Any private foundation with $50 million worth of assets generates a considerable amount of attention on the Eastern Shore, but when that foundation decides to “sunset,” or, in other words, spend down their entire endowment and close their doors by 2021, that interest becomes all the more intense.
That seems to be the case with the Town Creek Foundation, based in Easton. The environmental grant-making institution, created by local philanthropists Jennifer and the late Ted Stanley in 1981, not only decided to spend down its capital, but they also make the strategic decision that the best use of those funds would be in the state of Maryland.
The board brought in Stuart Clake to lead the ten-year sunsetting process. A graduate of Lafayette and Yale, and a native New Yorker, Stuart had previously worked at Ted Turner’s private foundation as well as the Southern Partners Fund.
In his interview with the Spy, Stuart talks about the sunsetting process, and its growing popularity with foundations to have more immediate impact on the issues that most concern them. He also talks about the Foundation’s work in Maryland, and his interest in having the foundation to play a catalytic role for Maryland’s environmental organizations to work closer on major issues.
Stuart also talks frankly about the new Hogan administration, his concerns about government’s ability to respond to the climate change crisis quickly enough, and his growing anticipation of officially closing the doors of the foundation in the next six years.
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