The Kronkosky Charitable Foundation is pleased to report on its year ended December 31, 2010. The Foundation serves residents of Bandera, Bexar, Comal, and Kendall counties in Texas by awarding grants across the wide range of charitable purposes summarized in the Foundation's Program Guidelines. During 2010, 117 grants totaling $9.7 million were approved for 98 non-profit organizations covering all four counties in the service area of the Kronkosky Charitable Foundation.  These grants are made possible by the remarkable generosity of the Kronkoskys. Our communities are fortunate to benefit from the dedicated work done by thousands of caring staff and volunteers who carry out the missions of the many non-profit agencies that serve our communities in so many areas of need. The organizations we fund are valued partners in the work of the Foundation.

The year 2010 continued the Foundation’s emphasis, which started in 2009 resulting from the unprecedented financial crisis in 2008 that affected world economies and resulted in a significant decline in the Foundation’s investment portfolio. The Foundation suspended the awarding of capital grants, except in very rare circumstances, until its portfolio has regained its value. The emphasis will instead be on program operations grants in light of expected funding shortfalls that will affect many of our regularly funded grantees. We expect this policy to continue to be in effect for all of 2011.

The Precious Minds, New Connections Initiative continues to be a major thrust of the Foundation and is the largest privately funded initiative that focuses on parents and young children in Bexar and surrounding counties. The objective of the Precious Minds, New Connections Initiative is to help parents understand the importance of the first three years of life when their child’s brain is developing so rapidly.  Parents are exposed to information and skills that help maximize their child’s potential during this critical time.  Ultimately, we hope to have a positive effect on every family with a young child in our service area.

The Foundation funded 21 parenting education programs during 2010 with funding of approximately $3.1 million.  Partner agencies are equipped with everything from parent educators, meals, childcare, incentives and data management services.  See the Precious Minds, New Connections section of this Website for more information on this important initiative of the Foundation.

A unique aspect of this Initiative is the ongoing training and networking that the Foundation supports.  We have found that there is energy and power that is both created and harnessed by bringing program managers together on at least a bi-monthly basis and having all parent educators meet on a quarterly basis.  In 2010, our Parent Educators attended two major conferences.  The Neurobiology of Girls was presented by the nationally known Dr. Joann Deak in conjunction with Blessed Sacrament Academy.  All parent educators also attended the 10th annual Diversity Conference held in conjunction with the Jewish Community Center.  From January through June, program managers and parent educators met in committees on a bi-weekly basis to prepare for a presentation to all partner agencies about the significance and impact of Precious Minds, New Connections since inception.  Information about outreach, recruitment, retention, and methods of teaching were presented.  The audience experienced a mock class on brain development and saw a demonstration of a home-based lesson.  Preliminary data analyses of demographic information, retention efforts and results of pre-post AAPI scores were also presented.  Two excellent videos and a slide show depicting the variety and number of unique teaching locations were presented.  Since that time, monthly meetings of program managers have continued with renewed efforts focused for 2011 on consistent procedures across all PMNC agencies, better communication with Child Protective Services and “branding” of PMNC in the community. The program manager meetings are a forum for sharing information, discussing issues and brainstorming solutions. Each agency brings a different strength to the Initiative and solutions to problems are more quickly found when working as a team. 

The Foundation maintains a PMNC web-based database software system which all PMNC grantees are required to use.  By having a consolidated database, Foundation staff run the reports that are due each quarter and eliminate the need for agencies to spend time on reporting.  In addition, the Foundation completes the numeric portions of the continuation funding applications and asks the grantee to comment and explain the meaning of the numbers.  This is a unique method for a Foundation to employ in its ongoing grant making activity. 

The Precious Minds, New Connections Initiative includes grant making in the area of parenting education as well as funding other programs within the community that promote early brain development of infants and toddlers. We suggest that non-profit agencies active in every program area of the Foundation consider how their work affects early childhood development. We anticipate funding early childhood programs in museums, parks, libraries and other areas. We hope this initiative will help put our service area on the leading edge of developing child-centered communities.