Innovations in Community Foundations

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.

News from Community Foundations across the US

The diversity and impact of our sister organizations is updated each month on this web site. See why we think the Community Foudnaiton fo Utah is a must for our state as well!

Scholarships

-         The Hartford Foundation for Public Giving will offer scholarships over three years to Hartford-area high school seniors who pursue an education and job training at a community college;

Endowment growth

-         The Lexington Area Community Foundation, an affiliate of the Charlotte-based Foundation for the Carolinas, successfully met its goal of growing its endowment by more than $11,000.

-         The Women's Fund of Central Indiana, a special-interest fund of the Indianapolis-based Central Indiana Community Foundation, has successfully completed a campaign to raise $7 million for its endowment.. The fund focuses its giving in three areas: access to quality child care, eliminating domestic violence, and building sufficient incomes for women.

-         The Providence-based Rhode Island Foundation has announced that Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and the RIGHA Foundation will transfer their grantmaking operations to the community foundation and establish a permanent endowment, the RIGHA Foundation Fund. The $1.6 million fund will become a permanent endowment supporting the foundation's efforts to promote the development of a successful and effective primary healthcare system in the state. In addition, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, which acquired RIGHA in 1990, will make annual payments to the RIGHA Foundation Fund at the Rhode Island Foundation.

Grant making

-         The Dallas Community Foundation has awarded grants totaling $50,000 to eighteen organizations.

-         The Vermont Community Foundation has announced $281,250 in grants to sixty organizations.

-         As part of the second-annual Martin County Community Foundation Giving Day, seventy-four local organizations helped raise a total of nearly $200,000

-         The Denver Foundation has announced eighty-three grants totaling $1.3 million.

Disaster relief / Recession based programs

-         The Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation awarded $205,000 in grants from its Flood 2008 Fund, The foundation has awarded $5.5 million to seventy-six flood-affected nonprofits, nearly half of which provided direct support to individuals and families.

-         The St. Paul-based Bush Foundation met with leaders of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe along with representatives from the Pierre-based South Dakota Foundation, the Northwest Area Foundation, Native Americans in Philanthropy, and the University of South Dakota to recognize the tribe's leadership after a devastating January ice storm. Gifts made through SDCF and NAP totaled more than $400,000, which the tribe used to meet food, shelter, and other urgent needs in the wake of the storm.

-         As part of its commitment to address the foreclosure crisis in the Chicago region, the Chicago Community Trust, in partnership with Regional Home Ownership Preservation Initiative, announced that it is accepting applications from nonprofit agencies interested in participating in community outreach. The recently launched Cook County Mortgage Foreclosure Mediation Program, which will provide free housing counseling and legal services to Cook County homeowners and families in foreclosure, is designed to help homeowners resolve their mortgage cases in the most timely and respectful manner possible.

Diversity

-         The Cleveland Foundation’s African American Philanthropy Committee hosted a summit designed to educate, encourage, and inspire philanthropy in the African American community.

-         The Silicon Valley Community Foundation is partnering with Voto Latino, a civic engagement group for young Latinos, to encourage Latinos and Asian Americans to participate in the census. The foundation helped fund the local launch of the national Be Counted, Represent! campaign, which uses online, cell phone, and traditional media to reach youth between the ages of 18 and 34, a cohort that historically has been undercounted in the census. In exchange for signing up with Voto Latino, users will receive twenty-five free songs from major recording artists courtesy of iTunes. On its first day of operation, two hundred and fifty registrations were received.

Environment

-         The Hartford Foundation for Public Giving announced a $25,000 grant to help complete a major wetlands restoration project

-         The Oshkosh Area Community Foundation announced an effort to plant a thousand trees in Oshkosh this spring. The plantings are funded in part by a grant from the Taking Root Fund of the foundation and gifts from individual contributors.

Nonprofit leadership

-         The Chicago Community Trust is accepting applications for its annual fellowship program for emerging and experienced nonprofit and public-sector leaders. Up to ten fellows will be selected for the year-long program, and receive grants between $30,000 $60,000.

Capacity building / Helping nonprofits in economic trouble

-         The Community Foundation of the Fox River Valley has announced a $10,000 grant to the Aurora Historical Society to help the society remain open. To help ensure its future, the society is exploring ways to make history more relevant to members of the community while seeking to engage a larger audience with an expanded Web presence, better use of technology, and a variety of collaborative ventures.

Seniors

-         The New York Community Trust will match $500,000 in grants made by Atlantic Philanthropies to programs and organizations working to help seniors become more involved in their communities. Recipients include United Neighborhood Houses of New York, Isabella Geriatric Center, the Myrtle Avenue Commercial Revitalization and Development Project, and United Community Centers.

Education/ Educators

-         The Community Foundation of Sarasota County has announced $82,582 in grants from its Leslie and Margaret Weller Fund for Teacher Mini-Grants. Individual teachers will receive awards ranging from $1,600 to $5,000 to enhance their curriculum with special arts projects in disciplines such as poetry, music, writing, fine art, and filmmaking, as well as interdisciplinary science and technology projects.

Disability

-         The Aurora-based Community Foundation of the Fox River Valley has awarded more than $10,000 to Marianjoy Rehabilitation Hospital for its Assistive Technology Institute, which provides patients with the opportunity to maximize their overall function and independence through the use of technology.

Nonprofit Sector Viability Collaboration (Maine CF)

This report from the Maine Community Foundation describes the Nonprofit Sector Viability Collaboration's program to help nonprofits clarify goals, cope with financial challenges, and adopt strategies to weather the recession through self-assessment, viability workshops, and consulting assistance.

Community Foundation Innovation Competition

The Triangle Community Foundation in Durham NC is sponsoring a competition pretty similar t what the CF of Utah is contemplating!

Durham, N.C. – Triangle Community Foundation announced today that it will launch an annual event, What Matters, for Triangle leaders to explore topics critical to our region's success. In conjunction with the event, the Foundation will present the What Matters Innovation Award to an organization actively engaged in that year's theme. The theme for 2010 is "A Diverse and Engaged Community."

The winner will be determined through an online voting process. The Foundation will select the top 10 applicants, who will be asked to submit a video to YouTube for the community to vote on. Online voting opens at www.trianglecf.org April 21 and will close on April 28.

How cool!

CF in MI Fund SE (Grand Rapids)

A $75,000 grant from the Grand Rapids Community Foundation for the FastTrac initiative will provide training to 100 potential Grand Rapids entrepreneurs over the next year. The money will go to the Michigan Small Business and Technology Development Center, Region 7, which is housed at Grand Valley State University.

Communty Foundations Doing well (NPQ)

Amidst all the news of foundations—both private foundations and public foundations like community foundations—bemoaning their declining assets and grant distributions, the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation has a different story to tell. According to a foundation report, "Most foundations saw as much as a 10 percent drop in funding and we were the opposite. In fact, the money we gave in grants is the most we've ever been able to give." Donations to the foundation increased one-third over 2008 to $8.9 million, contrary to what the community foundation anticipated. The bulk of the grant distributions and income growth appears to have been in donor-advised funds. The Progress reports new funds established by donors in 2009 including the "Gateway Fund" of Jay and Barbara Kessler to support patients and families at the University of Virginia's liver transplant center. Of the $5.7 million in foundation grant distributions, the Progress says that $280,000 came from the foundation's own unrestricted funds. That means that the growth in this community foundation, perhaps in many, is in the donor-advised fund area, which is not surprising. Other named and visible funds at the community foundation include Bama Works identified with the Dave Matthews Band (which gave away $468,000 in 2009) and DAFs established to benefit the Martha Jefferson Hospital and scholarships for students at the Fluvanna County High School. Of course, other community foundations depending on the same DAF model have not fared nearly as well as the Charlottesville community foundation.—Rick Cohen

Boston Indicators Update (Boston CF)

We've blogged about the important work being done by the Boston Foundation - and how much we'd love to see a similar effort here. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it has been investigating how we might provide useable - and understandable - indicators for Utah. This report really shows the value.

A Great Reckoning: Healing a Growing Divide: A Summary of the Boston Indicators Report 2009 by the Boston Foundation

Summarizes the Boston Indicators Project's findings on the city's economic, social, and technological progress in civic vitality, cultural life and the arts, economy, education, environment, health, housing, public safety, technology, and transportation.

Innovations from Community Foundations (November)

Here are some of the latest innovations from community foundations across the nation:

Data aggregation / sharing

• The Community Foundation of Central Florida has a new Web site with details about the organizations it funds, including information on their management, governance, programs, and an in-depth look at finances. The searchable site includes data from more than three hundred area organizations. "
• The Greater Milwaukee Foundation has announced the launch of a new program called Vital Signs, which provides a single online location where users can find data on six different measurements of the region's economic health: home foreclosures, unemployment, food stamp enrollment, W-2 cases, calls for food assistance, and calls for shelter. Data are collected and analyzed monthly by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Employment and Training Institute and the information is then posted on the foundation's Web site. In addition to providing data, the site also provides in-depth analysis on one key topic each month through interviews with local experts.

Sample gifts TO CFS

• The Community Foundation of Northeast Iowa has received nearly $76,000 from the estate of Jean Parker, the Waterloo Courier reports.
• The Norwalk-based Fairfield County Community Foundation has announced a $1 million endowment gift from two anonymous to support Domus, which works to help struggling young people in the Stamford region turn their lives around through its educational, residential, and community programs. The organization hopes to expand the endowment to at least $20 million to help secure its long-term sustainability.
• The Yakima Valley Community Foundation has awarded grants totaling $406,000 to organizations working in the areas of human services, arts, and education, the Yakima Herald-Republic reports. Grants ranging from $2,000 to $50,000 were awarded to eighteen organizations, including Triumph Treatment Services, Nuestra Casa, and the Kittitas Environmental Education Network.

Ideas of how agencies are using assets / size of CFs

• The St. Joseph-based Berrien Community Foundation gave grants totaling more than $155,000 to organizations working in the areas of arts and culture, child development, education, and health.
• The Flagstaff Community Foundation, an affiliate of the Arizona Community Foundation, has awarded a hundred grants totaling more than $600,000 to local organizations, including the Artist's Coalition of Flagstaff, the Alliance for Children's Early Success, the Flagstaff Festival of Science, and Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder of Northern Arizona.
• The Irvine-based Orange County Community Foundation has announced that during 2009 it surpassed the $150 million mark in grantmaking — just two years after topping $100 million. At an event celebrating its twenty-year history, the foundation honored its founder and executive director emeritus Judy Swayne, bestowing her with the foundation's 2009 Excellence in Philanthropy Lifetime Achievement Award. At the same time, Swayne and her husband announced that they were donating $500,000 to establish permanent endowments to support the environment and the arts.
• The Honolulu-based Hawaii Community Foundation has awarded a grant of more than $27,000 to help the Aloha House, Maui Youth & Family Services, and Malama Family Recovery Center merge technology systems in order to reduce administrative costs. By establishing a common server, the organizations hope to increase their efficiency. The grant was awarded by the Gwenfread Elaine Allen Fund of the foundation.
• The Santa Barbara Foundation has announced grants from the Orfalea Foundations totaling $225,000 to nonprofits that provide afterschool programs for teens.

Operations

• The Maine Community Foundation has announced that new guidelines for its community building grant program will go into effect in 2010. In addition to modifying its application form, the foundation has raised the maximum grant award from $7,500 to $10,000 and will be instituting new capacity-building grant opportunities.

Recession oriented activites

• The Philadelphia Foundation has announced the launch of the Generous Philadelphia Campaign, which will match up to $250,000 in donations to the foundation's Basic Needs Fund through the end of the year. The fund provides support to agencies working to help those most affected by the recession by providing food, housing, transportation, clothing, and help with utility expenses.

Aging

• The Maine Community Foundation has announced a new program designed to offer training in grassroots leadership and smart growth approaches to community development and environmental stewardship to people age 50 and older. A collaborative project with the University of Maine's Center on Aging, the Encore Leadership Corps is designed to give participants the support and skills they need to positively impact the health of their communities.

Collaboration with United Way

• The Charlotte-based Foundation for the Carolinas has announced that its Charlotte Mecklenburg Community Foundation affiliate has awarded $500,000 to the Community Catalyst Fund. Established in October in partnership with the United Way of Central Carolinas and the Arts & Science Council, the fund works to strengthen local nonprofits and enhance their ability to meet increased demand for services in a time of diminished funding.
• The Nashville-based Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee has announced that NoVo Foundation co-chair Jennifer Buffett will address more than six hundred women at its twelfth-annual Power of the Purse luncheon on April 23, 2010. The luncheon benefits the community foundation's Women's Fund, which awards grants to organizations serving women and girls in need in the region.

Not all easy going for CFs

After five years of rising assets and giving, the Community Foundation of Santa Cruz County expects to see its grantmaking decline by as much as 17 percent in 2009. Like most endowments with equity investments, the foundation saw the value of its assets fall in 2008 — in its case, to $38.5 million at the end of the year, down from a peak of $45 million. And though the foundation, which awards roughly half its grants at the end of the calendar year, has seen the value of its assets climb back to $42 million over the last eight months, it has nevertheless cut its spending, closing its office and putting its eleven paid staff members on unpaid leave during Thanksgiving week.

Nebraska CF challenge from Ford

The Lincoln-based Nebraska Community Foundation received a $1 million challenge grant from the Ford Foundation to boost its endowment and build its staff . To secure the gift, the organization must raise an additional $3 million from Nebraska-connected donors by the end of 2010. More than $1 million has already been committed toward its long-term goal of building a $12 million endowment.

For the past ten years, the organization has taught strategies related to entrepreneurship and fostering economic development through philanthropy. Since the foundation was founded in 1993, more than 50,000 contributions have been made to community funds administered by the foundation and more than $96 million has been awarded to charities and community groups in Nebraska.

The foundation is one of five organizations nationwide to receive one of the Ford grants.

New programs from Community Foundations

Community Foundations large and small across the nation are creating and supporting innovative responses to some of their community's most complex public problems. These solutions involve donors, business leaders, government, other foundations, United Ways and government. But they all engage people willing to work together to better their communities. We share these ideas to highlight the kinds of programs we are committed to creating at the Community Foundation of Utah -- with your help.

These are just a few examples.

Response to recession

-        The Columbus Foundation " Fund for Financial Restructuring" provides support for organizations assessing strategic partnerships, rethinking and developing their business model and financial planning, and establishing new organizational structures, systems, and operations to bolster mission-critical activities and boost visibility.

Housing

-        Marin Community Foundation "Affordable Housing Initiative" developed in conjunction with affordable housing developers, advocates, and community agencies, will support strategies such as encouraging effective zoning changes and turning foreclosed homes into affordable housing options.

Community development

-        The Costa Mesa Community Foundation supported a series of summer concerts and a city-run maintenance program which the city council had previously voted to eliminate.

Community Dialogue and problem solving

-        The Dayton Foundation "Greater Dayton Conservation Collaborative" brings together local conservation organizations to explore opportunities to collaborate in preserving the region's natural resources.

Field of Interest or other Special funds

Field of Interest funds help donors join together for greater impact. Our first fund is in the area of social entrepreneurship.

-        The Environmental Funders Network, a joint project of the Maine Community Foundation and the Maine Philanthropy Center, gave $523,000 to eight organizations through its collaborative funding initiative, From Vision to Action: A Commitment to Maine's Quality of Place.

Natural Disaster

-        The Los Angeles-based California Community Foundation has announced a $150,000 grant to support immediate relief in the wake of the wildfire that has ravaged parts of Angeles National Forest.

 

Community foundations get standards board

The Council on Foundations has created a new organization to administer the national standards developed in 2000 that promote the self-regulation of U.S. community foundations. The Community Foundations National Standards Board will serve as the accrediting organization for community foundations, which are urged to comply with a series of benchmarks in areas including grantmaking, donor relations, resource development , and governance. Read full text.

Two foundations establish community relief fund

The Minnesota Community Foundation and The St. Paul Foundation have put $2 million into a new Community Economic Relief fund to help those suffering through the hard economic times. They say they're funding "strategic projects with specific nonprofits that have capacity to reach thousands of people who are desperately in need of support." Read full text.

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.