The Carl and Eloise Pohlad Family Foundation, Minneapolis, committed funds to accessible health care and supporting children and youth during its 2004 grantmaking.

Eleven capital grants make up almost 80% of the total funds approved. Arts, education, health care, economic development and other community projects were selected to receive grants. The foundation committed more than $9.5 million in grants to 115 organizations.

Park Nicollet Foundation received a $3.5 million commitment to provide primary health care to underserved and uninsured populations through endowment and immediate support for expansion of its Community Clinic and Caring Clinic programs ($2 million); to help build a new eating disorders facility ($1 million); and to support important diabetes research ($500,000). A few months after her death, the foundation remembered Eloise O’Rourke Pohlad with a $1 million grant to the Sisters of St. Joseph Ministries Foundation capital campaign. Half of this grant will add to the Sister’s endowment fund for community programs, and the remaining half will be used to immediately support programs experiencing high demand.

"Grants to Park Nicollet and the Sisters of St. Joseph recognize important family ties," said William Pohlad, president of the foundation. "For more than 40 years, my father was actively involved with Park Nicollet/Methodist Hospital. And our mother, Eloise, was a founding member of the Sisters of St. Joseph Ministries Foundation. We honor their community service by providing support that allows each organization to immediately expand their services to people in need and ensure future provision of these services through endowment funds."

Foundation initiatives supporting children and youth continued and increased during 2004. The Summer Camp Scholarship Initiative completed its sixth year by providing more than $340,000 to 42 organizations that sent 1,100 youth to camp. The After School Academic Enrichment Initiative, in its second year, granted $240,000 to 26 organizations assisting Twin Cities’ metro area youth. The Horatio Alger Association selected 42 graduating high school seniors from the Twin Cities to receive $2,500 college scholarships. And the foundation’s Summer Youth Employment Initiative, created in 2004, provided a two-year, $200,000 grant to the Independent Community Bankers of Minnesota (ICBM). ICBM member banks successfully employed 43 high school students during 2004 and plan to hire as many as 75 students during the 2005 summer.

To view the foundation’s complete 2004 grants list, click here (PDF, 4 pages).