Philanthropy Front and Center-Cleveland

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Launches Collaborative Effort to Improve College Graduation Rates

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced (November 5, 2009) $4 million in grants to the National League of Cities' Institute for Youth, Education and Families, and seven cities to boost college graduation rates by better coordinating the services that colleges, schools and communities provide to students.

The grants will help cities and colleges in New York, Florida, Arizona, Ohio, and California dramatically increase the number of young people who earn a degree beyond high school. These grants recognize that successfully reaching that goal will require education, business, and civic leaders working together to coordinate and streamline the guidance and services young people need to get into, and through, college.

Enrollment at the nation's 1,200 community colleges is at an all-time high, yet two-thirds of those attending will not graduate within three years. Often it's not a question of effort. Rather, these students face multiple challenges: Many are not academically ready for college-level work; they juggle school and family responsibilities; and many must work full time while attending classes. Because the help that students need to overcome these obstacles comes from a range of agencies, it is critical to better understand how to coordinate assistance.

The grants just announced will support nine-month collaborative planning efforts in each seven cities. The foundation is considering investing additional money in 2010 to support the implementation and expansion of the most promising ideas that result from this planning.

One of seven community colleges and city agencies that will receive the grants, Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio was awarded $250,000 to strengthen partnerships, services, education, training, and data systems to help low-income youth (ages 16-26) earn postsecondary credentials. Led by Sinclair Community College in collaboration with the City of Dayton, Montgomery County, and Dayton Public Schools, the planning process will build upon the existing, strong cross-sectional collaboration and past successes with disaffected youth. Dayton's project is unique among the other participating cities in its involvement of the Montgomery County Administrator. A large contingent of local school districts, community-based organizations, industry representatives, local foundations, and four-year universities will support the project.

Foundation Center Launches National Education Stimulus Initiative

The Foundation Center announced the launch of "Foundations for Education Excellence," a national initiative to engage philanthropic institutions and education leaders across the country in a unified, strategic drive to improve public education.

foundationcenter.org/educationexcellence, the web portal developed by the Foundation Center with a grant from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, was launched in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Education. It connects foundation funders in education to information and tools that will help them support ARRA's education reform goals.

"There is a unique window of opportunity in the coming weeks and months for private philanthropy to leverage its investment in education," said Bradford K. Smith, the Center's president. "Funders need fast-track tools to target areas of need and collaborate in new ways to improve educational opportunities across the country. The Foundation Center is ideally positioned to provide foundations with the knowledge platform needed to advance this process."

Read the full press release for details on the contents and uses of the portal.

Listen! Jamie Merisotis Discusses Lumina Foundation's Investments in Higher Education

Jamie P. Merisotis, president and CEO of the Lumina Foundation for Education, discusses the foundation's strategic, outcomes-based approach to expanding college access and success, particularly among low-income, minority, and other under-represented populations. Listen!

June is Funding for Education Month at the Foundation Center. Check out our Focus on Funding for Education page for more podcasts, news, and resources.

Listen! John Beahm Discusses Jenzabar Foundation's Support for Student Humanitarian Work

John Beahm, executive director of the Jenzabar Foundation, discusses the foundation's investments in education aimed at fostering a culture of service and educating and inspiring future generations to create a better world. Listen!

June is Funding for Education Month at the Foundation Center. Check out our Focus on Funding for Education page for more podcasts, news, and resources.

Listen! Bruno Manno Discusses Annie E. Casey Foundation's Investments in Education

Bruno Manno, Ph.D., senior associate at the Annie E. Casey Foundation, discusses the key role that schools play in advancing the foundation's efforts to improve outcomes for families and children. As the lead in the foundation's education portfolio, Dr. Manno shares information about the foundation's experiences investing in programs that give low-income parents the opportunity to send their children to high quality schools and to get services that strengthen their community-school connections. Listen!

June is Funding for Education Month at the Foundation Center. Check out our Focus on Funding for Education page for more podcasts, news, and resources.

Funding for Education Month Webinars

From the comfort of your home or office you can learn to create customized lists of prospective education donors using Foundation Directory Online and hear a timely discussion of foundation funding trends in higher education.  Register on our web site for Researching Education Funders with Foundation Directory Online, Friday, June 12, 1:00-2:00 pm or Foundation Funding Trends in Higher Education, Monday, June 29, 3:00-4:00 pm.

Listen! Eva Blum Discusses Support for Education and PNC Grow Up Great

Eva Blum, senior vice president and director of community affairs at PNC Bank and chair of the PNC Foundation, discusses the PNC Grow Up Great program, a ten-year, $100 million dollar investment in early childhood education. Ms. Blum also shares information about PNC's additional philanthropic interests in education and other fields. Listen!

June is Funding for Education Month at the Foundation Center. Check out our calendar of events.

News Roundup: Verizon Foundation, The Kresge Foundation, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

Verizon recently announced that thanks to the generosity of its customers who support Check Into Literacy, nonprofit organizations in 23 states and Washington, D.C., will receive more than $1.1 million to bolster literacy efforts. The participating states are: Arizona, California, Delaware, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, North Carolina, Nevada, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin. The Check Into Literacy initiative allows Verizon landline phone customers to make a $1-a-month, tax-deductible donation to literacy programs when customers pay their Verizon bill. The Verizon Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Verizon Communications, supports the advancement of literacy and K-12 education through its free educational Web site, Thinkfinity.org, and fosters awareness and prevention of domestic violence.

 

The Kresge Foundation recently announced awarding $10.6 million in grants to 19 human service organizations around the country that provide food service and distribution, shelter to homeless individuals and families, affordable housing for the poor, and legal aid to residents of North Carolina's Appalachian Region.The largest single human service award - $1.45 million - went to Mid-Ohio Foodbank. As the state's largest food bank, it distributes more than 29 million pounds of food to 20 counties through a network of 530 food pantries, soup kitchens, senior centers, homeless shelters and after-school programs.

 

A recent article at Bloomberg.com announced a $1 million gift from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to start a classical music festival in New York that will offer reasonably priced seats. Set to debut in 2011, the Spring for Music Festival will feature orchestras from Dallas (TX), St. Paul (MN), and Toledo (OH), among others.

Grants That Make a Difference: Reach for Excellence, Inc.

Right before the holidays, we asked you to share stories of grants that have had a positive impact for a new blog feature called Grants That Make a Difference. Since then, several of you have contributed stories that clearly illustrate the direct, transformative effect a grant can have. One such story, featured below, comes from Gigi Meyers, director of development at Reach for Excellence, an Atlanta-based nonprofit dedicated to providing educational opportunity for promising, underserved students.

Grant Recipient

Reach for Excellence, Inc.
Atlanta, Georgia

Reach for Excellence is a three-year, classroom-based academic and leadership enrichment program. Through its mix of academic, cultural, and community-based experiences, this tuition-free program prepares talented, limited-income middle school students to meet the challenges of college preparatory programs and high schools.

Grantmaker

Sara Giles Moore Foundation
Atlanta, Georgia

About the Grant

$50,000 grant awarded for fiscal year 2006-07

Grant monies were used to fund scholarships for middle school students who had been accepted into the program. It costs approximately $4,000 per year, per student, to attend Reach for Excellence. The grant covered the salaries of certified teachers, supplies, subject-related field trips, a hot breakfast and lunch, and transportation to and from the program when necessary.

What makes this particular grant a good example of the effective use of philanthropic funds?

The difference that this grant made in the life of a student can be found in the example of Reach graduate Amanda Glover. Amanda came to Reach in the summer of 2005 when she was a middle school student at Turner Middle School. Upon graduation, Amanda applied and was accepted to Marist School in Atlanta, Georgia, where she is currently a sophomore. Amanda's mother passed away at the beginning of her freshman year, and she and her four siblings live with their grandmother. In her short time at Marist, Amanda has been able to maintain a straight A average, is a member of the debate team and the French Club, is a color guard and a junior varsity basketball cheerleader, and was chosen as part of the Homecoming Court of 2008. Amanda admits she probably would not have considered attending Marist had it not been for her participation in Reach for Excellence. She is a shining example of how a donor's generosity can change a child's future.

Due to the kindness of supporters like the Sara Giles Moore Foundation, we are able to have 90-100 students participate in the program. After three years, our graduates are going on to attend some of the best public and private schools in and around Atlanta, as well as boarding schools throughout the United States. Many of our graduates are now of college age and are continuing their education at such fine institutions of higher learning as Georgia Tech, Emory, Brown, Yale, Georgia Southern, and Kennesaw State.

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Again, we encourage you to share your stories of grants that made a difference by submitting them through the handy online form we've provided for that purpose. And if you have any thoughts about how a grant can make a difference, or what goes into an "effective" grant, we'd love to hear your thoughts. Use the comments below.

 

Grant Recipient

Reach for Excellence, Inc.
Atlanta, Georgia

Reach for Excellence is a three-year, classroom-based academic and leadership enrichment program. Through its mix of academic, cultural, and community-based experiences, this tuition-free program prepares talented, limited-income middle school students to meet the challenges of college preparatory programs and high schools.

Grantmaker

Sara Giles Moore Foundation
Atlanta, Georgia

About the Grant

$50,000 grant awarded for fiscal year 2006-07

Grant monies were used to fund scholarships for middle school students who had been accepted into the program. It costs approximately $4,000 per year, per student, to attend Reach for Excellence. The grant covered the salaries of certified teachers, supplies, subject-related field trips, a hot breakfast and lunch, and transportation to and from the program when necessary.

What makes this particular grant a good example of the effective use of philanthropic funds?

The difference that this grant made in the life of a student can be found in the example of Reach graduate Amanda Glover. Amanda came to Reach in the summer of 2005 when she was a middle school student at Turner Middle School. Upon graduation, Amanda applied and was accepted to Marist School in Atlanta, Georgia, where she is currently a sophomore. Amanda's mother passed away at the beginning of her freshman year, and she and her four siblings live with their grandmother. In her short time at Marist, Amanda has been able to maintain a straight A average, is a member of the debate team and the French Club, is a color guard and a junior varsity basketball cheerleader, and was chosen as part of the Homecoming Court of 2008. Amanda admits she probably would not have considered attending Marist had it not been for her participation in Reach for Excellence. She is a shining example of how a donor's generosity can change a child's future.

Due to the kindness of supporters like the Sara Giles Moore Foundation, we are able to have 90-100 students participate in the program. After three years, our graduates are going on to attend some of the best public and private schools in and around Atlanta, as well as boarding schools throughout the United States. Many of our graduates are now of college age and are continuing their education at such fine institutions of higher learning as Georgia Tech, Emory, Brown, Yale, Georgia Southern, and Kennesaw State.

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Again, we encourage you to share your stories of grants that made a difference by submitting them through the handy online form we've provided for that purpose. And if you have any thoughts about how a grant can make a difference, or what goes into an "effective" grant, we'd love to hear your thoughts. Use the comments below.

 

News Round Up: Burton D. Morgan Foundation, Nationwide Foundation, Akron Community Foundation

News about foundations and the organizations they fund crosses the desks at the Foundation Center on a regular basis. Here's another installment in a series of posts featuring a summary of the latest information and news.

Crain's Cleveland Business reports that the Burton D. Morgan Foundation awarded $1.2 million in grants in June, nearly half aimed at youth entrepreneurship education. The largest grant ($250,000) was awarded to BioEnterprise, a nonprofit that identifies, evaluates and accelerates the most promising bioscience ventures in Northeast Ohio. Other grants included $50,000 to the Cuyahoga Valley Countryside Conservancy to support planning for a demonstration and training center to help farm entrepreneurs; $30,000 to the Boys and Girls Club of Cleveland to support Money Matters: Make it Count, a financial literacy program; and $75,000 to Westside Industrial Retention and Expansion Network (WIRE-net) to support the Great Lakes Wind Network, which is working to develop a wind-industry supply chain for Ohio.

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The Ohio State University announced having received grants totaling $1.465 million from Nationwide Foundation to provide support to Columbus City Schools from the College of Education and Human Ecology and to support key University diversity programs. Support for the Columbus City Schools includes the development of the Knowledge Bank, a database of proven tools and techniques for use by teachers and administrators in addition to support for evaluating the effectiveness of Project Mentor, a program that is a partnership between Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Ohio and the Columbus City Schools, which matches adult mentors with students. Diversity initiatives supported include the Critical Difference for Women Scholarship Fund, the Office of Minority Affairs President and Provost's Diversity Lecture and Cultural Arts Series, and the Multicultural Center's Nationwide Diversity Leadership Transcript Program.

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Akron Community Foundation announced that it is accepting requests for funding programs that will reduce the local stray cat population. The Animal Welfare Fund of Akron Community Foundation was established in 2007 through an anonymous gift to reduce the overpopulation and suffering of Summit County’s untamed stray or feral cats. In August, it will award grants totaling $10,000 to $15,000 to one or more nonprofits working toward this mission.