JAMES R WEBB AMERICAN REAL ESTATE SOCIETY FOUNDATION

The ARES Foundation was created by the ARES Board of Directors in 1986 and was renamed in honor of founder James R. Webb in 2009.  Currently, the primary activities of the Foundation include funding the Doctoral Seminar, providing travel grants to the ARES Meeting for scholars from subSaharan Africa and other developing nations and funding manuscript prizes at several IRES affiliated meetings. ARES Foundation grants and prizes have helped hundreds of scholars. The Foundation has an endowment but it needs your support to fully fund its activities. 

The ARES Foundation has its own corporate charter, bank accounts, and investments. Because stability, continuity, and a working knowledge of ARES are of critical importance in the governance of the Foundation, the Board of Directors consists of past presidents of ARES who serve twelve-year terms on the Foundation Board. A predetermined schedule was established so that each ARES past president serves as vice-president and president of the Foundation.  Within the Foundation Board, the important four person investment committee consists of Glenn Mueller, Joseph Lipscomb, Chris Manning and Arthur L. Schwartz, Jr. Joseph Lipscomb serves as Treasurer of the Foundation, Marc Louargand is Director of Development, Joe Albert is Secretary, Elaine Worzala coordinates the Doctoral Seminar and Graeme Newell and John Williams are Co - International Liasons. Arthur L. Schwartz, Jr. serves as Executive Director. The Foundation Board holds its annual meeting in conjunction with the ARES meeting each year. The Officers and Board of the Foundation are dedicated to vigorously pursuing the Foundation's educational mission as set forth by our founder, James R. Webb. All Officers and Directors are unpaid volunteers and the Foundation's overhead is very low. 

When the ARES Board created the Foundation, it also created the ARES Fellows program to fund it. Revenue from the strictly voluntary Fellows program goes to the ARES Foundation. Programs supported by the Foundation have focused on assisting individual participation in ARES activities as well on educational publications. The Foundation funds the Doctoral Student Seminar by defraying costs for graduate students to attend the Seminar and ARES Annual Meeting and holding a luncheon in their honor on the day of the Seminar. These graduate students are the future leaders of ARES and the Seminar   enables new scholars to be exposed to ARES. The Foundation has also funded the participation of real estate scholars from Africa, Latin America, Asia and Eastern Europe at ARES annual meetings. Involving these scholars has enhanced the meeting experience for all ARES members. In the spirit of joining academics and practicing professionals, the Foundation funds a $1,000 manuscript prize for the best paper presented by a practicing professional at each ARES Annual Meeting and a manuscript prize for the Latin American Real Estate Society Annual Meeting and the African Real Estate Society Annual Meeting. 

The Foundation's Board has recently increased funding for both the Doctoral Seminar and the International Scholar program. There will be over thirty PhD Students at the 2011 Doctoral Seminar as well as five African Scholars, both record numbers. To maintain such high funding levels, the Foundation needs additional contributions and outside sponsorships as endowment investment earnings are not sufficient to fund such large numbers of grant recipients.  

The Foundation depends upon the support of the ARES Fellows and other Foundation contributors. Each ARES Fellow currently contributes $250 per year, each ARES Distinguished Fellow contributes $500 per year, and each Benefactor contributes $1000 per year. In addition, each Endowed Doctoral Sponsor contributed $10,000 to the Foundation.  An Endowed Doctoral Sponsorship enables annual funding for a doctoral candidate to travel to the ARES Annual Meetings to present his/her research. A $25,000 contribution endows an International Scholar Sponsorship which will annually provide travel funding for a scholar from a Less Developed Country to present his/her research at the ARES Meeting. Individuals who endow a Sponsorship are lifetime Fellows and are invited to offer their views on the direction of the Foundation at the annual Foundation Board Meeting.

Corporations and foundations are encouraged to directly sponsor a graduate student or an overseas scholar. Student sponsorships are $1500/year. An overseas scholar can be funded for $2500/year. Please contact Marc Louargand for additional sponsorship opportunities.

If you are not contributing to the James R. Webb ARES Foundation, we encourage you to consider doing so. Your gift will help a scholar immediately. As contributions grow, the Foundation will help more doctoral students and international scholars.