H&S Foundation;

              'I am in show business and need
financial backing the worst way....
I sing extremely well and play the piano
equally as well... I need money to get
new material... I need money for clothes
to wear to be different... I also need to
be with a good agency that can book me
in the best nite clubs around the country
as well as overseas. I studied acting,
both serious drama and comedy, and
maybe after I got going I could be in a
Broadway play or even the movies...
I need about $20,000 to do the job
properly. Thank you for reading this and
I do expect an answer soon."
These excerpts are from an actual letter
to the Haskins & Sells Foundation.
Although unusual, similar requests
arrive from time to time at the desk of
Howard Grominger in the Executive
Office. An artist, for example, writes that
he needs money because "I find that
working at a full-time job drains all of
my creative energies and leaves too little
time to work and grow artistically."
A young mystic writes, "... my life is like
a square which has achieved three walls
already: spiritual, positive mental
attitude and physical.... I am working on
(the) financial wall of my goal. Now I am
writing to see if I am eligible for any grant
or donation that would send me on the
road to success for my goal. All your
grants and donations will be appreciated
to the utmost."
Money? Grants? Donations? What's
going on? Why do these people write?
Many of them have apparently read or
heard that a foundation of any kind is a
source of funds, and therefore they try to
get some.
Like moths to a flame, they have been
drawn to the pages of The Foundation
Directory, an alphabetical listing of
practically every foundation in the
country, giving the names of the directors,
the foundation's purpose and activities
and the amount paid out yearly in grants
and donations. As a result of this listing,
details of the Haskins & Sells Foundation,
Inc. are probably better known to grant
seekers than to many H&S people.
Hopefully, in the next few minutes our
readers will learn more about the
Foundation and its activities than the
wishful thinkers who somehow chose to
overlook or ignore the Foundation's
purpose as stated in the Directory:
"To further accounting education in the
United States, including faculty assistance
grants and research in accounting."
When the Haskins & Sells Foundation
was incorporated in 1928, it was a pioneer