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The Siragusa Foundation wins Wilmer Shields Rich Award for

Excellence in Communications

April 1, 2009 (Chicago, IL) - The Siragusa Foundation has been named a Bronze Award winner for excellence in communications by the Council on Foundations 2009 Wilmer Shields Rich Awards Program. The program recognizes effective communications efforts to increase public awareness of foundations and corporate giving programs.

The Siragusa Foundation received the Bronze Award for its 2007 Annual Report and its Website in the category for independent, family and operating foundations with assets between $22 million to $100 million.

Entries to the awards program included annual or biennial reports, newsletters, special reports, public policy campaigns and websites. This year, 1999 entries were submitted and judged on their overall outcomes/impact; message and design effectiveness; organization of content; and outreach/distribution strategies.

Awards will be presented during the Council on Foundations 60^th Annual Conference, May 4, 2009 in Atlanta. A complete listing of the winners may be found on the Council of Foundation's website.

"We are thrilled to be recognized by our colleagues with this honor. Such acknowledgment in our field helps highlight the ways foundations use communications strategies and techniques to further support the communities we fund," says Irene S. Phelps, President/CEO of The Siragusa Foundation.

Wilmer Shields Rich, executive director of the National Council on Community Foundations (now the Council on Foundations) from 1957 to 1968, was an early champion of public accountability by charitable foundations in both their resources and their activities. She encouraged this accountability through publications and other forums. In 1955, her 784-page foundation directory was published. Rich was subsequently referred to as "the person responsible for the greatest invention since the Geiger counter for discovering valuable ore." The Wilmer Shields Rich Awards Program for Excellence in Communications is named after this influential woman.

Established in 1950 by Ross D. Siragusa, The Siragusa Foundation is a private family foundation that is committed to honoring its founder by sustaining and developing Chicago's extraordinary nonprofit resources. Governed today by his surviving spouse, his descendants and non-family board members, the foundation supports charitable organizations that reflect the founder's special interests in arts & culture, education, the environment, health services & medical research and human services. Through these five program areas, the foundation funds organizations and projects that provide services that help people help themselves, with the ultimate goal of improving the quality of life for people living in the metropolitan Chicago area.

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