The Federal Judicial Center Foundation is a private, nonprofit corporation established by Congress to receive gifts to support the work of the Center. By statute, the foundation has sole authority to decide whether to accept gifts to support the work of the Center, and thereby to determine the suitability of would-be donors. The foundation may not accept gifts earmarked for projects that have not previously been approved by the Center’s Board, and the Center has sole control over the design and conduct of research or education programs supported by donations.
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. The members of the foundation’s board during 1998 were as follows:
Dianne M. Nast, Esq., Lancaster, Pennsylvania, chair
E. William Crotty, Esq., Daytona Beach, Florida
Laurie L. Michel, Esq., Washington, D.C.
Richard M. Rosenbaum, Esq., Rochester, New York
Benjamin L. Zelenko, Esq., Washington, D.C.
Charles B. Renfrew, San Francisco, California
Marna S. Tucker, Washington, D.C.
Grants to the foundation provide important financial assistance for Center programs in specialized areas. Foundation gifts were used for the following purposes in 1998:
- A grant from the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants supported seminars to help judges analyze financial statements.
- The U.S. Department of State made a grant to support a seminar for judges from the Russian Federation on the role of the judiciary in the protection of intellectual property.
- A group of Argentine judges gave funds to support a Center seminar for judges from that country on issues of court administration.
- Undesignated funds were used to support the annual seminar for state and federal judges on science and the humanities at Princeton University and a similar seminar for federal bankruptcy and state judges at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon.
In 1994 the Center board, the foundation board, and the Judicial Conference entered an agreement under which the Center would support the Judicial Conference in presenting education programs for foreign judges and other legal officials to assist them in improving the administration of justice in their countries, and the foundation would receive gifts designated for the Judicial Conference’s use for this purpose. In accordance with this agreement, funds from the Agency for International Development supported several activities on which the Center (alone or in cooperation with the Administrative Office) worked with the Judicial Conference Committee on International Judicial Relations. These included a conference on judicial education program evaluation for judges and judicial educators from countries throughout the Americas, U.S. judicial branch participation in the Organization of Supreme Courts of the Americas, and a program for Brazilian judges. The Center and foundation boards and the Conference expanded the agreement in 1998 to include education programs for state and federal judges and other programs to improve the administration of justice.