Talk:Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation

Are the numbers correct?
On 2018-04-27 I read, "The Kauffman Foundation has an asset base of around $2 billion and distributed over $17 million in grants in 2013" -- with a staff of 85 managing total revenue of $155 million and expenses of $119 million in 2014 (in the box). If I interpret this correctly, that's roughly an 8 percent return on equity with "expenses" being $1.4 million per employee or 6 percent of equity, while donating roughly 0.8 percent of equity in grants.

Are these numbers correct? I'm especially concerned that the grants number seems so low. DavidMCEddy (talk) 15:50, 27 April 2018 (UTC)

As a native Kansas Citian, the Kauffmans are somewhat involved in grant making (for example, an entrepreneurial program for the underserved and unemployed following the 2008 financial crisis in collaboration with the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Business). If I recall correctly, Ewing Kauffman is also famous for sending an entire inner city school class, who had low graduation rates, to college for free many years ago.

But they are primarily known for public infrastructure— large and immaculately maintained public gardens (one full of flowers, where Ewing and his wife are buried, and another dedicated to native plants, with space for community farming and educational programs aimed at underserved schoolchildren to learn about nature and gardening), which employ full-time staff and are located in prime central real estate, as well as Royals baseball stadium.

I am admittedly not an expert when it comes to their balance sheet, but they do have a sizable presence in the city which I imagine is costly to maintain. They are not merely another tax-haven “charitable foundation.” I presume the $2 billion in assets is primarily land and buildings, versus cash. Grants seem to be allocated in a very cost-effective manner, doing things rather than simply throwing money at them.

I am usually critical of many philanthropists, but the Kauffman Foundation is well-complemented by others in the city (such as The Stowers Institute for Biomedical Research, started by the founder of American Century Investments... Or the Nelson-Atkins (newspaper, real estate-> large comprehensive art museum), Kemper (banking->contemporary art), Bloch (tax preparation->modern art), Helzberg (jeweler->fine art auditorium), etc. Genetikbliss (talk) 21:27, 27 June 2019 (UTC)

Incorrect items in article
I tried to update items in the article last week, but the items were reverted due to COI. I do work for the company as the Senior Brand Manager, and was asked by our CEO to update the logo to our current logo and the name of the CEO, which is DeAngela Burns-Wallace, Ed.D. There are other incorrect items in the article that I would like to propose updates for, but I'm not sure how to do that. KauffmanFDN (talk) 22:47, 16 January 2024 (UTC)


 * If there are items in the article that are wrong, could you please explain here why they are wrong and how you recommend they be fixed, AND provide references supporting your claim.
 * Contributors to Wikipedia are asked to write from a neutral point of view citing credible sources. If you delete references, you need to explain why they aren't relevant, while also preferably providing other references you claim are better.
 * I'm not well versed with rules for logos. If you have an updated logo AND the Kaufman Foundation is willing to release that logo under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 international license, then I suggest you upload that to Wikimedia Commons (commons.wikipedia.org).
 * The Kaufman Foundation may not wish to do that. If not, see "Logos".
 * Hope this helps. DavidMCEddy (talk) 05:38, 17 January 2024 (UTC)
 * Immediate changes would be the name of the CEO from Wendy Guillies to DeAngela Burns-Wallace, Ed.D. Although I see that has bee updated since yesterday. https://www.kauffman.org/people/deangela-burns-wallace/
 * I updated the logo last week after uploading the image to Wikimedia and releasing under Creative Commons, but that was reverted. KauffmanFDN (talk) 17:38, 17 January 2024 (UTC)
 * Ewing_Marion_Kauffman_Foundation_logo.png
 * This is the current logo. The Foundation changed their logo in 2017. KauffmanFDN (talk) 17:44, 17 January 2024 (UTC)
 * Specific text to be added or removed: Ewing_Marion_Kauffman_Foundation_logo.png
 * Reason for the change: Logo updated in 2017
 * References supporting change: www.kauffman.org
 * KauffmanFDN (talk) 17:49, 17 January 2024 (UTC)
 * KauffmanFDN I have updated the logo. For future requests I recommend using the Edit COI template, otherwise there may be a long wait before an editor sees the request. TSventon (talk) 21:46, 20 January 2024 (UTC)