Posted on March 30, 2012

Cleveland Foundation Awards $16.2 Million in First-Quarter Grants

The Cleveland Foundation has announced first-quarter grants totaling $16.2 million to nonprofits in the greater Cleveland region working in a range of areas, including education reform, youth development, and economic transformation.

Grant recipients include Ideastream, which was awarded $1 million to expand health programming on WCPN and WVIZ; BioEnterprise Corp., which received $750,000 for continued development of the Health Tech Corridor and the region's biomedical industry; the Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD), which was awarded $700,000 in additional support for the creation of a portfolio of new and innovative schools strategies; and the Positive Education Program, which received $200,000 to relocate a day treatment center from its current location in Lakewood to the former Margaret Ireland Elementary School in Cleveland to better serve the most behaviorally challenged students in CMSD.

The foundation also awarded two grants in support of MyCom (My Commitment, My Community), a youth development initiative serving Cuyahoga County children of all ages, including $825,000 to the Neighborhood Leadership Institute to develop a specialized neighborhood engagement strategy for each of the eight MyCom inner city neighborhoods; and $500,000 to Youth Opportunities Unlimited for a summer jobs program for youth in participating neighborhoods.

In addition, the foundation awarded $1.75 million in continued support to Case Western Reserve University for its Great Lakes Energy Institute, which focuses on research and education initiatives to support a transition to sustainable energy. "The Cleveland Foundation's support of the Great Lakes Energy Institute goes back to 2007," said Cleveland Foundation executive vice president Robert Eckardt. "Our initial grant enabled the creation and launch of GLEI. We recognize the importance of the institute's role as a national leader in developing new energy technology and growing the region's economy."