
Photo courtesy of the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation.
Photo courtesy of the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation.
Dana Creel, director and, later, president of the RBF, pictured here after his 1975 retirement, exact date unknown.
In 1973, the Fund recognized that its longtime support of significant institutions founded or led by RBF trustees had created special obligations to these institutions. The Fund now sought to make grants more strictly in keeping with its programmatic goals. At the same time, it wished to assure that these institutions could face the future on their own, on firm financial footing. To that end, it launched a five-year study led by Dana Creel, former RBF president and vice chairman of the board after 1975. The Creel Committee surveyed 25 of the Fund’s significant ongoing commitments and assessed the organizations for a “payout” grant of at least $1 million.
The organizations were selected after a rigorous examination by RBF staff and associates of their financial stability, needs, and future plans, their significance in the Fund’s historical giving profile, and their ability to make productive use of a large sum of money. The grants, paid over time through 1983, reduced the endowment of the Fund by approximately half. Ultimately, however, they liberated the Fund to become more flexible and to chart new directions. While the Creel Committee grants ended RBF support for these organizations’ general, ongoing expenses, they did not preclude the organizations from seeking or receiving future grants for special projects that were in line with RBF programmatic priorities.
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