Office of Enterprise
The Office of Enterprise strengthens the Endowment's leadership role in the humanities, advances its core programs, and supports special initiatives by forging strategic partnerships with state and federal agencies, private and public organizations, and philanthropic individuals.
Under authority granted by Congress, the Enterprise Office focused its 1999 efforts on supplementing the NEH's annual federal appropriation with charitable contributions, grants, and corporate partnerships that are helping to bring the humanities to people of all backgrounds across the nation.
The Enterprise Office was instrumental in planning and developing My History Is America's History for a November 1999 launch. Developed in partnership with the White House Millen-nium Council, My History encourages all Americans to discover, preserve, and share their family stories as integral parts of the nation's history. Educational and outreach tools created for the project include a website, www.myhistory.org, and a printed guidebook, subtitled Fifteen Things You Can Do to Save America's Stories. Both offer simple directions for activities such as keeping a journal and finding history in family photos. They also include tips for preserving family treasures, and exemplary stories of Americans who have explored their family history and discovered America's. Visitors to the website are invited to explore online historical resources and to post a favorite family story to share with others on the Internet.
Parade magazine launched My History as the cover feature in its November 21, 1999, issue, which resulted in more than 1.5 million hits on myhistory.org in its first six weeks online. Genealogy.com provided technical design and engineering services for the website, which is hosted by PSINet, Inc. Other significant sources of support include the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities and the National Association of Broadcasters. The Disney Company's FamilyFun magazine, Houghton-Mifflin Company, and Heritage Preservation enriched the content of My History through their partnership with NEH.
Working with the NEH Chairman and Office of Challenge Grants throughout the year, the Enterprise Office secured $1 million in commitments from thirteen supporters for the first phase of the NEH Regional Humanities Centers Initiative. These funds will support twenty planning grants to launch a network of major centers across the nation for research and public education about the diverse characteristics of each region, such as local history, people, cultures, language, landscape, and architecture. Supporters of the Regional Centers Planning Grants are The Ford Foundation; William R. Kenan, Jr., Charitable Trust; Appalachian Regional Commission; The Freedom Forum; Robert and Dee Leggett Foundation; The Rockefeller Foundation; The Chisolm Foundation; Roger Malkin; John N. Palmer Foundation; Rockefeller Brothers Fund; Hanes Charitable Lead Trust; The Gazette; and Sandra and Chuck Lyons.
In fiscal year 1999, the Enterprise Office secured a second $500,000 award from MCI WorldCom Foundation to fund an additional two years of EDSITEment, www.edsitement.neh.gov, the educational website launched in 1997 by NEH, MCI WorldCom Foundation, and the Council of the Great City Schools. During the past year, the NEH's Division of Education assumed responsibility for managing the program.
The Office of Enterprise worked with the Division of Education to secure an $80,000 grant from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation to test two national pilot programs aimed at strengthening middle- and high-school teaching of the humanities. The Humanities Scholar in Residence Program brings outside humanities educators into selected New Jersey schools to serve as consultants for improving the schools' humanities curriculum. The Humanities Teacher Leadership Program enables New Jersey teachers who have participated in NEH summer programs to share their experiences by designing educational websites, organizing faculty seminars, or creating new curriculum materials. Dodge funds underwrote a total of twenty grants.
An agreement with Mount Rushmore National Memorial provided NEH with its first permanent partnership with a National Park Service site. Four exhibits are to be installed on Mount Rushmore's Presidential Trail, the closest public access to the mountain. Based on NEH's highly successful traveling exhibition, Hail to the Chief: Presidents, Power, and Politics, these wayside exhibits will provide historical information about George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt, as well as quotations from Gutzon Borglum, the sculptor who created Mount Rushmore. The South Dakota Humanities Council helped fund this project, which will provide NEH opportunities to reach Mount Rushmore's 3.25 million annual visitors.
In partnership with the Chamber of Commerce of Washington, D.C., and other founding partners, NEH was honored at the May 1999 grand opening of the Washington, D.C., Visitors Information Center in the Ronald Reagan Building, a block from the National Mall. A plaque at the Center lists NEH along with partners Bell Atlantic, the General Services Administration, Trade Center Management Association, and Guest Services, Inc. NEH's role in the center is the development of its emphasis on the area's cultural and historical attractions.
In conjunction with its activities with the center, NEH and the Historical Society of Washington, D.C., are developing a cultural map of the District. The map, to be launched during the 2000 tourist season, will be printed and distributed by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) as a key addition to its inventory of print materials.
Nancy Sturm
Director
Office of Enterprise
Private Contributors and Public Partners
Private Contributors and Public Partners The National Endowment for the Humanities is pleased to acknowledge the private contributors and public partners that have donated $1,000 and more in funds or in-kind services directly to the NEH during 1999, or have joined forces with the NEH to support its humanities initiatives.
Appalachian Regional Commission
Chamber of Commerce of Washington, DC
The Chisolm Foundation
Council of the Great City Schools
Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation
FamilyFun Magazine
The Ford Foundation
The Freedom Forum
Morgan Freeman
Cynthia Friedman
The Gazette
Geneology.com
The Howard Gilman Foundation
Hanes Charitable Lead Trust
Heritage Preservation
Houghton Mifflin Company
William R. Kenan, Jr., Charitable Trust
Lyn and Norman Lear Foundation
Robert and Dee Leggett Foundation
Sandra and Chuck Lyons
Roger Malkin
MCI WorldCom Foundation
National Association of Broadcasters
National Science Foundation
National Trust for the Humanities
John N. Palmer Foundation
President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities
PSINet, Inc.
Rockefeller Brothers Fund
The Rockefeller Foundation
Sara Lee Corporation
Philip F. Schoch Trust
The Betty R. Sheffer Foundation
Sun Microsystems
U.S. Department of the Interior
Washington Convention Center
Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
White House Millennium Council
Shirley P. Wilhite
The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
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