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Cosmos Club Foundation Report for 2015

The Cosmos Club Foundation’s three hallmark efforts continue to thrive thanks to the most welcome and important generosity of Club members and friends. The Trustees and Advisors once again are profoundly grateful to the McGovern Foundation and the Shields Foundation for their continuing and exceptional gifts to the Foundation. With sadness and immense gratitude the Foundation received a gift from Jeanne Rosenthal in memory of her late husband Joseph K. McLaughlin who was a trustee of the Foundation. In calendar year 2014 the Foundation received contributions from 216 individuals and institutions; we are grateful for each and every donation.

The McGovern Award in Science was presented to Henry Petroski on November 3, 2014, in recognition of his manifold accomplishments in science and engineering. On January 12, 2015, Gail Kern Paster received the McGovern award in the humanities in recognition of her major contributions to Shakespeare studies. Both gave talks that were notable for their breadth, insight, and humor. As always, the McGovern award programs were well attended by Club members, their guests, and members of the public, who participated in lively question and answer sessions.

The Cosmos Club Award, funded by the Foundation, was presented to Alice Rivlin on April 21, 2014; as always, the occasion was one of intellectual stimulation and stimulating company. The Cosmos Scholars program flourished once again under the sterling leadership of Trustees Jean Federico, Joan Challinor, Ann Sheffield and Priestley Toulmin. The 228 applications for grants in aid were markedly superior this year. For this reason, and thanks to the generosity of our donors, we were able to increase the amount awarded and made 27 grants. Since its inception the program has supported 352 graduate students and allocated over $623,000 to their efforts.

The annual Scholars dinner was well attended by more than 100 Club members and guests, current and former Cosmos Scholars, faculty mentors and university officials. The students’ oral presentations of research results made possible by the research grants were notable for the quality which set a new standard of excellence. The professional archivist hired to bring order to our paper records has nearly completed her work, and the process of digitizing the material will be completed by the time you read this report. The Club has been watching our progress and hired our archivist. The Trustees are continuing to study how to proceed to archive the voluminous electronic records and emails produced during the last two decades.

The Foundation’s financial position is fully shown on the IRS form 990, a public document. Investment income was $70,511, far short of the $113,452 of expenses, so the Foundation really needs your continued support, particularly in this period of low interest rates. As the form 990 shows that only 11% of the expenditure (23% if archiving is included) went to management and general expenses such as accounting and insurance, you can be confident that your contributions are supporting our programs.

2014 Annual Report of the CCF + 2015 Grants in dollars

20112012201320142015
Contributions95,520122,525155,370123,500
Dividends and interest33,92636,74044,63870,511
Investment appreciation(6,396)139,334310,69489,986
Scholars' grants45,00142,75049,95562,21074,535
Awards, other expenses34,79027,21626,49351,242
Assets at year-end1,577,3341,805,9682,240,2222,410,767

Gerald B. Kauvar, Chair


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