Hello!

Welcome to the fourth year of The Lawrence Foundation. It has been a busy year. We received and reviewed over 375+ grant requests and letters of inquiry this year and made 22 grants and new commitments.

We continue to distinguish between what we label as regular and special grants. The regular grants are those that reflect the interests of the trustees. The special grants reflect the interests of the trustee's parents and are being made only one time (although they may be paid out over the course of a few years). We completed making our commitments for the special grants this year and future grant making should consist only of regular grants.

The 375+ grant requests we received in 2003 represent a significant increase over the 275+ that we received in 2002. We have not significantly changed our grant making rules or priorities, so we have to conclude the increase is reflective of the economic environment and increasing needs of organizations. The greatest number of requests were received from environmental and educational causes, followed by health, human services and other causes. From those 375+ grant requests we were able to make 22 new commitments and grants with a value of $585,000 to a mix of large and small organizations. Of those 22 new commitments and grants, 16 were made to environmental causes and a few each were made to education, health and human services causes. We paid out $560,000 this year. Regular grants this year ranged in size from $500 to $10,000 with a typical size of $5,000. We have no geographic restrictions in our grant making although in 2003 we made grants to projects focused (in decreasing order) on a state, national, international, regional and local level.

The asset value of the foundation increased significantly this year, even after some substantial payouts, as a result of the improved equity market. The foundation started the year with an asset value of about $3.2 million and ended the year ended with an asset value of about $5.1 million. We have made progress in diversifying out of our concentrated equity position. Our primary investment objective is to target a real rate of return of 4.50+% net of investment expenses with a conservative to moderate risk tolerance and a 10+ year time horizon. Another primary objective is capital preservation. Our assets are allocated between U.S. equities, international equities, fixed income securities, alternative investments and cash and cash equivalents. Our asset value places us in the top 3500 out of 25,000+ family foundations in the U.S.

Our grant making process is now running smoothly. We are now consistently meeting our commitment to making grants twice a year, in June and December. We continue to find the grant requests and letters of inquiry that we have been receiving are very thorough. As a result we haven't had to ask for as many full proposals as we initially thought. An increasing number of organizations have been visiting our office to discuss their activities and we have also been increasing the number of on site visits that we've been making. We've been very impressed by the articulate, dedicated and passionate people we've been meeting in the non-profit world.

Our new grant making budget for 2004 has been set and we look forward to the coming year. We will be spending more time understanding the most effective methods for choosing between the many grant requests we receive as well as evaluating the results and effectiveness of the grants we make.

In general non-profits are prohibited from lobbying but we have been arranging visits with U.S. Senators and U.S. Congressman to discuss the overall importance of non-profits and the significant contributions they make to society. Governments throughout the world are becoming increasingly dependent on non-profits to do things that they cannot or will not do, which places the burden on non-profits to educate the government as to what they can and can't do as well as the very real challenges that they face.

Respectfully Submitted,

Jeff Lawrence and Diane Troth
Trustees

Lori Mitchell
Executive Director

The Lawrence Foundation