, the trustees decided to concentrate
grants on specific goals in four areas: the poor, children, the elderly,
and the developing world.
Each of the Foundation's five current programs reflects the spirit of those
early decisions. Three programs -- Children, Justice, and Tropical Disease
Research -- can trace their evolution directly from the strategies developed
in the early 1970s. In 1988, the trustees created the Program for Disadvantaged
Youth (now called the Program for Student Achievement) and the Program for
Homeless Families (now called the Program for New York Neighborhoods). The
Foundation also maintains a small special projects fund.
The Program for Student Achievement supported
standards-based middle school reform efforts in several urban school systems.
Van Alan Clark died in 1976; Edna, in 1982. Four members of the family remain
on the board--their son Hays and three grandchildren, Lucy Nesbeda, James
McConnell Clark, Jr., and
H. Lawrence Clark. In the last 26 years, the Foundation has made grants
of $351 million, while striving to maintain the family's down-to-earth approach
to philanthropy. The family still keeps a low profile, but their concern
for helping the poor "get a break," as Edna would put it, is translated
into action daily by the Foundation's grantees.
--from the 1995 EMCF Annual Report
For more information about the Foundation or its grant guidelines, write
to: Office of Communications, The Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, 250 Park
Avenue, New York, NY 10177 or call (212) 551-9100.
Home | Latest
Updates | Newswatch | MiddleWeb
Index | Reforming Schools | Links
| Search