The Marshalls' plan

Catalyst fund credited with changing lives draws to a close

ELLEN J. NUSBAUM
Special to Jewish News

Maxine and Jonathan Marshall used nearly $5.5 million of their own money fund a long list of Valley organizations and programs.

Photo by Ellen J. Nusbaum

Jonathan and Maxine Marshall spent the last decade and a half saving a species, preventing teen suicide, promoting the arts, conserving precious land, encouraging diversity and even making sure the state's poorest children had clothes and shoes so they could attend school.

But on Dec. 31, the Marshall Fund of Arizona ceased to exist. And after using nearly $5.5 million of their own money to make Arizona a "better place to live," the Marshalls wonder with optimism who now will step up to carry the mantle forward.

"There are a lot of funds with a lot of money," Maxine Marshall says hopefully. Yet she also acknowledges her husband's concerns.

"I'm afraid they're not going to do the little things," Jonathan Marshall says. "Smaller groups, like some of the ones we helped, may get lost in the shuffle."

The Marshall Fund was born in 1987 after the Marshalls sold the Scottsdale Daily Progress. Using proceeds from that sale, the couple set about the task of starting their own charitable foundation to which they made an initial grant of $3 million. The goal of the fund was to support and help grow what they felt were worthy but unrecognized programs throughout the state.

"We wanted to help make this corner of our world a better place. We live here. We wanted to be a catalyst," says Jonathan.

"In so many cases we were," chimes Maxine.

On this bright winter Arizona day, the conversation with the Marshalls is one of humble, even grateful, reflection. Speaking from their quiet Scottsdale ranch home where they wind down from 15 years of hands-on giving, Maxine and Jonathan delight in each other's views and struggle not to complete the other's thoughts.

About operating the foundation, the Marshalls explain that the labor that was so rewarding was also arduous. The foundation was never meant to exist in perpetuity; rather, it was intended to be a catalyst fund, providing the grants to begin or maintain projects.

Stamina for the running the foundation aside, the fund had achieved its original vision, and the measure of its success is evidenced by the long list of organizations that were able to launch pivotal programs that couldn't otherwise find funding. And most important, the majority of those projects endure and have secured other sponsors to keep them alive.

Upon deciding to create the foundation, the couple immediately set about the task of research, Maxine says. They spent countless hours assessing what types of programs were being ignored and focused solely on those.

According to the foundation's final report: "A small foundation rarely makes an impact on the national or international scene. However, a creative foundation can have a strong influence in its own community. ... The Marshall Fund of Arizona ... could serve as a catalyst by supporting worthy organizations that strive to improve the quality of life in Arizona. The Marshall Fund has been active in five areas: environmental protection, the arts, human needs and social problems, civil liberties and promotion of world tolerance and conflict resolution."

But the Marshalls were careful to encourage recipient agencies not to rely solely on the Marshalls for their funding.

"We made sure to do a lot of matching and challenge grants to create additional sources of help," says Jonathan.

Which is not to say that the Marshall Fund did not award multiple grants to the same organizations. In fact, it did.

"In the beginning, we insisted on new funding," says Maxine. But as time wore on, the foundering economy took its toll on many agencies' very ability to survive, and the Marshalls awarded grants just to keep some programs afloat.

Not surprisingly, when attesting to the foundation's generosity and significance, there is no shortage of fund recipients. In fact, several agencies credited the grant with shaping some of their most important achievements.

There were large grants, such as one for $1 million to the Arizona Nature Conservancy that was used to acquire land next to Ramsey Canyon Park, and which ensured the survival of several species of hummingbirds while protecting the canyon. Another major endowment of $1 million was awarded the Phoenix Art Museum to back exhibitions by under-recognized artists. And another gift of $1 million went to the Arizona State University Department of English and Creative Writing.

But it is perhaps in the smaller awards to low-profile, struggling agencies that tell the most potent and moving stories.

"We had no money when we started out to fund this program," says Ruth Grove, former educational vice president of the Valley's Parents, Families & Friends of Lesbians and Gays, PFLAG. Groves says an initial Marshall Fund matching grant of about $8,000 allowed the support group to launch Safe Start, a project designed to teach educators and counselors how to create awareness, support and acceptance on school campuses for Gay and Lesbian students.

Grove says the program "kept kids from leaving school, and it kept kids from committing suicide."

Specifically, the grant funded educational and training materials that were provided to parents, teachers, and libraries. Qualified volunteers implemented the program.

At first the program was a hard sell, says Groves. "We really had to work hard to get into schools."

"We were very proactive," she continues. "Now we are strictly reactive. We have more than we can handle ... The biggest thing the grant did was make people aware of the program, so we had more people that started giving us money. Maxine and Jonathan were very thrilled with the results."

Maxine concurs. "They were a very gutsy group. They did great."

Similarly, three gifts to Teen Lifeline paid for a direct line from any part of the state to a hotline for depressed teenagers to call in an effort to combat Arizona's high teen suicide rate. The grant also helped the hotline secure additional funding sources and continues to succeed in helping Arizona teens today.

The National Conference for Community and Justice (formerly the National Conference of Christians & Jews) boasts a similar success story to PFLAG. The NCCJ used a $25,000 grant as seed money for its Anytown USA training program. Anytown is a diversity and leadership program that teaches high school youths to recognize issues of prejudice and bias and how to create an inclusive society. The Marshall Fund grant allowed the NCCJ to develop and implement a consistent 40-hour training course for those who want to be Anytown directors.

"The difference it made for us was huge," says Rory Gilbert, executive director for the Valley NCCJ. "We've trained probably close to a hundred different people in the years since we received the grant. That seed money made all the difference in getting that started."

Randall Gray, president and CEO of the MARC Center, joins the chorus of those who intone tributes to the Marshall Fund. The MARC Center, established in 1957, provides opportunities for those with disabilities to determine where and how they will live, learn, work and play.

Says Gray of the approximate $10,000 in grant money, it was "earmarked for our community employment program for people with severe disabilities. The idea was to place individuals with disabilities right on the job to learn rather than to use sheltered workshops for training. At the point in time that we got the funds, we were serving about 100 adults a year. Now we're serving 1,300 people each year in our vocational training program."

Gray says the pilot program grew to be a nationally recognized template of vocational training for those with the most severe disabilities, and that the program was profiled on national network news.

"It all originates from the initial funding from the Marshall Fund," says Gray. "I hope I'm conveying how important that grant was. It enabled us to go from a pilot program to one that's received national recognition."

Eleanor Eisenberg, executive director for the Arizona Civil Liberties Union, cheers its Marshall Fund challenge grant as well.

"There are three things we do to protect civil liberties: education, legislative advocacy and litigation. This grant allowed us more resources to get further involved in litigation."

Assistance was in no way limited to just the Valley. Organizations from other parts of the state also received gifts. The Marshalls proudly reflected on Community Outreach, which asked for a grant so that it could buy clothes for school children in small communities impacted by mine closures. In one case, two sisters had been sharing one pair of shoes. The grant helped volunteers clothe more than 100 children, enabling some to attend school full-time.

As well, the Florence Immigration Project received an award so that a group of attorneys could represent immigrants in deportation hearings. The group needed a booklet written in English and Spanish that described the hearing process. According to the foundation's final report, U.S. Senators Dennis DeConcini and Ted Kennedy believed the pamphlet was so valuable that they procured a special appropriation for the Immigration and Naturalization Service to print several hundred thousand copies of the guide to be distributed in every INS office nationwide.

In the end, the foundation awarded 183 grants to more than 100 organizations. With only one staff person, Administrative Assistant Jan Laurant, the Marshalls attended to every detail of running the foundation. They personally read every grant application and interviewed every applicant. They also made regular site visits to every agency awarded a grant to ensure the project was being implemented as outlined.

"There were definitely leaps of faith when the other funds wouldn't do anything. Many seemed worth taking a chance on," says Maxine. "We knew we'd have to take a chance, and that there was no guarantee."

For Jonathan, making site visits was the most rewarding part. "It was fun to meet the people, and you got a real feel (for the program challenges and achievements) when you saw where they're working."

The foundation lists The Women's Street Support Center as one of the "more challenging grants." Run by a group of former prostitutes and female drug addicts, the center educates women on how to avoid such diseases as AIDS, how to apply for jobs, and how to obtain legal and medical help. Additionally, the Marshall Fund gift was used to help the center write a proposal to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, resulting in a three-year grant of $50,000 per year.

Another small grant was awarded to the Desert Botanical Garden to rescue a tiny species of cactus that was endangered due to its being in the path of the Central Arizona Water Canal Project. The cacti were transplanted to the botanical garden and a watering and drainage system was developed to re-propagate and save the species. In the same vein, a grant of nearly $350,000 was given to the Desert Foothills Land Trust to help purchase Go-John Canyon, an environmental corridor linking Cave Creek parks with the Tonto National Forest.

The foundation even commissioned a symphonette in the tradition of Mozart from the Phoenix Symphony for $70,000. The work was performed during one of the symphony's "Classic Series" programs.

Astoundingly, the Marshalls say there were only a couple of grant recipients who failed to fulfill their promises and from whom grant money was rescinded. Ironically, those were larger, established organizations.

Looking back, the Marshalls agree they were surprised by the fund's many years of success stories. It wasn't until they actually viewed the foundation's printed list of recipients in its final report that they recognized just how many vital projects benefited so significantly from the grants.

"When we looked at the list, we thought, 'Oh my God,' " says Maxine.

And according to the final report: "None of what the fund accomplished would have been possible without the insight, wisdom and encouragement of our board of directors. The board believes that we have shown that a small foundation can provide creative leadership in solving social and environmental problems."

Says Jonathan, the key to the foundation's success was the board of directors, several of whom served the foundation for its 15-year duration.

Board members included Jewish News Contributing Editor Paul Eckstein, David Frazer, Stephen MacKinnon, Peg Madden, Mary Serlin and Gloria Heller.

"Sometimes they even outvoted us," winks Jonathan. "But not too often."

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