The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is a private, independent grantmaking institution. It is most widely known for its significant support of the Public Broadcasting System and for the MacArthur Fellowship Program, also known as the "genius awards". It was founded by John D. MacArthur.
Dr. John Corbally was the first president of the foundation, serving from 1980 till 1989.
MacArthur Fellowship
Main category: MacArthur Fellows
The MacArthur Fellowship (sometimes nicknamed the "genius grant") 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". As of 2002, the monetary award consists of an unrestricted grant of $100,000 per year, issued quarterly for five years.
Current recipients
List of MacArthur Fellows organized by terms of their awards.
People are nominated anonymously, by a body of nominators who submit recommendations to a small selection committee of about a dozen people, also anonymous.
Most new MacArthur Fellows first learn that they have even been considered when they receive the congratulatory phone call.
The grant was featured on an episode of the television show Family Guy; the main character, Peter Griffin, attempted to become a MacArthur Fellow but scored so low on the test that he was deemed mentally retarded.
The MacArthur award, potentially the largest of those that would lose their exempted status, seeks to stimulate further innovative activity in persons who have already demonstrated exceptional creativity by freeing them from some fiscal constraints that their income, or their need to earn an income, might place on them.
MacArthur Fellowships vary from $128,000 to $300,000, paid out over five years, depending on the age of the recipient; recipients over age 65 at the time of the award receive the most money.
The Reagan administration's reasoning in initially proposing to tax these prizes was not only to simplify tax law but also to take advantage of the fact that receipt of a monetary award would increase a citizen's ability to pay taxes in much the same way that winning a lottery would.
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