Dear Friends and Colleagues:

In early 2009, in response to an unprecedented economic crisis that significantly reduced the Meyer Foundation's financial assets and posed extraordinary challenges for grantees, we released an Open Letter to the Nonprofit Community to outline our response plan.

Although the financial markets have improved and Meyer's portfolio performed very well in 2009, our assets have not returned to their pre-recession value, and our grantmaking will be constrained again this year.

In this new reality, the Foundation is proud of what we accomplished in 2009 to assist the nonprofit community and the people we serve:

• The Foundation awarded $7.4 million in grants to more than 200 nonprofits.
• With a smaller staff, we continued to operate all our signature programs, including the Exponent Award and our capacity-building work.
• We communicated early about the impact of the economy on our grantmaking.
• We were responsive to the immediate needs of grantees, adjusting our policies and streamlining our processes throughout the year.
• We provided our new conference space for board meetings, staff retreats, and convenings at no cost to more than 50 organizations.

For 2010, the Foundation will continue to follow the principles outlined in last year's open letter and summarized below.

• Our priority continues to be providing stable general operating support to our longstanding, effective grantees with good prospects for maintaining their work in the current economic climate.
• We remain extremely limited in our ability to support new projects and organizations, to increase grant amounts for current grantees, to make multi-year grants, or to support capital campaigns.
• We will continue to support the advocacy work of longstanding grantees, particularly now as governments consider cuts in funding that will affect our region's most vulnerable residents and the systems that serve them.
• We will also continue to devote substantial resources to our programs that sustain and recognize nonprofit leaders and provide lifelines to grantees, including our Management Assistance Program, the Exponent Awards, and our cash flow loan program.
• We remain committed to providing our conference space as a community resource, and in 2010 are planning a series of training, education, and networking events that we will announce over the course of the year.

We continue to actively listen to grantees and other funders to identify urgent needs and opportunities for leadership, to creatively use the Foundation's resources, and to adapt our own practices to be more responsive to the needs of grantees. For example, at its February meeting the Meyer Foundation's board approved an unprecedented round of expedited one-time grants to Meyer grantees working to increase participation in the 2010 Census.

While this past year has been exceptionally challenging for our region's nonprofits, and the people they serve, it also confirmed what we at the Meyer Foundation have long understood: Greater Washington is home to resilient, tenacious, and deeply committed nonprofit executives, board members, and staff. You have dug deep amid shrinking resources and unprecedented need and made difficult decisions without sacrificing quality of service. Our community owes you an enormous debt of gratitude.

Please let us hear what you're observing in this new economic reality, and how you are responding.

Please contact us if you have any questions or suggestions. We promise to keep you informed about our plans in the months ahead.