The Michael Paul Wein Charitable Foundation

"Underpromise and Overdeliver"

Our grantees

Who are our grantees?

Past (and possibly present) grantees (listed in alphabetical order):

In addition to the normal and on-going grants, the MPWCF also provides incentives to volunteers and organizations that provide non-monetary compensation to volunteers through our lifetime achievement award. 

We also made three awards in 2004 to organization who are most transparent in their public revelation of their operations, finances, processes, etc.  There is more about this at Goals & Mission, at I believe, and at transparency

Philosophy regarding grants and grantees

Our founder, Michael Wein, spent his formative professional years, as a financial management consultant to, among others, Avon Cosmetics.  In his work with Avon, he was introduced to the work of the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, which followed a philosophy Mr. Wein believes in now.  This philosophy is now part of our Foundation's philosophy:

"Each grantee organization should have a plan that includes a method that tracks the performance of their organization, their programs and/or its participants. This tracking should define clearly their main objectives and obstacles, and any plans to become somewhat more self-sustaining than at present.  This plan should also enable anyone to evaluate the effectiveness of their plan and its methods.  If a grantee organization won't commit to measure their return on our Foundation's investments in them, the grants may either not commence, or, if started, may cease."

Guarantees we make to our grantees:

    Since the Founder can only physically guarantee our promises during his lifetime, he has arranged for many legal controls covering the trustee's actions after his demise.  There is more information regarding this at the following links: FAQs and detailed most specifically at trustees.   In addition, the founders will and the way the Foundation will be funded are an important part of this promise and guarantee. And, lastly, although there should be no changes after his death from what the Founder decreed on this web-site, any changes that do become necessary must be fully disclosed at subsequent changes and you, the reader, may complain to all authorities if the changes do not appear appropriate. 

One further provision in the founders will stipulates that the Foundation will terminate if the then-current trustees do not follow the Founder's wishes after his death.  As two of these three trustees also represent two of the larger grantees, there will be both inside and outside pressure (complete with transparency to the rest of the SMA community) on these three trustees to continue with the guarantees made by the Founder during his lifetime.