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The John M. Olin Foundation closed its doors in the fall of 2005. Accordingly, it no longer has the resources to fund new proposals nor the staff to respond to inquiries. If you wish to follow up on prior business with the foundation and need to contact someone who might assist you, please send an email to jmofdtn@aol.com. Anyone interested in the history of the foundation may wish to read John J. Miller's book, A Gift of Freedom: How the John M. Olin Foundation Changed America (Encounter Books, 2005). A brief history of the foundation follows: The John M. Olin Foundation, Inc. was established in 1953 by John Merrill Olin (1892-1982), inventor, industrialist, conservationist and philanthropist. Mr. Olin was committed to the preservation of the principles of political and economic liberty as they have been expressed in American thought, institutions and practice. Accordingly, the general purpose of the John M. Olin Foundation was to provide support for projects that reflected or were intended to strengthen the economic, political and cultural institutions upon which the American heritage of constitutional government and private enterprise is based. The Foundation also sought to promote a general understanding of these institutions by encouraging the thoughtful study of the connections between economic and political freedoms, and the cultural heritage that sustains them. Over the years the foundation gave away approximately $370 million in pursuit of these goals. John Olin did not intend for his foundation to exist in perpetuity, but rather to close its doors by the time those trustees who best knew his philanthropic ideals had retired. Following the death in 2000 of William E. Simon, whom Mr. Olin had chosen in 1977 to be President of his Foundation, the Board of Trustees began to implement a plan to phase out the Foundation over the next few years. That process was completed in 2005. All contents copyright © 1998. |
