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Corella and Bertram F. Bonner Foundation (1980–2010)

Total Assets (as of 2004 spend-down announcement): $93,223,050 [1]

As of 2013:  $40,080,407

Total Giving in 2013: $5,719,490

Prominent Grants: The Foundation gives through two different avenues. The Bonner Scholars Program gives funds to universities for community-service scholarships, and the Crisis Ministry Program gives to churches and other community-based organizations, such as Habitat for Humanity, to support their anti-hunger and anti-poverty work. Most of their giving is focused on New Jersey.

Reports: Aspen Institute, Time is of the Essence: Foundations and the Policies of Limited Life and Endowment Spend-Down (2009)

Summary: Through sustained partnerships with colleges and congregations, the Corella and Bertram F. Bonner Foundation seeks to improve the lives of individuals and communities by helping meet the basic needs of nutrition and educational opportunity.

Since its founding in 1989, the Bonner Foundation has awarded more than $86 million in annual grants and another $85 million in Bonner Program Endowment awards to 20 participating colleges and universities (which have a current market value of more than $162 million).  The Foundation has led a number of Federally-funded higher education consortium grants, including four Learn & Serve America grants (three for community-based research and one for social media), three grants through FIPSE, the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (including one to establish civic engagement certificates, concentrations or minors), and more than ten years of national and State AmeriCorps grants.

The Foundation supports anti-poverty programs in the area of hunger and education.  The Crisis Ministry Program concentrates its efforts in central New Jersey with support for 25 community-based and educational institutions combating poverty, especially in the area of hunger. Beginning at Berea College in the fall of 1990, the Foundation began supporting a four-year, service-based college scholarship program.  The Bonner Scholar and Bonner Leader Programs have expanded to more than 75 colleges and universities across the country, providing “access to education, and an opportunity to serve” to more than 3,200 students annually.

Shortly before her death, Corella Bonner initiated plans to sunset the Foundation. The Foundation was initially projected to spend down by 2010, but as of 2013 the organization still had over $40,000,000 in assets.