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Listening to all the Voices: The Graustein Memorial Fund's Work in Connecticut
Ronald Austin Wells
Stepping from the elevator into the reception area of the William Caspar Graustein Memorial Fund in Hamden, Connecticut, the first thing a visitor sees is an eighteen-inch statue of a Pueblo Indian Storyteller, mouth open wide in an elongated oval, holding in her arms several small children, also oval-mouthed, and also telling their own stories. On a nearby wall hangs a patchwork quilt; each of the fourteen quilt patches made by elementary schoolchildren in response to the question, "What makes school wonderful?", portrays a portion of a student's experience -- figuring math, looking at a globe, playing at recess, reading and writing stories. The message is clear: Children are important here. The figure of the storyteller, as the Fund's Annual Report explains, "symbolizes the values of the Memorial Fund -- 'educating, supporting and inspiring our children.'
For the Graustein Memorial Fund, every child has a story, and every child's story holds merit and value. This philosophy is articulated by William Chandler (Bill) Graustein, lead trustee of the Fund: "We come to realize both ourselves and those we meet by the stories we tell each other. Our stories are part of the way we map our cultural understandings and make sense of our experiences, so that we can navigate through the world." To this the Fund's executive director, David Nee, adds that "the communities that put our funds to work give back to us the gifts of their wisdom, their experience and their stories."
The story of the Graustein Fund's work for the past seven years in Connecticut provides an instructive example of the impact that a relatively small but thoughtfully strategic private philanthropy can have on the education system of a state, and should hold great interest for all who are concerned with the education of the young. Focused on children and their schools, the Fund's goals and strategies are tightly linked to educational practice and public policy affecting children in the state of Connecticut. The word communities echoes frequently through the Memorial Fund's offices and meeting rooms, as do the words engagement, constituencies, empowerment, process, leadership, and 'children first'. Bill Graustein's father, Archibald, a highly successful businessman and attorney, established the Memorial Fund in 1941 in honor of his brother William Caspar, a professor of mathematics at Harvard who died tragically in an automobile accident. The foundation served as the vehicle for the family's charitable giving until Archibald's death in 1969 and continued its work from a small endowment thereafter. In 1987, the sale of one of Archibald's businesses increased the family's charitable assets to approximately $50 million, which, at the wish of Hallie Hubbard Graustein, Archibald's widow, and her son, Bill, were transferred to the Memorial Fund upon her death in 1993.
Shortly thereafter, Bill Graustein set out to lay the cornerstone for the newly constituted foundation's programs. He put together a team comprising a lead consultant, members of the foundation's board, and external advisors to create a strategic plan. To assess the educational and social needs of children in the state, they interviewed, individually or in focus groups, more than 100 educators, civic leaders, and people of influence throughout Connecticut. Drawing on this information, the Fund established the priorities and boundaries of its new grantmaking programs: school reform, children, geographic limitation to the state of Connecticut. Fund trustee Ranganath Nayak set forth an economic principle: "Invest, don't spend; create an institution that adds value." Bill Graustein added an ethical tone: "Listen to those whom we seek to affect." The mission statement was honed to simplicity and elegance: "improve the effectiveness of education in fostering both personal development and leadership." Following this year-long planning process which was characterized by careful research and thoughtful reflectiveness, the Fund resumed active grantmaking at the close of 1993. Eight years later, with a relatively modest grants budget of $4 million a year, it has become a widely recognized influence for school reform and early childhood development in the state. "In these past years," observes trustee David C. Oxman, "the Graustein Memorial Fund's most significant achievement, and its most precious asset, is the reputation and trust that it has earned in the state's educational community."