Community Foundation Update for May 2010

Each month we post examples of the terrific work being done by community foundations in communitites large and small across the nation.

Art/ literature

• The Cleveland Foundation has announced the winners of the seventy-fifth annual Anisfield-Wolf Book Prize. Pakistani novelist Kamila Shamsie won in the fiction category for Burnt Shadows, nonfiction writer William Julius Wilson was recognized for More Than Just Race: Being Black and Poor in the Inner City, and Elizabeth Alexander (poetry) and Oprah Winfrey were honored with lifetime achievement prizes. The foundation has administered the prizes, which represent the only juried American literary competition devoted to recognizing books that have made an important contribution to society's understanding of racism and the diversity of human cultures, since 1963.
• The Philadelphia Foundation has announced the opening of its new exhibit, "See Change: Photographs From the Leeway Foundation," at the Community Gallery. The exhibit, features artwork created by women and transgender artists who create art for social change and have received Leeway Foundation grants and awards.

Community development / parks

• The San Diego Foundation has announced that it is working with the Mission Bay Park Endowment Fund, the La Jolla Community Foundation, and San Diego Council members to assure the preservation of the fire pits in the city of San Diego for the next fiscal year.
• The Dayton Foundation and the City of Kettering announced the grand opening of Kettering's Pondview Park. Described as the first self-guided environmental park in Ohio designed for people of all abilities to experience and learn about nature, the park received a 2007 grant of $426,000 from the foundation to enhance access and educational experiences for individuals with disabilities.

Poverty

• The Portland-based Oregon Community Foundation made 8 grants totaling $786,000 from to Oregon nonprofits working to reduce poverty among people with low incomes through asset- and wealth-building strategies. Made possible by an initial Northwest Area Foundation grant to OCF, the eight grants will fund minority business development, individual development account savings programs, increased access to credit and small business loans, and green jobs training opportunities. Recipients include the Oregon Microenterprise Network, ShoreBank Enterprise Cascadia, the Portland Development Commission, the Community and Shelter Assistance Corporation of Oregon, the Umpqua Community Development Corporation, the Native American Youth and Family Center, Portland Community Reinvestment Initiatives, and Entrepreneurial Development Services.

General grant making

• The Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham made grants totaling $764,000, to arts organizations, in support of education, to environmental groups, to health organizations, human services, for community support initiatives, and $75,000 for other initiatives. Recipients include the Cultural Alliance of Greater Birmingham, Pleasant Mount Baptist Church, and the Middle Alabama Agency on Aging.
• The Charlotte-based Foundation for the Carolinas made grants totaling $586,150 through its Critical Need Response FundCreated in 2008 in response to the economic downturn, the fund has distributed nearly $4 million to assist the needy.

How CFs are raising endowments / funds

• The Rasmuson Foundation has announced that it will match $50,000 in new contributions pledged to the Petersburg Community Foundation. Established earlier this decade as an affiliate of the Anchorage-based Alaska Community Foundation, PCF has raised approximately $200,000 to help improve the lives of vulnerable populations and strengthen area recreation and safety programs.
• The Maine Community Foundation has announced that all nineteen of its 25/25 Nonprofit Endowment Challenge partners have met their $25,000 fundraising match requirement. The challenge, in which MCF awarded challenge grants to nonprofits in Oxford, Franklin, Somerset, Piscataquis, Aroostook, Washington, and Hancock counties to establish permanent endowments or expand existing endowments, was launched in 2008 to help celebrate the foundation's twenty-fifth anniversary.
• The Community Foundation of Greater Memphis ended its fiscal year on April 30 with $290 million — up from $247 million the prior year, due primarily to yearly returns of 33.8 percent on its balanced fund and 49.9 percent on its equity fund.

Youth

• The Fingerprints Youth Museum has received grants totaling $12,000 from the Community Foundation Serving Riverside and San Bernardino Counties and Southern California Edison to support exhibits designed to help parents and children learn how to combat childhood obesity.

Disaster funds / oil spill

• The Imperial Valley Community Foundation created a Regional Disaster Fund to raise funds and assist recovery efforts in the Imperial Valley, which experienced a magnitude 7.2 earthquake in April that adversely affected hundreds of families and thousands of residents. The fund is working to raise $1 million, which will be awarded to organizations that provide disaster relief services in the area.
• The Greater New Orleans Foundation announced a $50,000 grant to the Seedco Financial Southeast Louisiana Fisheries Assistance Center in Belle Chasse — the first grant from the Gulf Coast Oil Spill Fund — to support critical services for fishermen affected by the worst oil spill in U.S. history. In the coastal parishes of Louisiana most affected by the oil spill, there are more than 6,400 licensed commercial fishers, many of whose families have been fishing for generations. More than four hundred clients have accessed the center's services because of the oil spill and additional clients are seeking support every day.
• The Gulf Coast Community Foundation of Venice announced a $60,000 grant to help Mote Marine Laboratory respond to potential impacts from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster. Mote will use the grant to begin its efforts in five areas: sampling of water, sediments, bottom-dwelling organisms, and sea grass; mollusk sampling; patrolling of coastal areas by underwater robots; phytoplankton sampling; and creating a detailed oil response plan that covers a number of different scenarios.
• A benefit concert for flood relief raised more than $1.8 million for the Nashville-based Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee, Musicians included Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Tina McBride, Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood, Lynyrd Skynyrd.
• The Florence-based Eastern Carolina Community Foundation has established the Pee Dee Disaster Relief Fund to help victims of the recent Darlington tornado and future natural disasters, SC Now reports. The fund will complement the work of other area nonprofits, which it will support with grants across county and jurisdictional lines.

Parenting

• The Oregon Community Foundation launched of the Oregon Parenting Education Collaborative, a multiyear initiative designed to support parenting education programs in the state. Funders include OCF, the Meyer Memorial Trust, and the Whipple Fund and Crane Creek Fund of OCF. The collaborative will support parents in their role as children's first and most important teachers by helping communities build stronger, more coordinated parenting education services. Grants of $80,000 to $90,000 per year will support regional parenting education "hubs"

New CF success!

• In its first year the Laguna Beach Community Foundation awarded $80,000 in grants to twenty organizationsThe awards, which ranged from $1,000 to $10,000, included several for general operating support rather than specific program support. Over the next three years, the foundation hopes to award $1 million to local nonprofit groups.

Scholarships

• The Santa Barbara Foundation announced the recipients several scholarships. One scholarship gives students $2,000 as well as $500 to give to a charity of their choice.
• The Fairfield Community Foundation has awarded more than $85,000 in scholarships ranging from $250 to $2,500 this spring. The foundation also added three $1,000 scholarships this year: the Martha M. Tipton Memorial Scholarship; the AA Plumbing Go Green, for a student interested in enrolling in trade school; and the Fairfield Women Scholarship.

Gay Field of Interest Fund established in Chicago

• The Chicago Community Trust has announced a grant of $500,000 and a $200,000 challenge and operating grant from the Elizabeth Morse Charitable Trust to establish the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Community Fund. The fund, which will become operational when a minimum of $1 million is raised, will provide support for a broad range of needs related to improving the quality of life for LGBT individuals and their families in the Chicago region. Fundraising will be led by a steering committee whose twelve members have committed to raising or giving at least $60,000 over three years.

Civic engagement field of interest fund

• The Charlotte Mecklenburg Community Foundation’s  Front Porch Grants program supports neighborhood associations, social clubs, school groups, and other civic organizations. Named to honor everyday places where people can meet and begin to build relationships, the fund provides up to $2,500 to support small-scale gatherings that foster the exchange of ideas, experiences, and/or actions.

Environment

• The Dayton Foundation runs Greater Dayton Partners for the Environment. An initiative launched by the foundation in 2009, Greater Dayton Partners is an alliance of environmental, government and civic organizations, and public and private educational institutions working to protect, restore, preserve, and promote the greater Dayton region's natural resources.
• Consider Biking has announced a three-year grant of $295,451 from the Columbus Foundation to help launch its "2 by 2012" campaign to increase and incentivize the use of active bicycle transportation in the central Ohio region. The goal of the campaign is to get as many citizens as possible to bike to work two days per week by 2012, which is the city's bicentennial. Columbus is home to approximately five thousand bike commuters; Consider Biking hopes to more than double that figure in time for the bicentennial celebration.