SPRINT FOUNDATION

Contact information:

6200 Sprint Parkway
Overland Park, KS 66251
Phone: 913-794-3767

Website: http://www.sprint.com/responsibility/sprint_foundation/index.html

Type of foundation: Company-sponsored

Types of grants: Project, matching. The Foundation's matching grants program for employees and retirees makes several gifts to public media.

Description: Sprint's national partnerships are focused on K-12 public education and diversity. Local and regional investments support these areas as well as arts and culture and youth development. The Foundation provides support for:

• Education: Grantmaking focuses on K-12 education, especially character education.
• Arts and Culture: Grantmaking supports visual and performing arts organizations, theatres, symphonies, museums and other cultural organizations and activities that contribute to a thriving and diverse community.
• Youth Development: Grantmaking supports mentoring programs, leadership initiatives, social skills, volunteerism and programs that support business and economic education for youth.
• Community Development: Grantmaking supports regional initiatives that contribute to a strong civic infrastructure and a vibrant, healthy community.

In addition, the company sponsors events and organizations that are important to the communities where its employees and customers live and work. Sponsorship requests may be made for cash, in-kind and/or volunteer resources. Sprint focuses its sponsorship participation in the areas of K-12 education, youth development, arts and culture, diversity and civic infrastructure. Information about community sponsorships is available online.

Over 85 percent of Sprint's community grants provide support within key Sprint employee communities including Kansas City, Washington D.C., Atlanta, Dallas, Los Angeles, Chicago, Denver and New York City. The remaining grants are directed through employee matching gifts or through select national programs.

Sample grants:

• $150,000 to DoSomething.org to launch the first-ever youth volunteer social messaging campaign (2007).
• $130,115 to KCPT Public Television (Kansas City, MO) (2008).
• $45,000 to Wolf Trap Foundation (Reston, VA) for its Early Education through the Arts program (2008).
• $25,000 to the Woodruff Arts Center (Atlanta, GA) to support arts education programming for students (2008).
• $40,000 to KCPT Public Television (Kansas City, MO) (2007).
• $6,300 to KCUR Public Radio (Kansas City, MO) (2008).
• $5,000 to Filmmakers Alliance (Inglewood, CA) (2008).

Fit for public broadcasting: The Foundation's national giving focuses closely on education and diversity. Local giving includes arts and culture, which is likely a better fit for public media. Although the Foundation says that it does not fund media production projects, it does have a history of funding media organizations at the local level. Notably, the Foundation made a significant grant to a youth-focused social messaging campaign. There may be opportunities for public media projects focused on social media.

Eligibility: To be eligible, organizations must:

• Focus on at least one of the funding priorities (K-12 education, arts & culture, youth development, or community development).
• Support either a national program, or local program focused in one of Sprint's key employee communities (Kansas City, Washington D.C., Atlanta, Dallas, Los Angeles, Chicago, Denver and New York City).
• Be a nonprofit tax-exempt organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue code (unless a public school or library).

The Foundation will not support:

• Individuals.
• Political or lobbying organizations.
• Private charities or foundations.
• Requests to support travel, conference or seminar costs.
• Film, music, TV, video and media production projects.**
• International organizations or individuals.
• Marketing, sports, event sponsorships (these are handled through Sponsorships).
• Endowments, capital campaigns, memorial, construction and renovation projects are also generally excluded.

**While the Foundation specifies that it does not fund film, music, TV, video and media production, it does have a history of making media grants, as noted under Sample Grants, above.

Deadline: The Sprint Foundation accepts grant requests from January 2 through November 20 each year.

How to apply: Apply via online application.

Giving range: Up to approximately $200,000. Most grants are below $25,000.

Assets: $4,030,321 (2008)

Total giving: $6.5 million (2008), including $657,000 in matching gifts

View 2008 Annual Report (PDF).