Currently the Sullivan Foundation distributes annually approximately $1,000,000 to 30 small private colleges located in the Appalachian region of the southeastern United States. These grants are for financial aid, awarded annually in keeping with each college’s rules and procedures for making such awards. At the 30 collegiate institutions, the Foundation has also established endowments for support of the scholarship programs. Since the relationships with some of these institutions extend back many years, the Sullivan Foundation is frequently viewed as the primary patron in terms of total gifts over time.

Colleges receiving grants from the Foundation supply basic information annually regarding: enrollment, tuition, endowment, endowment per student, annual giving, total financial aid awarded, and percent of students receiving financial aid, as well as the names of scholarship recipients. Grantee colleges also submit to the Foundation a copy of the annual audit. The Foundation has resolved to provide support to well run institutions with low or modest endowments. If a college’s endowment exceeds $150,000,000 and $100,000 in endowment per student, the size of grants to that college are significantly reduced.

Awards Program

The Algernon Sydney Sullivan and Mary Mildred Sullivan Awards are presented at 29 of the 30-grantee institutions. An additional 25 southeastern colleges and universities present one or the other of these Awards at commencements or honors day convocations. The Sullivan Awards are highly prized. In fact the Foundation seeks assurance as to the continuing significance of the Awards as a criteria for maintaining the program at particular institutions. The citations highlight the importance of service to others and service to the community, values that invariably relate directly to institutional purposes.

A secondary and unique aspect of the Awards program is that the institution presenting the Award may identify a non-student member of the college community to receive the Award based upon the identical criteria of service. Over the years many interesting people, representing numerous elements of college and university communities have been so recognized.

The Award itself is a bronze medallion. A framed description of the Award and a copy of a brief biography of either Algernon Sydney Sullivan or his wife Mary Mildred Sullivan accompany the medallion.