Woodrow Wilson Foundation
The Woodrow Wilson Foundation was provisionally established on December 23, 1920, with formal organization completed at a meeting held in New York City on March 15, 1921.
"[3] Organizers planned on raising funds in order to make cash awards to help support the world of individuals and groups that had rendered "meritorious service to democracy, public welfare, liberal thought, or peace through justice.
[6] The temporary Executive Committee included nine other members, three of whom were close Wilson adviser Edward M. House, American representative to the Paris Peace Conference Frank Polk, and the wife of publishing mogul Malcolm Forbes.
[12] The National Committee also began the process of naming 15 permanent trustees of the Wilson Foundation's assets, recommending Franklin Roosevelt, Cleveland Dodge, feminist leader Carrie Chapman Catt, university president E. A. Alderman, and William Allen White of Kansas.
[12] The 15 Trustees were to provide annual funds, generated through investment of the endowment in government securities, to a 25-member "Jury of Awards," the members of which were to serve 9-year terms.
Rather than a door-to-door drive, this canvas seems to have taken the form of volunteers from various organizations, frequently women, operating fundraising tables at banks, drug stores, and other well-trafficked places.
Despite planning for a mass launch of fundraising activities, funds were already being raised by the various state organizations by December 1921, with temporary receipts being provisionally provided until the engraved certificates for donors were ready for distribution the following month.
On February 11 the Foundation's official News Letter announced that Oklahoma had thus far led all states with fulfillment of 67% of its financial target; an optimistic spin was placed on the ongoing fundraising effort, which was characterized as just launching at that late date in some localities.
[3] On April 16, 1922, Frank L. Polk announced on behalf of the Woodrow Wilson Foundation that the organization would make its awards internationally, not limiting prize winners to Americans.
[24] Owing to the failure of the fund to achieve its $1 million target, awards of $25,000 were declared for the first three years — somewhat less than the estimated $27,000 in interest revenue generated by the endowment.
[24] Prizes were to be granted to individuals, not organizations, it was decided, with "unselfish public service of enduring virtue" held to be the chief qualification of award recipients.
The choice of Cecil was editorially lauded by the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, which called the British statesman a man who had "labored arduously and unselfishly for the realization of Mr. Wilson's ideals.
"[25] Although approximately 1,000 people gathered at the Hotel Astor in Manhattan for the annual banquet of the Woodrow Wilson Foundation to eulogize the late President on what would have been his 69th birthday in December 1925,[26] no prize was granted in that year owing to a failure of the award jury to agree upon a worthy candidate.
[28] Root was recognized for his advocacy of American entry into the League of Nations — regarded by the decision-makers of the Wilson Foundation as a fundamental principle of Wilsonian internationalism.
Root promptly signed over his prize check to the fledgling magazine Foreign Affairs, which was itself attempting to build an endowment fund to insure its longterm survival.
[29] A special donation made possible an essay contest in 1927, in which a pair of $25,000 prizes were offered to female and male authors for the best work on the theme "What Woodrow Wilson Means To Me.
