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About Us

The Ball Foundation was established in 1975 by G. Carl Ball and his wife Vivian Elledge Ball. The foundation's mission is to discover and develop human potential. This mission is pursued through the foundation's two major programs: Career Vision and Education Initiatives.

Career Vision is the premier developer of aptitude-based career products in the country. Since 1975, the foundation has researched and developed measures of abilities, resulting in the Ball Aptitude Battery, and has used these measures to help people increase their probability of professional success and satisfaction. The program promotes self-knowledge as essential to effective career management. In 1989, the foundation began offering comprehensive career assessment and counseling services. Since that time, Career Vision has extended these services to secondary and college students in school-wide testing programs.

Beginning in the early 1990s, the foundation began to expand its focus to K-12 education. Education Initiatives began by developing a shared decision-making model and commissioning two research reports. The foundation also started three charter schools in Illinois and Arizona. Education Initiatives' current mission is to partner with school districts to help them become highly productive educational systems so that all students achieve to their full potential and develop a lifelong enthusiasm for learning. The foundation is committed to research and development and the dissemination of its learnings to the larger educational community.

About the Founders

G. Carl Ball is past President and Chairman of the Board of Geo. J. Ball, Inc., a horticultural company headquartered in West Chicago, Illinois. He has a longstanding interest in career development and education, having served on the boards of the Illinois Institute of Technology, West; the Illinois Math and Science Academy; the Corridor Partnership for Excellence in Education; and the National Academy of Science's Committee on the Federal Role in Education Research.

Vivian Elledge Ball was President of the foundation and served on its board as well as the board of Geo. J. Ball, Inc. She was named Glen Ellyn, Illinois "Citizen of the Year" in 1997 and served on the Village Architectural Review Commission for more than 25 years. The hundreds of trees that line Glen Ellyn's downtown parkways as well as the foundation's programs are living legacies of her spirit and commitment.