Philanthropy Front and Center-Cleveland

News Roundup: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Arts Commission of Greater Toledo, Don and Alice Noble Foundation

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced (July 16, 2009) the last of three rounds of Opportunity Online grants, which will help public libraries in eleven states to upgrade hardware and add new public workstations. Ohio's grants will be administered and managed through the State Library of Ohio. Despite the fact that most libraries are typically the only provider of free Internet access in their communities (73 percent), many do not have adequate funding to maintain quality computer and Internet services, and to meet growing community demand for these technology tools. Nick Slone, a librarian at Garnet A. Wilson Public Library in Waverly, OH, which is eligible for the grants, said, “A rising unemployment rate in our county has stimulated even more demand for the technology resources at our library. Many people in our community without Internet access elsewhere now come to the library regularly—even daily—to take courses and search for jobs online. If it weren’t for the library, these people would simply not be able to use the Internet as a tool to find new opportunities in this tough economy.”  Read more>>

The Toledo Blade reported (July 10, 2009) that the Arts Commission of Greater Toledo has been awarded $250,000 in stimulus funding, part of $30 million disbursed by the National Endowment for the Arts. The Commission will keep $50,000, using it in part to hire teens for a summer program. The remaining $200,000 will be applied for by local arts and culture organizations that have lost staff or are at risk of losing staff, and will be administered in part by the Toledo Community Foundation. Read more>>

The Daily Record reported (July 9, 2009) that a $500,000 grant is in place to begin the development of Oak Hill Park from land gifted to the city of Wooster by the Don and Alice Noble Foundation. The 100-acre property is valued at $1.5 million and is being designed to have 1.7 miles of recreation trails and plantings for year-round interest. Read more>>

Foundations, Living Cities Look to Foreclosure Crisis

The Wall Street Journal reported February 28 that some of the nation's wealthiest philanthropies are turning their attention to the growing foreclosure crisis, which some fear could usher in the type of urban blight that devastated pockets of American cities in the 1970s and 1980s.

The Ford Foundation, which has about $12.8 billion in assets, is looking to fund programs aimed at reducing the number of homes that wind up in foreclosure, perhaps by making it easier for homeowners to get mortgages modified.

Living Cities, a consortium of major foundations and financial institutions working to revive inner cities, is considering funding programs to keep borrowers in their homes and get abandoned properties back into use.

Among projects the consortium is considering funding is one proposed by nonprofits and local governments in Cleveland. It would aim to acquire 450 foreclosed properties in the area at a cost of roughly $21 million, and either rehabilitate them as homes or rental units, or demolish them to make way for parks and other uses. Cuyahoga County, Ohio, which includes Cleveland and its suburbs, had nearly 15,000 foreclosures in 2007, according to Mark Wiseman, director of the Cuyahoga County Foreclosure Prevention Program.

Source:  Foundations Weigh How to Allay Foreclosures, Ruth Simon, Wall Street Journal, February 28, 2008