"We at KDK-Harman Foundation believe that our collective mission of ensuring that every child has the right to obtain an excellent education is the civil and human rights issue of our time."

Dear Friends,

As we look back over 2009, we reflect on the inspiring ways in which the Central Texas nonprofit sector worked to meet the challenges of a very difficult year. As the sector watched foundation endowments and personal wealth plummet, we also witnessed community needs skyrocket as the economic downturn affected every aspect of people’s lives. Always up for a challenge, the nonprofit sector in Central Texas worked tirelessly to ensure that the community’s needs were met. Many of our grantees reported to us that despite a difficult fundraising year, they continued to maintain, or even increase, services to their clients in 2009.

KDK-Harman Foundation also worked to respond to the economic crisis in several ways. First, we increased grants for operating support and capacity building. Second, we established a strategy around Program Related Investments in which current grantees can apply for no-interest loans to embark upon capacity building needs such as development or strategic planning. We also continued our high-engagement approach of supporting our grantees with more than just grant dollars by offering our in-house consultant to work one-on-one with grantees and by increasing our involvement in advocacy efforts. The consulting offers support around specific capacity building projects, and the advocacy efforts focus on the systems and policies that directly affect the nonprofits’ ultimate impact. We also continued to support grantees through professional development opportunities, and increased our efforts to convene grantmakers and nonprofits together to discuss critical issues in the field of education and philanthropy. Finally, the Foundation significantly cut operating expenses to provide maximum funding for our grantmaking priorities.

In many ways 2009 was unprecedented, not just in terms of what our country experienced in an economic downturn, but also in an unprecedented investment in public education by the federal government. With the announcement of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) by the Obama administration early this year, KDK-Harman (along with the E3 Alliance and several other foundations) embarked upon a new initiative to leverage federal education stimulus money to Central Texas. The Central Texas Education Stimulus Collaborative (CTESC), a public/private partnership launched in spring 2009, is a collaborative made up of twelve school districts and charter schools that are actively working to attract millions of dollars in new education stimulus money to our region.

Finally, KDK-Harman Foundation remains committed to the belief that society is best served when sectors work collaboratively to advance the common good. As part of this commitment, KDK-Harman Foundation has played an active role in the Central Texas Education Funders (CTEF) group. In 2009, CTEF developed initiatives to create a common application form, a common reporting form and a common indicators project, all designed to allow nonprofits to spend less time on administrative tasks, and more time providing critical services to members of our community. CTEF will be implementing these initiatives in early 2010.

As this year comes to a close and we begin to plan for 2010, we will continue to participate in these and other high-engagement activities, which we believe are just as valuable, if not more, as any check that we can write. As we continue to experience a low point in our endowment, the process of participating in partnerships and collaborations that help us leverage our grant dollars to break the cycle of poverty through education will remain a critical element of our work.

We at KDK-Harman Foundation believe that our collective mission of ensuring that every child has the right to obtain an excellent education is the civil and human rights issue of our time. These are extraordinary circumstances we are living in, and we feel so blessed to be working alongside each of you right here, right now, to take advantage of these unique opportunities to make lasting improvements in the way public education is delivered in our state and our nation.

Sincerely,

Janet E. Harman
Founder and President