The Federal Judicial Center Foundation is a private, nonprofit corporation that Congress established to receive gifts to support the work of the Center. The Foundation has sole authority to decide whether to accept gifts, 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 activities 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. No Foundation Board member may be a active judge. Foundation Board members at the close of 2005 were as follows:
Marna S. Tucker, Washington, D.C., chair;
Richard D. Casey, Sioux Falls, S.D.;
Charles A. Legge, San Francisco, Cal.;
Laurie L. Michel, Washington, D.C.;
Sam C. Pointer, Birmingham, Ala.;
John B. White, Jr., Spartanburg, S.C.; and
Benjamin L. Zelenko, Washington, D.C.
In creating the Foundation, Congress directed that this annual report describe the purposes for which Foundation gifts were used in the relevant year. The Center used the following Foundation gifts in 2005:
- A multi-year grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation to support a project that provides on-site consultation to courts seeking assistance in developing or refining their alternative dispute resolution (ADR) programs. In 2005 the grant funded travel expenses for several consultations with courts and staff salaries for development and support of the project.
- Another Hewlett Foundation grant and a grant from the JAMS Foundation supported a research conference on ADR that included a small number of federal judges and court administrators, and participants from academic institutions and not-for-profit organizations involved in ADR.
- A grant from the Ford Foundation to support the travel expenses of the Center director and one other staff member to present a comparative perspective on the role of court staff in supporting the work of judges at an international judicial conference in China.
- Funds provided by Professor Margaret Berger of Brooklyn Law School from a grant she received from a trust fund created by the settlement of silicone gel breast implant litigation; the funds supported federal judges’ attendance at two law and science seminars coordinated by Professor Berger in cooperation with the Center.
- Non-earmarked grants to provide partial support of a judicial seminar on the humanities and science at Princeton University (the “Harold Medina Seminar”).
Foundation funds were used in previous years to hire scholars to prepare curriculum units for the Center’s project on teaching about the history of the federal courts.