Congress established the Federal Judicial Center Foundation in 1988 as a private, nonprofit corporation to receive gifts to support the work of the Center. The foundation has sole authority to decide whether to accept such gifts and thereby to determine the suitability of would-be donors. The foundation is governed by a seven-person board appointed by the Chief Justice, the President Pro Tempore of the Senate, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives. No board member may be a active judge. The members of the foundation's board are as follows:
Philip W. Tone, Esq., Chicago, Illinois, chair
E. William Crotty, Esq., Daytona Beach, Florida
Laurie L. Michel, Esq., Washington, D.C.
Dianne M. Nast, Esq., Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Robert D. Raven, Esq., Los Angeles, California
Richard M. Rosenbaum, Esq., Rochester, New York
Benjamin L. Zelenko, Esq., Washington, D.C.
Grants to the foundation provide important financial assistance for Center programs in specialized areas. A grant from the Carnegie Corporation helps support the Center's science and technology education programs, including the Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence. A grant from the National Institute of Certified Public Accountants funds judicial training in financial statements. The Supreme Court Historical Society helps underwrite the Center's oral history interviews with Supreme Court justices, and a gift from funds remaining in a class action settlement defrayed the costs for federal judicial personnel to attend a National Center for State Courts conference on bias in the courts.
The Center Board entered a memorandum of understanding with the foundation and the Judicial Conference to allow the foundation to receive funds from government and non-government agencies for international programs, described above, that the Center held in cooperation with the Conference's Committee on International judicial Relations. Under this agreement, the foundation accepted gifts from the U.S. Agency for International Development for the Conference of Chief Justices of the Americas and for a seminar for judges from Argentina; a gift from the American College of Trial Lawyers and the Indo-US Sub-commission on Education and Culture for the India-U.S. legal exchange; and a gift from the Departments of State and Commerce for seminars for judges and legal officials from Ukraine. A gift from the American Society of International Law defrays some of the publication and mailing expenses of the International Judicial Observer and funds from the remainder of a class action settlement help provide temporary personnel to assist in the education programs the Center conducts pursuant to statute for foreign judges and legal officials.