Danforth Foundation
{{Infobox organization
| name = Danforth Foundation
| formation = {{start date|1927|df=y}}
| founder = William H. Danforth
| founding_location = St. Louis
| dissolved = {{end date and age|2011}}
| type = Private nonprofit foundation
| tax_id =
| registration_id =
| status = Defunct
| purpose = Grants funds exclusively to the St. Louis region
| headquarters = St. Louis
| location =
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}}
The Danforth Foundation was one of the largest private nonprofit foundations in the St. Louis Metropolitan region. It closed its doors in 2011 after 84 years of operation and more than a billion dollars in grants distributed.{{cite web |url=https://news.stlpublicradio.org/arts-culture/2011-06-27/danforth-foundation-has-ended-its-giving-but-not-its-influence |access-date=2021-02-24 |title=Danforth Foundation has ended its giving but not its influence |first=Dale |last=Singer |publisher=St. Louis Public Radio | work=St. Louis Beacon |date=June 27, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110825033925/http://www.stlbeacon.org/arts-life/171-Giving_Back/111190-danforth-foundation-has-ended-its-giving |archive-date=2011-08-25}}
Background
Established in 1927 by Ralston Purina founder William H. Danforth and his wife,{{cite web|url=http://www.purina.com/company/Danforth.aspx |title=WILLIAM H. DANFORTH, FOUNDER |accessdate=2008-11-03 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080612165623/http://www.purina.com/company/Danforth.aspx |archivedate=2008-06-12 |url-status=dead }} the Danforth Foundation grants funded exclusively to the St. Louis region. In the 1950s and 1960s, it funded many projects involving religion and higher education. The Danforth Fellows Program, which supported graduate study in religion for scholars in other fields, was folded into the Society for Values in Higher Education. In 1973, Methodist minister and theologian Merrimon Cuninggim resigned as executive director because of a perceived conflict of interest from a $60 million grant to Washington University in St. Louis authorized by William Henry Danforth Jr., who was then both chairman of the foundation and chancellor of the university.{{cite news|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E06E2DB1739F936A35752C1A963958260|title=Merrimon Cuninggim, 84, Minister and Educator|accessdate=2008-11-03 | work=The New York Times | date=1995-11-05}}
See also
References
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External links
- [http://foundationcenter.org/pnd/news/story.jhtml?id=23400051 FoundationCenter.org: Danforth Foundation Shifts Focus, Cuts Staff]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20080503092012/http://www.orgs.muohio.edu/forumscp/Danfrth.html MuOhio.edu: About the Danforth Foundation]
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Category:Educational foundations based in the United States
Category:Defunct organizations based in Missouri
Category:Non-profit organizations based in Missouri
Category:Organizations based in St. Louis
Category:Organizations established in 1927
Category:Organizations disestablished in 2011