CIC Award for Philanthropy (Organization)
Presented to The Richard King Mellon Foundation
Founded in 1947, the Richard King Mellon Foundation is the largest foundation in Southwestern Pennsylvania, and one of the 50 largest in the world. The Foundation’s 2023 year-end net assets were $2.9 billion, and its trustees in 2023 disbursed more than $176 million in grants and program-related investments.
The Foundation has four primary program areas: conservation, economic development, economic mobility, and health and wellbeing, and two cross-functional programs: nonprofit organizational effectiveness, and for-profit social impact investments. Independent higher education institutions in Pennsylvania have benefitted tremendously from Richard King Mellon Foundation grants both recently and throughout its history. The Foundation has helped fund revitalization efforts in downtown business corridors and communities, improve water quality and ecosystem health in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, launch a nursing program, and develop and pilot experiential, project-based modules and micro-internships and opportunities for students at colleges and universities in Western Pennsylvania.
History of the Philanthropy Award—Organization
Philanthropic foundations and corporate giving programs support innovative thinking and the development of ideas and programs. As important cultural agents, they focus the nation’s attention on pressing issues facing our society. This award celebrates a foundation or corporation whose support to CIC or private colleges and universities has demonstrated leadership and vision and consequently has made a significant difference in the vitality of independent higher education.
With this award, CIC seeks to honor philanthropic organizations, whether their scope is national or regional, that have made the support of independent colleges and universities a priority in their funding or have discovered that independent institutions are particularly successful grantees in addressing the funding organization’s priority areas. Many of the foundations and corporations that have received this award also have demonstrated sustained commitment to independent higher education over a number of years and even decades.
PREVIOUS PHILANTHROPY AWARD RECIPIENTS
2024: TheDream.US
2023: The Jaharis Family Foundation
2022: The Cannon Charitable Interests
2021: The Duke Endowment
2020: Raskob Foundation for Catholic Activities, Inc.
2019: The Bernard Osher Foundation
2018: Newman’s Own Foundation
2017: Research Corporation for Science Advancement
2016: The Corella and Bertram F. Bonner Foundation
2015: James S. Kemper Foundation
2013: Coca-Cola Company
2012: The John R. Oishei Foundation
2011: The Arthur J. Schmitt Foundation
The Walmart Foundation
2010: The Bernard McDonough Foundation
2009: Shelby M. C. Davis United World College Scholars Program
2008: Lettie Pate Whitehead Foundation
2007: George I. Alden Trust
2006: Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
Davis Educational Foundation
2005: The UPS Foundation
2004: Scholarship America
2003: Jessie Ball DuPont Fund
2002: The Bush Foundation
2001: The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations
2000: The Kresge Foundation
The M. J. Murdock Charitable Trust
CIC Allen P. Splete Award for Outstanding Service
Presented to Joanne Soliday
Joanne Soliday is a higher education author, speaker, presidential advisor, and catalyst for change. With over 30 years of experience on college and university campuses, Soliday transforms each environment she touches through her strategic vision and ability to speak truth. Following over 20 years in leadership positions at Elon University (NC) and West Virginia Wesleyan College, Soliday founded Credo, a higher education consulting firm dedicated to empowering small, independent colleges and universities to thrive.
In her work at Credo, Soliday has partnered with over 550 private colleges and universities. This strategic work led her to co-author two books for leaders in higher education. Her most recent book, PIVOT: A Vision for the New University, explicates a picture of the possibility for the future of independent colleges and universities. Her first book, Surviving to Thriving: A Planning Framework for Leaders of Private Colleges and Universities, is a guide for independent college and university leaders, unpacking the nine critical elements of the Thriving Framework® through which institutional health can be both understood and improved.
Soliday earned her bachelor’s degree in education from West Virginia Wesleyan University, got her MEd from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and studied at Duke University Divinity School (NC).
History of the Allen P. Splete Award
The Allen P. Splete Award is presented to an individual, organization, or publication in recognition of significant contributions to independent higher education. Recipients have demonstrated national leadership, through ideas and commitment, on behalf of private colleges and universities.
With this award, CIC recognizes individuals and organizations that have contributed to greater understanding and appreciation of the role of independent colleges and universities or have been responsible for significant improvements in these institutions. Examples include research and writing about this sector or a particular segment of it and giving voice to the needs and attributes of independent institutions in public forums, as well as behind the scenes. The award is named after Allen P. Splete, president of CIC from 1986 to 2000.
PREVIOUS ALLEN P. SPLETE AWARD RECIPIENTS
2024: Ann Die Hasselmo
2023: David L. Warren
2022: Judith Block McLaughlin
2021: Earl Lewis
2020: Peter T. Ewell
2019: Johnnetta Betsch Cole
2018: Ernesto Nieto
2017: Arthur Levine
2016: W. Robert Connor
2014: Sandy Baum and Michael McPherson
2013: Alexander Astin
2012: Gordon Winston
2011: Mary Patterson McPherson
2009: George D. Kuh
2008: Stephen Joel Trachtenberg
2007: Eugene M. Lang
2006: Ken Yamada
2005: Thomas A. Emmet
2004: Elizabeth J. McCormack and Jerry I. Aron
2003: USA Today
2002: Patricia Willis
2001: Richard Kimball