The Foreign Service Journal, December 2013

J. KIRBY SIMON FOREIGN SERVICE TRUST AN INVITATION TO PROPOSE PROJECTS FOR FUNDING BY THE J. KIRBY SIMON FOREIGN SERVICE TRUST IN 2014 T he J. Kirby Simon Foreign Service Trust is a charitable fund established in the memory of J. Kirby Simon, a Foreign Service officer who died in 1995 while serving in Taiwan. The Trust is committed to expanding the opportunities for professional fulfillment and community service of active Foreign Service officers and specialists and their families. The principal activity of the Trust is to support projects that are initiated and carried out, on an entirely unofficial, voluntary basis, by Foreign Service personnel or members of their families, wherever located. The Trust will also consider projects of the same nature proposed by other U.S. government employees or members of their families, regardless of nationality, who are located at American diplomatic posts abroad. Only the foregoing persons are eligible applicants. In 2013 the Trust made its 17th round of grant awards, approving a total of 50 grants that ranged from $400 to $3,263 (averag- ing $1,715), for a total of $85,729. These grants support the involvement of Foreign Service personnel in the projects described in the Trust announcement titled Grants Awarded in 2013 and available at www.kirbysimontrust.org. To indicate the range of Trust grants, the following paragraphs set forth a sampling of projects supported by the Trust in recent years. Education Projects: School supplies for refugee and other conflict-affected children and for orphanages; English-language learning materials for high school students; day-care facilities for underprivileged women learning marketable skills; specialized education equipment for the disabled; kitchen and other equipment for occupational training programs. Additional Projects for Young People: Playground and sports training equipment, educational toys, furnishings, household appliances, toilet and shower facilities for special-needs schools and orphanages; clean-ups to improve sanitation and create play spaces; school fees and food for abandoned children; materials for a re-entry program for returning Foreign Service teens. Health and Safety-Related Projects: Dental care for impoverished children; staff training for crisis shelters; health care equip- ment and improved sanitation for maternity clinics and orphanages; a visual impairment survey among HIV-positive children; rebuilding homes of earthquake victims; photo documentation of murdered women set on fire by husbands or in-laws. Revenue-Producing Projects: Machines and materials for income-generating programs for sick and disadvantaged children and adults, including abused women, migrant workers, refugees, Roma and victims of sex-trafficking; a cooperative for deaf car- penters. The Trust now invites the submission of proposals for support in 2014. It is anticipated that few of the new grants will exceed the average size of the 2013 awards, and that projects assisted by the Trust will reflect a variety of interests and approaches, illustrated by the foregoing list of past grants and by the website description of 2013 grants. Certain restrictions apply: (a) Funds from the Trust cannot be used to pay salaries or other compensation to U.S. government employees or their family members. (b) The Trust does not support projects that have reasonable prospects of obtaining full fund- ing from other sources. (c) The Trust will provide support for a project operated by a charitable or educational organization only where the individual applicant(s) plan an active part in initiating and carrying out the project, apart from fundraising. (d) The Trust will support only projects in which each applicant’s role is clearly separate from the applicant’s official responsibilities. A proposal should include a description of the project, its aims and the role to be played by the applicant(s); a preliminary plan for disseminating the results of the project; a budget; other available funding, if any; and a brief biography of the applicant(s). Pro- posals should be no longer than five double-spaced pages (exclusive of budget and biographical material). Please follow the appli- cation format available at www.kirbysimontrust.org/format_for_proposals.html or by communicating with the Trust (see below). Proposals for projects to be funded during calendar year 2014 must be received by the Trust no later than March 1, 2014. Proposals can be submitted by mail, by fax or (preferably) by e-mail to: J. Kirby Simon Foreign Service Trust 93 Edgehill Road New Haven, CT 06511 FAX: 203-432-8095 E-mail: Send to info@kirbysimontrust.org and (2) john.simon@yale.edu and (3) marguerite.camera@yale.edu Further information about the Trust can be found at www.kirbysimontrust.org.