The Fund for the Endowment of the Diplomatic Reception Rooms
The Fund has evolved into a public-private partnership whereby donations are invested in the private sector while government, by law, must invest in Treasury securities. As a public organization, the Fund is the only 501(c)3 designated to finance projects in the Diplomatic Reception Rooms and is able to uniquely support the Office of Fine Arts.
The Fund for the Endowment of the Diplomatic Reception Rooms at the U.S. Department of State was created in 1982 at the request of the Rooms’ founding curator Clement Conger, whose vision it was to turn the sterile modern reception areas at the top of the new Harry S. Truman building into architectural re-creations of rooms from America’s colonial and Federal past.
The Fund was launched under the leadership of Leonard Marks and Albert H. Small, who served as Treasurer until his death in 2021, and has been chaired by the Honorable Jane Sloat Ritchie since 2007. She, along with board members and the support of an esteemed Honorary Board, continues the important work of ensuring that the generosity of American citizens supports, sustains, and maintains the Diplomatic Reception Rooms.
The Board
Members of the Board
The Honorable Jane Sloat Ritchie, Chair
Elizabeth B. Roberts, Vice Chair
Alan P. Dye, Secretary
Carl Noble Raether, CFO
Kathryn Donaldson Baker
Shannon Fairbanks
Frederic R. Kellogg
Martha Dippell Korengold
The Honorable John J. Medveckis
Sharon Leininger Nemeroff
Kathleen F. Patterson
The Honorable Mary Matthews Raether
Amanda Crawford Stifel