TUCSON, May 27, 2024 – Continuing the legacy of trailblazing philanthropist and businesswoman Louise Foucar Marshall, the Marshall Foundation recently awarded 21 grants totaling more than $816,000 to 15 nonprofit organizations and the University of Arizona.
Funded by leases for businesses in Main Gate Square immediately west of the University of Arizona (UA) main campus in Tucson, the foundation has long awarded annual grants in addition to the roughly $400,000 it gives each year for university scholarships.
Grants to Support Children, Youth & Adults
In late April 2024, the Marshall Foundation announced awards for its annual grant-making cycle, giving nearly $200,000 to directly fund childhood education. Recipients include Casa de Los Niños, Literacy Connects and a Sahuarita Food Bank program that partners with schools to help families facing food insecurity.
Another $335,000 in awards will help fund wrap-around services supporting education. 2024 grantees include programs within Tucson-area school districts, services linked to education for refugees and immigrants, and JobPath, which advances workforce development in Pima County.
A third category of 2024 recipients provides $289,000 in UA programs. Among the wide-ranging gifts, awards fund a rainwater harvesting “living laboratory” at the School Garden Workshop, support the Astrobiology Center and help build Arizona Public Media’s planned Baker Center Public Media Broadcasting Campus.
Individual awards in 2024 ranged from $25,000 to $90,000. Since its founding in 1930, the Marshall Foundation has invested more than $30 million in Southern Arizona.
Note: A complete list of recipients accompanies this release.
University of Arizona Scholarships
Since 1949, in addition to annual grantmaking, the Marshall Foundation has supported scholarships for UA students, collaborating with the University of Arizona Foundation to identify areas that will best benefit from its support.
In 2024, the foundation is providing approximately $400,000 for UA scholarships.
This year’s funding supports undergraduate programs across colleges, nursing students, graduate fellowships and students in the Arizona Assurance Program, an initiative that supports low-income students statewide, not only with financial support but also mentoring and individualized success plans for transitioning to college.
“What a gift Louise Marshall gave to Tucson and Pima County, not only in creating a sustainable charitable foundation but also in making it effortless for students, residents and visitors to support it,” reflected Bruce Burke, president of the Marshall Foundation. “Every meal or cup of coffee at our tenants’ restaurants, every gift or dress purchased from one of our retailers, every time you get your nails done or hair cut or stay at one of our hotels – those dollars spent are supporting the foundation’s annual giving. Each purchase from one of our merchants helps fund investments in the future of education and support services in our region, and that’s a testament to Louise’s visionary approach to philanthropy and her enduring impact on our community.”
Louise Foucar Marshall: A Legacy of Firsts
Louise Marshall, born in 1864, created the Marshall Charitable Foundation with her husband Tom on Jan. 16, 1930, in order to, in her words, “carry on our work when we are gone.” It was the first private foundation in Arizona, fueled by an uncommon nonprofit business model that provides ongoing revenue through proceeds from commercial leases.
Marshall had a keen business sense and saw tremendous potential in university-area real estate, though the UA was then considered far from the growing city center. For context, the UA “main gate” was then a wooden turnstile that allowed people to enter campus (then a mere 40 acres – one-sixteenth of a square mile) while keeping the area’s free-ranging cattle out.
Marshall confidently began acquiring properties in that very area with money inherited from her parents and eventually made them the bedrock of her foundation. The retail tenant leases for what is now Main Gate Square have provided steady revenue for her philanthropy for more than 90 years.
Not only was the foundation a first in the state, its very model – philanthropy sustained by commerce – may have been a first. In modern parlance, it could be considered “social entrepreneurship.” Marshall, however, executed that vision decades before the concept was first posited by academics in the 1970s then popularized by companies like Ben & Jerry’s and Newman’s Own, forerunners to more recent social enterprises like TOMS, Warby Parker and Bombas.
Such innovative thinking is perhaps unsurprising from a woman who in 1900 was appointed UA Professor of Ancient Languages and Literature – the university’s first full-time female professor, and who built Tucson’s first “suburban” shopping center, developing the university-adjacent land she’d acquired, where she also ran her own gift shop.
Marshall remained involved in the day-to-day workings of the Marshall Foundation until her death in 1956 at the age of 92. Per her vision, the majority of the foundation’s philanthropy supports equitable access to and success in education.
About the Marshall Foundation & Main Gate Square
The Marshall Foundation, headquartered near the University of Arizona main campus in Tucson, was established in 1930 as a philanthropy to support education in Arizona. Its giving is funded by retail leases on commercial properties within Main Gate Square, real estate acquired over time by founder Louise Foucar Marshall beginning in 1903. Today, Main Gate Square is home to more than 50 shops, restaurants and entertainment venues, two full-service hotels, a free summer concert series and more, all within steps of the University of Arizona main gate at Park Ave. and University Blvd. Merchants validate night parking at the Tyndall Avenue Garage with any purchase Monday through Friday, and weekend parking is nearly always free. Learn more at marshallfoundation.com and maingatesquare.com.
Marshall Foundation Annual Grantmaking
2024 Recipients
Educational Programs (Early Childhood through 4th-Year College)
Total: $192,875
- Casa De Los Niños: Kelly Early Education Center
- Children’s Action Alliance: Equitable Access to Quality Early Childhood Education
- Literacy Connects: Reading Seed
- Sahuarita Food Bank: Food for Thought Weekend Nutrition Backpacks
- Sunnyside Foundation: Sunnyside CommunityShare
- Tucson Children’s Museum
Education Wrap-Around Supporting Services
Total: $335,000
- Amphitheater Public Schools Foundation: Student Support Programs
- Earn To Learn: Pima County Student Support
- Educational Enrichment Foundation: E-Sports for TUSD Students
- Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project: Wraparound Services for Immigrants’ Education
- JobPath, Inc: Economic Opportunity with JobPath
- Planned Parenthood Arizona
- Scholarships A–Z: Student Support Programs for Undocumented Youth
- Tucson Girls Chorus: Engagement Program
- Youth On Their Own: Program Client Services
University of Arizona Programs & Initiatives
Total: $289,000
- Arizona Arts Live: Arizona Arts Live $10 Student Tickets
- Arizona Public Media (AZPM): The Baker Center Public Media Broadcasting Campus
- CCR – Mathematics Department: IMPACT-HS
- School Garden Workshop: The Rainwater Harvesting Living Laboratory
- Tucson Initiative for Minoritized Student Engagement in Science and Technology Program (TIMESTEP): Astrophysics Software Engineering
- Astrobiology Center: Exploring Cosmic Life – A Dynamic Astrobiology
Contact:
Kay Hoenig
Grant Management Administrator
Marshall Foundation
(520) 955-1238 (mobile)
[email protected]
