Director's Notes: May Day! May Day!

The deadline for 2012 grant proposals is going, going, gone (EOB on May 2).

Each year, we typically receive more than 200 proposals requesting about $17 million in funding for various journalism projects.

In 2012, our budget is expected to be less than $6 million. However, prior commitments for 2012 already have eaten $2.2 million of that amount.

Evaluating new proposals is perhaps the most challenging aspect of my job.

I am reminded of a recent Chicago Sun-Times obituary on the passing of one its former staff members. Ruth Dunbar Davee, 99, had a distinguished career as a Sun-Times education writer after earning a doctoral degree in English literature from Northwestern University. When her husband Ken passed away in 1998, she became executive director of the Davee Foundation. 

As a philanthropist, Davee found that giving money away is easy. The hard part, she discovered, was the difficulty of grantmaking and proper stewardship.

And that’s the challenge we face at the McCormick Foundation Journalism Program. 

Next week, we will begin reviewing the latest proposals. Applicants will hear from us by the end of June.