Kresge Foundation News

Kresge Foundation Awards $45.5 Million to Nonprofit Organizations in 29 States and District of Columbia

TROY, Mich., Sept. 17 PRNewswire-USNewswire — Nonprofit organizations that offer access and opportunity to disadvantaged children, teens and college-age students; serve as a safety net for vulnerable populations in need of health care and human services; and aid in the revitalization of distressed communities, constitute the majority of grants approved by the Board of Trustees at the Kresge Foundation's third-quarter meeting on September 11, 2007.

The awards - $45.5 million to 82 organizations - are the best example to date of the foundation's efforts to expand its grantmaking to better address society's pressing issues in education, health, human services, arts and culture, and the environment. Twenty-two grants were awarded to projects aimed at the revitalization of Detroit and the surrounding region. And one grant was made to the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, as part of the foundation's International Initiative to support higher education in the fledgling democracy. (A complete list, organized by state, is below.)

"The Kresge Foundation has a long tradition of directing its grants to build nonprofit capacity," says Elaine D. Rosen, chair of the 12-member board of trustees. "With this group of grants, we also acknowledge that we must more directly confront the deep and ever-widening gap between the rich and the poor in this country."

The Kresge Foundation has been a driving force in the building of facilities for nonprofit organizations in the United States for the past 83 years. Its Capital Challenge Grant Program, which awards an organization a financial grant if it raises an agreed upon amount of funds from private sources, has helped communities across the country build libraries, schools, hospitals, museums, community centers and food banks, among other brick and mortar projects.

Concerned that nonprofit organizations often need financial support for things other than the acquisition, construction or renovation of facilities, the board of trustees voted in June to expand the challenge grant model to include grants for working capital and permanent capital. "Given the extremely complex challenges we as a society face today," explains Rip Rapson, president of the foundation, "the board believed it had a moral obligation to ask, how do we best address these issues? This is a first step in what we believe will be a year-long transition process."

Increasing access in higher education

The third quarter grants illuminate the foundation's expanding direction. In the education sector, Kresge made 18 capital challenge grants totaling $13.7 million. Access, equity and environmental sustainability were common themes among the grant awards. For example, a $1 million challenge grant was awarded to Mills College in Oakland, Calif., for construction of a natural sciences building.

The college is considered a role model for providing low-income and minority students access to higher education. It also is a model for the breadth of outreach and support programs it offers, often a critical component for academic and social success. Low income and minority students make up 47 percent of the student body. The graduation rates for this population - 74 percent - are considered exemplary and proof their efforts are working.

With a new natural sciences building, the school will be able to expand access to careers in science. Additionally, the building will feature an environmentally sustainable design and, upon completion, the college will seek a gold LEED - Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design - rating from the U.S. Green Building Council.

The Kresge Foundation was an early advocate of green construction and sustainable design and provides green planning grants to encourage this practice. Of the 81 grants approved, including the Mills College grant, 22 involved sustainable design. "This quarter represents a watershed moment for the foundation in terms of the types of organizations and the variety of projects pursuing sustainable design," Rapson adds. "Sustainable design is a growing best practice that is within reach for most nonprofit organizations."

Investing in Michigan's young children and youth

The foundation has a designated Detroit Program that supports strengthening the city's neighborhoods, continuing to revive the downtown, promoting arts and culture, reinvigorating the regional economy and enhancing the natural environment. Of the 22 grants approved this quarter, two will provide transformational funding, one for early childhood development and the second for children and teens.

The Early Childhood Investment Corporation of Lansing, Michigan, will receive $2,735,000 over two years to oversee the planning, development and implementation of early childhood systems in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb Counties. The ECIC was established by Governor Jennifer Granholm in 2005 to build a state-wide system to give children - newborns to five-year-olds - the care and education they need to do well in school and in adult life.

"Virtually all research points in the same direction," says Rapson, "poverty and the hardships that come with poverty pose the greatest risk factors for a child's academic success and eventual career success. With the state of Michigan, and Detroit's tri-county area in particular, in a severe economic crisis, these funds will help provide affordable, quality care and services for area families and their young children. "

A grant of $1.5 million was made to Detroit Youth Foundation for YouthVille Detroit, a neighborhood youth center considered one of the most comprehensive in the Midwest. The program caters to 1,900 members age 11 to 19. Services are provided to more than 200 youth a day, six days-a-week and range from art and academics to computers, fitness, radio broadcasting and music. An adolescent health care clinic, dance classes and a mentoring program share the same building. The grant will support YouthVille's three-year strategic plan.

Reaching out to the homeless

Kresge's health and human services sectors support community-based care for underserved and at-risk populations. Twenty grants totaling $ 12.9 million were made to health and human service organizations. Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program received a $2 million challenge grant toward the renovation of a building that will serve as its headquarters, central clinic and respite care unit.

"Boston Health Care for the Homeless illustrates Kresge's commitment to supporting organizations that work on the front lines, often against great odds, to pursue new and better forms of service," Rapson says. "With this challenge grant, the agency will be able to bring the core elements of its operation under one roof, including an expanded respite care unit, ambulatory, dental and mental-health care, a pharmacy and related programs that will contribute to their ongoing work to end homelessness."

Here is a complete list of grants approved: Note: List includes current and future planned grants. Alabama Auburn University Auburn $1,500,000 Arizona Desert Botanical Garden Phoenix 850,000 California California Institute of the Arts Valencia 1,000,000 California State University, Fullerton Fullerton 500,000 Global Green USA Santa Monica 100,000 Holy Family Day Home San Francisco 550,000 La Clinica de la Raza Fruitvale Health Project, Inc. Oakland 300,000 Long Beach Memorial Medical Center Long Beach 1,250,000 Mills College Oakland 1,000,000 Pacific Asia Museum Pasadena 300,000 Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Cruz and San Benito Counties Watsonville 400,000 Spanish Speaking Unity Council of Alameda County Oakland 50,000 Woodbury University Burbank 400,000 Colorado Food Bank of the Rockies Denver 500,000 Connecticut Neighborhood Housing Services of New Haven New Haven 175,000 Washington DC The Brookings Institution Washington 150,000 Georgia Jewish Family and Career Services Atlanta 70,000 Iowa Indian Creek Nature Center Cedar Rapids 51,750 Illinois American Theater Company Chicago 46,000 Claretian Associates, Inc. Chicago 45,000 Indiana Fairbanks Hospital, Inc. Indianapolis 500,000 Metropolitan Public Broadcasting, Inc. d/b/a WFYI Indianapolis 900,000 Kentucky Brooklawn Child & Family Services Louisville 330,000 Massachusetts Berkshire Museum Pittsfield 500,000 Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program Boston 2,000,000 Eagle Hill School, Inc. Hardwick 500,000 Girls Incorporated of Lynn Lynn 850,000 Springfield College Springfield 1,000,000 YMCA Cape Cod West Barnstable 750,000 Maryland CASA of Maryland, Inc. Takoma Park 65,000 Olney Theatre Center for the Arts Olney 50,000 Michigan Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History Detroit 240,000 College for Creative Studies Detroit 180,000 Cranbrook Educational Community Bloomfield Hills 210,000 Detroit Educational Television Foundation Wixom 300,000 Detroit Renaissance Foundation Detroit 750,000 Detroit Science Center Detroit 180,000 Detroit Symphony Orchestra Detroit 300,000 Detroit Youth Foundation Detroit 1,500,000 Detroit Zoological Society Royal Oak 300,000 Downtown Detroit Partnership, Inc. Detroit 125,000 Early Childhood Investment Corporation Lansing 2,735,000 Macomb Center for the Performing Arts Clinton Township 150,000 Michigan Opera Theatre Detroit 300,000 Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit Detroit 300,000 Music Hall Center for the Performing Arts Detroit 240,000 Neighborhood Centers, Inc. Detroit 150,000 New Detroit, Inc. Detroit 750,000 The Detroit Institute of Arts Detroit 300,000 The Greening of Detroit Detroit 600,000 The Henry Ford Dearborn 300,000 Missouri Epworth Children & Family Services St. Louis 500,000 Montana homeWORD, Inc. Missoula 75,000 North Carolina Family Services, Inc. Winston-Salem 100,000 North Dakota Sitting Bull College Fort Yates 230,000 New Mexico Mesilla Valley Hospice Las Cruces 550,000 New York Adelphi University Garden City 600,000 Children's Village, Inc. Dobbs Ferry 600,000 Green Chimneys Children's Services, Inc. Brewster 400,000 Hartwick College Oneonta 750,000 Local Initiatives Support Corporation New York 3,000,000 Manhattanville College Purchase 1,000,000 Pratt Institute Brooklyn 75,000 The American Assembly New York 30,000 Westchester Arc White Plains 450,000 Wildwood Programs, Inc. Schenectady 450,000 Ohio University of Toledo Toledo 900,000 Pennsylvania Carriage House Children's Center Pittsburgh 100,000 Johnstown Area Heritage Association Johnstown 500,000 University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia 75,000 Washington & Jefferson College Washington 1,000,000 Woods Services Foundation Langhorne 415,000 Zoological Society of Philadelphia Philadelphia 1,000,000 Rhode Island Salve Regina University Newport 750,000 South Carolina Palmetto Health Columbia 1,000,000 Tennessee Nashville Academy Theatre and Nashville Children's Theatre Nashville 500,000 Texas Chinese Community Center Houston 350,000 JPS Health Network Fort Worth 1,500,000 Vermont The Fairbanks Museum and Planetarium St. Johnsbury 45,000 Washington Heritage University Toppenish 1,500,000 Wisconsin Madison Children's Museum Madison 95,000 South Africa University of the Witwatersrand Johannesburg 400,000 Total $45,532,750

The Kresge Foundation is a private, national foundation established in 1924 by Sebastian S. Kresge to promote human progress. In 2006 it awarded approximately $150 million in grants to nonprofit organizations in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, South Africa and Mexico and had year-end assets of $3.3 billion. The foundation is headquartered in Michigan.

SOURCE The Kresge Foundation

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