Three Southern Indiana nonprofit organizations have joined to create the Community Relief Fund to provide funding to other nonprofit organizations that have seen the need for services increase in the midst of the economic downturn.

The Paul W. Ogle Foundation Inc., the Horseshoe Foundation of Floyd County and the Community Foundation of Southern Indiana have contributed a total of $400,000 to the fund, the Community Foundation said in a news release. The funding will be disbursed in grants of as much as $20,000. The Community Foundation will serve as administrator of the fund.

The Central Indiana Community Foundation, a pool of several hundred private funds, isn't bound to the 5 percent requirement that independent foundations such as Lilly and Lumina face. But it isn't immune to a plummeting stock market. Its 2008 losses reached $184 million, a drop of 27 percent from the previous year.

Foundation President Brian Payne said he is in denial about the losses, which likely mean the organization will give away $5 million to $10 million less than the $40 million it gave away last year to organizations including homeless shelters and the Indiana Repertory Theatre. The cuts would be deeper except that the foundation plans to increase its percentage of giving this year because of the great needs.

As a companion list to The Best Sites For K-12 Beginning English Language Learners, I thought I’d put together a short list of my similar choices for Intermediate English Language Learners. I’ll also be creating lists focusing on older ELL’s, too.

I thought that lists like these might make it a little easier for teachers, particularly newer ones — newer to teaching or newer to using technology in their teaching. Then, at their leisure, they can explore all the other more specialized “The Best…” lists.

The Everyday Life Project is number two. It’s sponsored by the Goodwill Community Foundation in North Carolina, and it has extraordinary interactive exercises for Intermediate and Advanced English Language Learners. Its activities on food, money, work, shopping and maps are excellent.

Many workers who are vital to the community compete for a limited number of affordable units. According to the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission Housing Analysis, entry-level firefighters and police officers could only afford 129 of the single-family homes and 42 of the condominiums sold in the Planning District between 2004 and 2005.

The Charlottesville Areas Association of REALTORS (CAAR) created a Work Force Housing Fund to assist those people who serve essential community functions to purchase homes near to where they work. The Fund is based at the Charlottesville Albemarle Community Foundation and administered by the Piedmont Housing Alliance.

The Silicon Valley Community Foundation is awarding a series of grants it says will produce more consultations and shorter waiting times for low-income immigrants in need of legal services in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties.

The foundation will award nearly $1.4 million to eight legal services groups and 12 cultural communication programs as part of its campaign to integrate the region's burgeoning immigrant population.

Manuel Santamaria, grant-making administrator for the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, said the awards reflect the organization's belief that empowering the growing foreign-born population is critical to the region's long-term success.

As money for teachers to purchase supplies continues to become scarce, the Community Foundation of Central Georgia announced Wednesday it’s going to do something about it.

The foundation said it will chip in $50,000 to help midstate teachers if the community matches that amount in donations by the end of 2009.

The CFCG is asking residents in 15 midstate counties to donate to classrooms through the Web site www.donorschoose.org, where teachers post their classroom needs and allow the public to contribute financially.

One of the United States' philanthropic leaders says the global financial crisis has stripped $30-billion from the US charity sector.

Peter Hero ran Silicon Valley's billion dollar Silicon Valley Community Foundation until 2007 and is now a fellow at the Centre for Social Innovation at Stanford University's Business School.

He says that as the economy collapses, charities are more important than ever.

Mr Hero is in Australia this week to talk about the challenges facing charity groups here and he joined me in The World Today Studio in Sydney this morning.

Chippewa Valley community foundation officials said they would be forced to give less this year after suffering a steep loss in their investments last year.

Though misery supposedly loves company -- and the national statistics may offer a measure of reassurance about investment philosophies -- officials from the area foundations acknowledge it is difficult to see their bottom line moving in the wrong direction.

"Things are uncomfortable right now, and we don't like it," said Carol Gienapp, executive director of the eight-year-old Community Foundation of Chippewa County, where total assets fell 14 percent to $2.7 million in 2008. "It certainly was a lot more fun when our funds were all making money and we could give out that money." The foundation directors' biggest concern, however, isn't the number at the bottom of their portfolio statement; it's the people who need services from the local charities the foundations support.

The Carroll County Community Foundation is leading the area's planning for a free dental clinic operated by Arkansas Mission of Mercy as part of the Arkansas Dental Association.

In 2008, in the Little Rock area, more than $643,000 of donated dental care was provided. Involved were 143 dentists, hygienists, dental assistants, pharmacists, nurses, support staff and 790 volunteers. Patients treated totaled 1,569 with 2,816 extractions and 1,711 fillings.

Agencies that provide food and shelter were the recipients of a growing number of the grants to local nonprofits from the Community Foundation of Western Nevada during December 2008. The Community Foundation sent over $46,000 over the holidays to Community Outreach of Reno/Sparks, Food Bank of Northern Nevada, Family Promise, Salvation Army, Reno Sparks Gospel Mission, St. Vincent's Dining Room, and Catholic Community Services.

President and CEO Chris Askin commented on the growth of human service grants, " Through donor advised funds at the Community Foundation our fundholders can respond to immediate and pressing community needs. These funds are similar to a charitable savings account that is a ready resource for difficult times.Fundholders establish the donor advised funds at a tax-wise time in their lives and can recommend grants over generations involving their children, if they wish."