On behalf of The Rider-Pool Foundation Trustees, we are pleased to provide this report outlining how we have fulfilled our stewardship responsibilities to the region for the years 2007 and 2008. Over this 24-month period, the Trustees approved the release of $991,017 to 158 not-for-profit agencies that serve the Lehigh Valley in the important areas of education, human services, arts and culture, and community development. We continue to be impressed with these fine organizations that seek to improve the quality of life in the region. Given our limited resources, we cannot honor all requests, and often can only provide a portion of funds requested. However, we have confidence in the not-for-profit leaders and their ability to prudently utilize the investments we make in their efforts. As ever, we believe that these resources are best used to stimulate innovation and facilitate cooperative and mutually supporting programs, especially across subject areas such as education and economic development, the arts and human services, etc. We encourage the use of Rider-Pool funds to leverage support and build sustainability of those programs that have been proven effective.

The Rider-Pool Foundation Trustees, with assistance from their advisors, maintain an investment policy that seeks, on a total return basis, to preserve capital and provide income for distribution. The Foundation's investments are broadly diversified and actively managed and monitored. The Trustees continue to maintain prudent policies and processes in their fiscal management. This diligence has proven particularly helpful this past year, when the nation experienced the most significant economic decline since the 1930s. As a result of this fiscal discipline, the Foundation is quite able to honor its current outstanding commitments. The giving capacity for the coming year will be reduced by approximately 23%, and this may inhibit our ability to support capital and multiyear requests in the near term. However, the core fiscal, administrative, and programmatic strategies are solid. We remain committed to our current strategic and proactive interests, particularly in the "locality development" effort in Old Allentown.

The Old Allentown work, which involves the active participation of the residents of that neighborhood, is a long-range approach to achieving significant improvement of quality-of-life indicators. It involves the cooperative work of the United Way of the Lehigh Valley, the Trexler Trust, and other funders, as well as active participation by the City of Allentown, the Allentown School District, and Lehigh Valley Health Network. It also supports and facilitates the social service, education, housing, and economic development agencies that serve the neighborhood in their desire to be more effective. The work borrows liberally from the Harlem Children's Zone and the "place based" work of the Casey Foundation in Baltimore. This work is consistent with Rider-Pool's interests in neighborhood revitalization and cooperative problem solving.

The late Dorothy Rider Pool and her husband, Leonard Parker Pool, were generous contributors of their time and talent to their beloved adopted home, the Lehigh Valley. We have the privilege of carrying on that tradition of civic involvement and betterment of the community. We are frequently reminded that Mr. and Mrs. Pool would be pleased, but never entirely satisfied. In that spirit, we are pleased with our progress to date in our effort to contribute to the vitality and well-being of the region. Yet there is considerably more work to do. In collaboration with others who share our vision of the Lehigh Valley, we believe the best is yet to come.


Edward F. Meehan
Executive Director