| Welcome to Connections,
the new web-based quarterly newsletter of the Nina Mason Pulliam
Charitable Trust. It has been a few months more than five years
ago when I stood alone in front of highly inquisitive audiences
of 250 to 300 nonprofit leaders and development officers in
Indianapolis and Phoenix who were eager to know how the Trust
was going to conduct business in Indiana and Arizona. Our grants
program staff did not yet exist in either of our offices and
there were no employees hired yet in Phoenix. At both of those
meetings, I asked for patience because we were like any other
start-up organization, and getting in touch with us directly
and receiving a response to an inquiry would not be possible
for awhile. But I pledged that our communications would steadily
improve from that day forward, and that there would never be
a black hole where letters of inquiry seemed to end up or grant
program officers who never seemed to be available to provide
feedback about why a preliminary application was declined, further
explain our guidelines, or provide feedback about an idea.
Our goal was to create an organizational culture that valued
interaction with grantseekers and to build a structure that
made time for those interactions to take place in a variety
of ways and venues. Little did we realize five years ago that
we would be able to rely on e-mail and now create a virtual
newsletter over the Internet to keep in touch, but here we
are!
This inaugural issue introduces our staff in both offices.
We maintain two offices, in Phoenix and Indianapolis because
we make grants to benefit the residents of Arizona, primarily
those living in Maricopa County, and of Indiana, primarily
those living in metropolitan Indianapolis, the two cities
Mrs. Pulliam called home. To meet that mandate, our grants
program staff is equal in number in each office. The six individuals,
whose daily responsibility is to interact with the nonprofit
community in areas of interest to the Trust, represent very
diverse personal and professional backgrounds. We are fortunate
to have such a collegial team, and indeed, strive to be one
organization across our two states, while appreciating the
differences of each.
In addition, we are pleased to share detail about the Nina
Mason Pulliam Legacy Scholars Program and introduce you to
our Nina Scholars coordinators at each of our partner schools.
Please take a moment to read about our first round of 2004
grantees in this issue as well.
We hope you will come to value receiving your quarterly issue
of Connections via your e-mail as a valuable resource to learn
more about the workings, interests and grantmaking of the
Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust in our efforts to connect
to our priority communities.
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