Awards were made to organizations in 26 states, the District of Columbia and
South Africa.
TROY, Mich., Oct. 12 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Feeding the hungry, assisting
those least able to pursue a college degree, and advancing energy efficiency
in low-income communities exemplify The Kresge Foundation's desire to improve
the long-term life circumstances of the poor and, in response to the nation's
severe economic contraction, bring some immediate relief to those in greatest
need.
At their September board meeting the Trustees of the foundation approved 208
awards totaling $43,698,088 for nonprofit organizations in 26 states, the
District of Columbia and South Africa in the areas of human services,
education, environment, arts and culture, health and community development.
"We are trying to lead by example," says Elaine D. Rosen, chair of the Kresge
board of Trustees. "We are supporting exemplary nonprofit organizations in
this time of financial hardship so they, in turn, may better serve and sustain
those suffering in their communities."
Feeding the hungry
The 85-year-old foundation awarded Feeding America, the nation's largest
domestic hunger-relief agency, a $2.5 million program-related investment to
finance the purchase of 20 to 25 refrigerated trucks. The trucks will be used
by organizations in their 63,000-member network of food banks and mobile
pantries to acquire and distribute donated food.
"Program-related investments are below-market loans or equity investments made
by private foundations for charitable purposes in nonprofit organizations that
are advancing their strategic priorities," explains Rip Rapson, president of
The Kresge Foundation. "Feeding America clearly is doing a remarkable job of
scaling its services to meet the accelerating need for food in this country.
They will redistribute this money at no interest to member organizations for
the purchase of refrigerated delivery trucks."
With the expansion of its delivery fleet, Feeding America estimates the amount
of donated food it will be able to retrieve from grocery stores and
redistribute will nearly double. To facilitate this significant expansion of
its operations, Kresge also awarded the Chicago-based organization a $2.5
million grant to help defray the costs associated with operating the new
trucks, including driver salaries and benefits, fuel, vehicle maintenance, and
insurance.
"Through our program-related investment and our operating support grant, we
are helping to facilitate the delivery of greater amounts of safe, nutritious
food to urban and underserved rural areas," Rapson adds.
Increasing access and success in higher education
Kresge has been shifting its grantmaking in the education arena from its
traditional support of facilities to the advancement of accessible,
graduation-oriented two and four-year higher-education programs for students
who are low-income and/or the first in their families to pursue a college
degree. Three grants illustrate ways organizations are either helping
low-income students navigate their way into college or continue their studies
even when sidetracked by an unexpected financial challenge.
The National Advising Corps at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
received a $1 million award to expand its program of placing recent college
graduates in underserved high schools and community colleges to work as
college-access counselors, complementing the school's guidance counselors by
helping students plan for and complete the often-daunting college and
financial aid application process.
Unite L.A, which received a $900,000 award, assists Los Angeles senior
high-school students who often unknowingly qualify for federal and state
financial aid with the application process. The grant funds will be used to
train and manage an additional 500 volunteer financial aid counselors, hold an
annual college and career convention for some 13,000 participants, and create
and broadcast a bilingual public awareness campaign for these support
services.
"We seek to support organizations with broad reach that already can
demonstrate success at helping low-income students achieve post-secondary
educational success," Rapson explains. "Currently only half of all U.S.
college students graduate within six years of beginning their studies."
For low-income college students, a major impediment to completing a two or
four-year degree is an unexpected and often temporary financial challenge -- a
vehicle breakdown, or, for example, an unexpectedly high utility bill.
Scholarship America's Dreamkeepers program provides small, emergency loans to
low-income community college students. The loans become grants, and therefore
do not require repayment, if the student continues on in school in good
standing. With a $1.5 million award from Kresge, a national network will be
created to share Dreamkeepers best practices for replication around the
country.
Affordable and healthy energy efficient housing
With buildings and the activities within them accounting for more than 40
percent of the nation's greenhouse gas emissions, the Environment Program
continues Kresge's longstanding efforts to advance energy efficiency in
building design and operation. Enterprise Community Partners, a Maryland-based
national nonprofit dedicated to creating affordable housing communities for
low- and moderate-income individuals and families, received a $1 million award
to expand its Green Communities program.
Enterprise has demonstrated it is possible to build and retrofit low-income
housing to conserve energy and water and provide environmentally healthy
living conditions for residents without compromising affordability. It offers
grants, financing, tax-credit equity, and technical assistance to real estate
developers for creating new or retrofitting existing low-income homes to meet
the Green Communities Criteria, a recognized national standard for affordable,
healthy environmentally sustainable housing.
"Enterprise believes that green buildings should, by definition, promote both
environmental and human health," Rapson says. "Through the expansion of its
Green Communities program, it will not only increase the quantity of
affordable, healthy, energy efficient housing stock, but also show the
residential real estate market that it is possible to bring cost-effective
construction and renovation to scale."
Awards also were made in the arts and culture, health and community
development fields.
Here is a list of the awards approved in the third quarter of 2009:
(This list includes current and future planned grants.)
ARIZONA
Sojourner Center Phoenix $100,000
CALIFORNIA
Alameda County Medical Center Oakland $200,000
Consultative Group on Biological Diversity San Francisco $30,000
Foundation for California Community Colleges Sacramento $250,000
Oakland Public Library Oakland $325,000
Occidental College Los Angeles $163,306
Pacific Forest Trust, Inc. San Francisco $200,000
Pesticide Action Network North America San Francisco $340,000
San Francisco Museum and Historical Society San Francisco $50,000
Unite-LA, Inc. Los Angeles $900,000
COLORADO
St. Francis Center Denver $100,000
Gathering Place Denver $100,000
Women's Crisis and Family Outreach Center Castle Rock $125,000
CONNECTICUT
Chrysalis Center, Inc. Hartford $100,000
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
Brookings Institution Washington $150,000
Center for Climate Strategies Washington $74,640
Center for Science in the Public Interest Washington $83,000
George Washington University Washington $900,000
Grantmakers In Health Washington $15,000
Independent Sector Washington $10,000
FLORIDA
Archbold Expeditions Venus $100,000
GEORGIA
CHRIS Kids, Inc. Atlanta $800,000
Fernbank Museum of Natural History Atlanta $1,350,000
Georgia Tech Research Corporation Atlanta $157,000
HAWAII
Domestic Violence Action Center Honolulu $100,000
IOWA
Western Iowa Tech Community College Sioux City $800,000
ILLINOIS
Active Transportation Alliance Chicago $300,000
Alliance for Water Efficiency Chicago $200,000
Animal Protective Association Chicago $50,000
Feeding America Chicago $2,500,000
Feeding America Chicago $2,500,000
Global Philanthropy Partnership Chicago $160,000
INDIANA
Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana Indianapolis $1,000,000
Middle Way House, Inc. Bloomington $125,000
KANSAS
Bethany College Lindsborg $50,000
Labette Community College Parsons $1,000,000
KENTUCKY
Family Scholar House, Inc. Louisville $50,000
MASSACHUSETTS
Alliance Foundation for Community Health, Inc. Cambridge $180,000
Castle Square Tenants Organization, Inc. Boston $50,000
Dorchester Bay Economic Development Dorchester
Corporation $50,000
Health Resources in Action Boston $500,000
Union of Concerned Scientists, Inc. Cambridge $750,000
Urban Edge Housing Corp. Roxbury $75,000
MARYLAND
Baltimore Community Foundation Baltimore $200,000
Baltimore Medical System, Inc. Baltimore $380,000
Development Training Institute Ellicott City $125,000
Enterprise Community Partners, Inc. Columbia $1,000,000
Enterprise Community Partners, Inc. Columbia $500,000
National Center for Healthy Housing, Inc. Columbia $143,000
St. Vincent de Paul of Baltimore Baltimore $350,000
MICHIGAN
ARISE Detroit Detroit $125,000
ArtServe Michigan, Inc. Wixom $12,000
City Connect Detroit Detroit $600,000
Ecology Center, Inc. Ann Arbor $75,000
Eduguide Lansing $300,000
Focus: HOPE Detroit $250,000
Harriet Tubman Center - Detroit Detroit $450,000
Kalamazoo Cultural Center Kalamazoo $200,000
Matrix Human Services Detroit $300,000
Michigan Legal Services Detroit $100,000
Michigan Nonprofit Association Lansing $50,000
Michigan Nonprofit Association Lansing $1,000,000
Michigan Nonprofit Association Lansing $1,015,000
Michigan Roundtable for Diversity and Detroit
Inclusion $200,000
Newaygo County Community Services Fremont $150,000
Vista Maria Dearborn Heights $500,000
Volunteers in Prevention, Probation & Prisons, Detroit
Inc. $75,000
MINNESOTA
Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota St. Paul $100,000
Scholarship America, Inc. - Minneapolis Minneapolis $1,500,000
Wind on the Wires St. Paul $100,000
NORTH CAROLINA
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Chapel Hill
Hill $1,000,000
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Boys & Girls Club of Greater Nashua, Inc. Nashua $100,000
NEW YORK
Coalition for the Homeless, Inc. New York $100,000
Common Ground New York $75,000
Creative Capital Foundation New York $1,500,000
Family & Children's Service of Niagara, Inc. Niagara Falls $300,000
MDRC New York $650,000
Nonprofit Finance Fund New York $4,000,000
Lower Eastside Girls Club of NY New York $1,500,000
OHIO
ABLE, Inc. & Legal Aid of Western Ohio Toledo $100,000
Cleveland Zoological Society Cleveland $725,000
PENNYSYLVANIA
East End Cooperative Ministry Pittsburgh $50,000
La Comunidad Hispana, Inc. Kennett Square $175,000
Meals on Wheels and More Austin $500,000
Opportunity House Reading $250,000
YWCA of York York $100,000
TENNESEE
Appalachian Resource Conservation and Jonesborough
Development Council $50,000
Southern Alliance for Clean Energy Knoxville $500,000
TEXAS
Austin Children's Shelter Austin $100,000
Corpus Christi Metro Ministries Corpus Christi $150,000
Daughters of Charity Services of San Antonio San Antonio $100,000
Sports And Outdoor Recreation San Antonio $400,000
Women's Home Houston $150,000
VIRGINIA
Center for Health, Environment and Justice Falls Church $400,000
Project HOPE Millwood $26,156
United Negro College Fund, Inc. Fairfax $1,800,000
VERMONT
The Upper Valley Haven, Inc. White River
Junction $250,000
WASHINGTON
Boys & Girls Club of King County Seattle $75,000
Catholic Charities of Spokane Spokane $75,000
Grantmakers in the Arts Seattle $165,000
KCTS Television - The Public Network Seattle $100,000
YWCA of Spokane Spokane $100,000
SOUTH AFRICA
Cape Peninsula University of Technology Bellville $48,266
Children's Hospital Trust Rondebosch, Cape
Town $128,750
South African Institute for Advancement Woodstock $638,343
University of Pretoria Pretoria $255,234
University of the Western Cape Bellville $123,996
University of the Witwatersrand Johannesburg $74,397
For more information, contact Cynthia Shaw, cbshaw@kresge.org
or call 248-643-9630.
SOURCE The Kresge Foundation
Cynthia Shaw of The Kresge Foundation, +1-248-643-9630, cbshaw@kresge.org
