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Philanthropy plays an essential role in easing suffering and advancing positive change. In these toughest of times, The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation remains committed to its mission of transforming lives and strengthening communities.
The Foundation is not immune, however, to the current financial crisis. We face the challenges confronting other foundations, nonprofit organizations, businesses and families: managing spending with reduced resources, confronting an uncertain future, and helping to meet increasing community needs.
In our effort to balance increased community needs with the operational requirements of the Foundation, we have recently implemented several internal cost-cutting measures. We have also had to reduce both the number and size of grants in some areas.
We have thought extensively about how to continue to be both productive and effective in our grantmaking. For the foreseeable future, many of our grants will focus on helping nonprofit organizations respond and adjust to the difficult economic circumstances. Our funds will help organizations provide our community's most vulnerable residents with food and shelter. We will also support longer-term efforts, such as job training, to help people become self-sufficient and better able to weather future economic downturns. Working with other regional funders, our goal is to strengthen the social safety net and assist those living on the financial edge.
Although we may be allocating funds differently in the short term, these changes do not reflect a radical shift from our current mission and goals. We continue to believe in our vision that healthy communities are composed of multiple elements: effective social services, children engaged in learning, art that promotes essential human values, and scientific discoveries that offer new solutions to global problems.
Our commitment is to remain creative in our giving, support our nonprofit partners so they can support others, and continue to define how philanthropy can respond to our times.
Paul G. Allen
Founder and Chairman of the Board, Paul G. Allen Family Foundation
Jo Lynn Allen
Co-Founder and President, Paul G. Allen Family Foundation
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