BALTIMORE—The board of directors of the Open Society Institute-Baltimore has restructured to lead the foundation into a new, exciting chapter in its history as the institute has raised nearly a quarter of its $20 million fundraising goal in less than a year.
The board of directors recently created new leadership positions for the first time and elected several current members to those new posts. The board also added a new member. The appointments take effect at the next board meeting on March 28.
Marilynn K. Duker, president of Shelter Development LLC, The Shelter Group's development and acquisition arm, will chair the 11-member board. She is also a member of the board of the National Multi-Housing Council, the Baltimore City Board of Finance, the University of Maryland at Baltimore Research Park Corporation, the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore, Mercy Medical Center and the College of Notre Dame/Loyola College Library Board. She has served on the National Advisory Council for the Housing Authority of New Orleans and the board of the Fund for Educational Excellence.
Two current board members also will assume newly created posts as vice chairmen: Andre Davis, a federal judge in Maryland and former state court judge in Baltimore, and Joseph T. Jones, Jr., president and chief executive officer of the Center for Fathers, Families and Workforce Development in Baltimore and a national leader in programming to strengthen fatherhood initiatives.
The new, eleventh member of the OSI-Baltimore board is Deborah Winston Callard, former executive director of the Fund for Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore and a member of the boards of the Parks and People Foundation and WYPR-FM in Baltimore.
"Our board draws on the strengths of talented individuals who know Baltimore well and care deeply about increasing opportunity and developing just policies and practices to benefit all local residents, especially those affected by poverty and discrimination," said Diana Morris, executive director of OSI-Baltimore. "The new board leaders bring diverse expertise to their work and are all committed to creating meaningful change by addressing some of the toughest problems affecting the city."
International philanthropist George Soros founded OSI-Baltimore in 1998 to better understand and solve urban problems and since then has donated more than $50 million to support a grantmaking and capacity-building program to expand justice and opportunity for Baltimore residents.
Last May, Soros visited Baltimore and pledged to donate $10 million more if the institute raised another $20 million from the community to continue the institute's work for five more years on drug addiction treatment, school reform, prisoner re-entry and juvenile delinquency. Soros believes that a successful initiative cannot be the work of one individual alone but must be a partnership among key stakeholders in a community.
The institute is well on the way to meeting that challenge, raising nearly $5 million from venture capitalists, civic leaders, established foundations and generous individuals who have taken up the challenge. Soros issued the challenge over a five-year period, ending in 2010, but wanted some funds raised by the end of last year when the previous funding ended.
"We are gratified by the generous response from donors who recognize that Baltimore is at a crossroads," said Morris of OSI-Baltimore. "Our contributors believe that an investment in OSI is an investment in Baltimore. We are confident we will meet our goal and be able to continue making this a better city in which to live and work."
In the past, the OSI-Baltimore board has overseen the institute's grantmaking and funding and technical assistance priorities. The national parent foundation based in New York also has had some responsibility for the local organization. As the institute continues its Campaign for Baltimore, the OSI-Baltimore board's role is likely to expand.
"This is an exciting time for our institute," Morris said. "The board is deeply involved in discussion about the institute's future and how we will move forward to benefit Baltimore city residents."