Who We Serve

OWEN L. COON FOUNDATION

STATEMENT OF POLICY 2010

Background

In 1946, Owen L. Coon created the Foundation to contribute to the community. He felt that people of character should be given opportunities to live up to their full capabilities and that their advancement would contribute to society. He believed in supporting those in need and the best and the brightest, no matter their social or economic station. He was particularly interested in education and in contributions to physical and mental health.

Owen L. Coon was an entrepreneur in automobile finance. He started Motor Acceptance Corporation in Evanston in 1925 and later headed General Finance Corporation for over a decade.   His personal wealth grew through his knowledge and aptitude for business. As Owen L. Coon prospered, he gave generously to institutions and to honor individuals that had shaped his values and capabilities.

The Foundation’s assets are derived from the business success that Owen L. Coon achieved and are sustained through investments and interest earned from the endowment. This endowment allows for a continuous distribution of grants to benefit the community. Owen L. Coon strongly believed in giving back to the community that provided him with the education, capability, and environment that fostered his success, and today, the Foundation continues to serve this important legacy.

In February 2010, the Foundation’s Board of Directors, composed primarily of Owen L. Coon’s descendants and family, met to discuss the future of the Foundation. They hoped to achieve a deeper understanding of the purpose of the Foundation and its original donor intent as well as to find ways to increase the Board’s commitment to and stewardship of the Foundation’s work. An underlying hope was to involve the next generation in the Foundation through fostering an understanding of the Foundation’s goals. One of the outcomes of this retreat was the development of a clear written framework for the Owen L. Coon Foundation that conveys the Foundation’s mission and values as well as its programmatic goals and desired outcomes.

The Statement of Policy 2010 portrays the Board’s recommitment to the Owen L. Coon Foundation’s original Statement of Policy, as well as modernizing the language of the Foundation’s mission, values, and priorities to align with the current philanthropic context and practice. It will guide the Foundation’s operations and allow the Board to ensure adherence to the mission and philosophy, oversee the effectiveness of grant-making, and abide by ethical and financial standards of best practices. It also serves as a consent agreement for all family and Board members to work within the Foundation’s guidelines, while welcoming fresh perspectives and new ideas that enable it to carry out its legacy most effectively.

Furthermore, this policy serves as an external guideline for the Foundation.   By defining the Foundation’s priorities, this updated Statement of Policy provides Board members, family members, grantees, and the general public with a distinct summary of grant-making goals, expectations and limitations. It can be used as a guiding tool to present to potential grantees interested in applying to the Foundation, as well as for current grantees to report on their progress and how their activities relate to the Foundation’s objectives.

PRIMARY CONSTITUENCIES TO BE SERVED

Geography

The geographic focus of the Owen L. Coon Foundation is the greater Evanston community and, as appropriate, the Chicago metropolitan area.

This region is where Owen L. Coon lived, worked, and created the fortune that enabled him to start the Foundation.

Constituency

The Foundation supports the advancement of individuals who are talented, intelligent, and gifted, and pursue careers and lives that seek to make contributions to the community. It provides assistance to those who have been affected by poverty and other needs and also to those who may not have financial need, but exhibit special capabilities. The Foundation awards support to most qualified and capable people regardless of race, color, creed, or sex.

Owen L. Coon had a profound connection to people that were affected by financial hardship, disability or health conditions, poor living or working conditions, or whose private resources were inadequate to help them develop and succeed. He wanted to provide aid to enable people to rise above challenges to reach their fullest potential and be able, then, to give back to the community through work and public service. In addition, in an era when the nation was still plagued by racial, religious, and ethnic segregation and inequality after World War II, he incorporated a written commitment to provide support without regard to a person’s “race, color, or creed” in the Foundation’s core documents.

PREFERRED TYPES OF SUPPORT

The Foundation is primarily interested in directing its support to investing in people and programs rather than in capital projects.

The Foundation is also interested in working with nonprofit organizations to leverage its investments by encouraging others to contribute. For example, the Foundation’s grants to establish the Hardy Scholarships in the School of Speech led Northwestern University to allocate additional funding to double the number of students that are served. Another example is that the Foundation awarded the funds to establish the first endowed chair at Evanston Hospital (later incorporated into the NorthShore University Health System). Building on this example, NorthShore now has over 20 chairs of biomedical and applied research.

Grants to Northwestern University were the first gifts of Owen L. Coon’s philanthropy. They serve as an important guide for the manner in which Owen L. Coon envisioned his grant-making. The Owen L. Coon Foundation has maintained a special relationship with Northwestern University and continues to make grants that build on the legacy of investment in the University, its students, faculty and key departments.

PROGRAM AREAS

The Owen L. Coon Foundation focuses on two major program areas:

Education
The goal of this program area is to stimulate the entrance of qualified service-oriented individuals into vocations that will ultimately promote contributions to society and public benefit. The Foundation is committed to the advancement of undergraduate and graduate education, especially at Northwestern University, in a variety of fields that Owen L. Coon valued. More recently, it has expanded to support secondary education that leads to high school graduation, technical careers, or college preparation.

Examples of grant-making include:
·   Hardy Scholarships at Northwestern University - School of Speech, School of Law
·   Owen L. Coon Scholarships at Northwestern University
·   James S. Coon Scholars
·   Owen L. Coon Foundation Fellowships in Medicine
·   Rahl/Coon Senior Research Program
·   Northwestern University School of Music - Jazz Fund
·   Evanston Township High School District - Technical Certification Program

Health
The goal of this program area is to invest in health research and support the training of health professionals so that they may serve the public with the knowledge of best practices in the field.

Examples include:
·   Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine - Owen L. Coon Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
·   North Shore University Health System Chair of Cardiothoracic Surgery
·   Goodwill Industries of Chicago

Other
Under special circumstances, the Foundation will support projects that have been historically related to the Foundation’s work outside these two areas.

CRITERIA FOR SELECTION OF GRANTS

The following will be used as guidelines for grant-making decisions and to evaluate grant-making effectiveness and success. The substance of the following is quoted from the Foundation’s original Statement of Policy, with revisions by the 2010 Board and Owen L. Coon family descendents.

1.   Compatibility with Mission: As stated above, this includes the Foundation’s values, original intent, and regional and programmatic areas.

2.   Excellence: The Foundation seeks to support initiatives or programs that reflect the use of best practices within their fields, solid project planning, and clear goals. It looks for a track record of commitment and accomplishment.

3.   Impact: The Foundation assesses the relative need for the proposed effort. It prioritizes those efforts that hold greatest promise for social benefit, accomplishment, and impact.

4.   Longevity: Traditionally, the Foundation has had a preference for projects that are long-lasting or that will exist in perpetuity, such as endowments or endowed scholarships. In addition, the Foundation has made contributions where funding stimulated additional commitments from others, magnifying the impact.

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