Macarthur Foundation

There are also overseas offices in Mexico, India, Nigeria, and Russia. Fanton plans to step down come September 2009 in accordance with the foundation's term limits. He will have reached the end of his two five-year terms as president and a board trustee in September 2009.

MacArthur (1897-1978), owned Bankers Life and Casualty and other businesses, as well as considerable property in Florida and New York. MacArthur (1909-1981) held positions in many of these companies and served as a director of the Foundation.
Over its history the Foundation has been in close collaboration with the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Carnegie Corporation and the Rockefeller Foundation; one case in point being the joint establishment in 2000 of The Partnership for Higher Education in Africa, to assist higher education institutions in 6 African countries.John Corbally was the second president of the foundation, who served from 1980 until 1989. George Burch of Tulane University, for bringing this idea to his attention..

Roderick MacArthur was the chief implementer of the details of the Fellows Program, and its strongest supporter.
The MacArthur Fellowship is an award issued by the MacArthur Foundation each year, to typically 20 to 40 citizens or residents of the USA, of any age and working in any field, who "show exceptional merit and promise for continued and enhanced creative work." According to the Foundation website, "the fellowship is not a reward for past accomplishment, but rather an investment in a person's originality, insight, and potential."
The Foundation does not accept applications or grant interviews. The foundation relies on anonymous nominators, who submit recommendations to a small selection committee of about a dozen people.