Posted on April 14, 2012

Community Foundation Update (4/14/12)

California

The Silicon Valley Community Foundation has announced plans to open satellite offices in San Francisco and San Jose to serve donors whose philanthropic interests are both local and global. Celebrating its fifth anniversary, the foundation also announced the release of a revised vision/mission statement that highlights its focus on philanthropy and strengthening community.

Georgia

The Community Foundation for the Central Savannah River Area has announced that it will host informational sessions for nonprofits serving Burke, Columbia, McDuffie, Richmond, Aiken, and Edgefield counties interested in applying for funds through its unrestricted grants program, the Augusta Chronicle reports. The sessions will be held on April 26 and April 30 at Serotta, Maddocks, Evans & Company.

Hawaii

The Hawaii Community Foundation has announced that it will offer free webcasts of three Pillars of Peace Hawaii events featuring Tenzin Gyatso, the fourteenth Dalai Lama. The events, to be offered via livestream on April 14 and 15, include a talk for high school and college students focused on encouraging compassionate behavior, a panel discussion with local leaders on Native Hawaiian culture, and a presentation for the general public about the role of peace and compassion in daily life.

Iowa

The Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation has announced that Iowa governor Terry Branstad signed a proclamation honoring its work in response to the extensive flooding that hit the Cedar Rapids area in 2008. In total, the foundation awarded more than $14 million in flood-related grants to more than three hundred organizations. Its commitment to serving area residents following the natural disaster also were recognized recently by the Association of Fundraising Professionals, which awarded the foundation its International Award for Outstanding Foundation.

Michigan

The Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation's Ypsilanti Community Fund has received nearly $600,000 in "forgotten" funds — money in a local bank account that was dedicated to the health care needs of Ypsilanti residents and was left untouched for several years — to create a new endowment that will support local nonprofits, AnnArbor.com reports. Cheryl Elliot, CEO of the foundation, told AnnArbor.com that it plans to distribute $25,000 in grant funds over the next two years to organizations working to address health issues in the area, including obesity, higher than average asthma rates, and low birth weights. The rest of the funds will be dispersed at the foundation's discretion.

Minnesota

The Minneapolis Foundation has named Luz Maria Frias, director of the city of St. Paul's Human Rights and Equal Economic Opportunity Department, as its new vice president of community philanthropy.

New York

The New York Community Trust has announced new guidelines for its social work grantmaking program, which seeks to make the social work profession more effective in addressing systemic problems by integrating education and research into practice. Under its new strategy, the trust will support projects that build an evidence base for social work intervention; introduce innovations in the classroom and the field and connect training and research to communities; make macro practice a priority and improve training in policy, management, and leadership; and support research that helps social workers improve practice and addresses larger social issues.

Rhode Island

The Rhode Island Foundation has announced the winners of its inaugural Rhode Island Innovation Fellowship, which provides $300,000 over three years for the development of innovative ideas that have the potential to improve any area of life in Rhode Island. Chosen from a pool of over four hundred applicants, the 2012 fellows are Soren Ryherd, who will work to execute his Retail Project, which aims to establish sustainable brick-and-mortar retail stores in Rhode Island by first creating them as profitable online businesses; and Allan Tear, who will use new and existing national and local partnerships to "ignite an explosion of new ventures in Rhode Island's unique but under-leveraged economic clusters."

Virginia

The Arlington Community Foundation has announced the creation of a $1 million fund to assist homeless individuals in the region. The 100 Homes Campaign Fund — which includes $500,000 raised during a recent fundraising event led by John G. Shooshan of the Shooshan Company and a $500,000 matching gift from Arlington County — will operate as part of the statewide 1,000 Homes for 1,000 Virginians Campaign, an initiative of the national 100,000 Homes Campaign that is designed to get vulnerable and long-term homeless individuals into permanent, supportive housing.