User:Sloanwebmaster/Personal sandbox

I am using this personal sandbox to create the draft of a new page for the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to bring it more in line with the Wikipedia entries of other private foundations.

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation is a philanthropic not-for-profit grantmaking foundation based in New York City in the United States of America. It was established in 1934 by Alfred P. Sloan Jr., then-President and Chief Executive Officer of the General Motors Corporation. The Foundation makes grants in support of research and education in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and economic performance. As of December 31, 2008, the total assets of the Foundation were valued at approximately $1.4 billion. In that year, it dispersed nearly $73 million in grants.

Programs and Projects
According to its Web site, the Foundation makes grants in seven major thematic areas, which it refers to as Major Program Areas.

Sloan Research Fellowships
The Foundation's longest running program, the Sloan Research Fellowships are a series of two-year $50,000 fellowships awarded annually to 118 young scientists to be used as each sees fit to best advance his or her research. Fellowships are awarded in seven fields: chemistry, computational and evolutionary molecular biology, computer science, economics, mathematics, neuroscience, and physics. Since its establishment in 1955, the Sloan Research Fellowships have supported the work of more than 4,500 early-career scientists and researchers. Of those, 38 former recipients have gone on to win the Nobel Prize in their respective fields, 57 have been awarded the National Medal of Science, 16 have been awarded the Fields Medal, and 9 have been awarded the John Bates Clark Medal.

Basic Science
The Foundation makes grants to support research in sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics. Recently supported projects in this program area include the Census of Marine Life, an international effort to measure the abundance, distribution and diversity of species in the world's oceans; the Consortium for the Barcode of Life, an international collaborative effort which aims to develop a mechanism capable of generating a unique genetic barcode for every species of life on earth; the Encyclopedia of Life, a free, online collaborative encyclopedia intended to document all of the 1.8 million living species known to science; the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, a major multi-filter imaging and spectroscopic redshift survey using a dedicated 2.5-m wide-angle optical telescope at Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico; and a project studying microbial populations in human built environments.

Science Education
The Foundation makes grants in support of projects to increase the access to and quality of graduate education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Recently supported initiatives in this area include projects to increase the quality and availability of online education, a program to increase the number of Ph.D.s awarded to underrepresented minorities in science and engineering, a program to study student retention rates in the sciences, engineering and mathematics, and a program aimed at supporting the development of a scientific master's degree geared toward preparing students for scientific and technical careers outside academia.

Public Understanding of Science
The Foundation makes grants to help elevate the public's understanding of science and technology by funding science-related media, including books, films, television programs, radio broadcasts, and theater. Notable projects supported in whole or part through this program include the World Science Festival, NPR's Radiolab and Science Friday, PBS's American Experience and NOVA scienceNOW, and several bestselling science-themed books, including Collapse by Jared Diamond and The Hot Zone by Richard Preston.

Economic Performance and the Quality of Life
The Foundation makes grants to study the workings of American institutions or to apply that understanding to improve their function. Recent initiatives in this program area include a program to study the economics of financial institutions and their regulation, a program to improve and systematize the collection of federal statistics, a program to encourage cooperation and coordination between citizens and their municipal governments, and a program to increase scholarly and public attention on issues facing working families.

Digital Information Technology and the Dissemination of Knowledge
The foundation makes grants in support of efforts to increase access to human knowledge and to develop a better understanding of the information economy. Recent initiatives in this program area include funds to support the digitization of books and other material in the public domain and to foster increasing access to material already digitized. In 2008, a $3 million grant from this program was awarded to the Wikimedia Foundation, publisher of Wikipedia.

Select National Issues
The Foundation funds projects unconnected to its other grant making areas when, according to its website, "Foundation funds promise to advance a significant national interest." Programs within this major program area include the Biosecurity program, which makes grants aimed to increase American biosecurity, focusing on issues surrounding dangerous research and the potential misuse of scientific knowledge, methods and materials in the life sciences, particularly synthetic biology.

Civic Initiatives
The Foundation makes grants aimed at the betterment of New York City, with a focus on its existing interests in science research and education. Recent initiatives in this program include the Sloan Public Service Awards, an annual award given to six New York City civil servants, and the Sloan Awards for Excellence in Teaching Science and Mathematics, an annual awards program aimed at recognizing outstanding science and mathematics instruction in New York City public schools.