What can a community do when economic recession threatens local arts organizations and makes donors cautious about their giving? In Sonoma County, these scary circumstances led to a strategy for showcasing local arts—while helping donors reconnect to their passion for creativity in community.

If you’re looking for ways to make the case for arts in a community suffering hard times, you won’t want to miss the appeal of Dana Gioia. Dana is an internationally acclaimed poet and the recent Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. His 13-minute talk is powerful, moving and funny.

Community Foundation Sonoma County is a participant in Communities Advancing the Arts, a major funding initiative of The James Irvine Foundation.

via Powerful message + Memorable event = New momentum | advancethearts.org.

With local health providers’ budgets strained by the current economy, two local foundations are teaming up to help keep Cambridge residents healthy. Tufts Health Plan Foundation and Cambridge Community Foundation joined forces to make $17,000 in grants this week for local health projects.

The Tufts Health Plan Foundation’s mission is to promote healthy lifestyles and the delivery of quality care in its communities. The Tufts Health Plan Foundation is focusing on healthy aging to help meet the challenges of an aging society. The Cambridge Community Foundation supports a range of agencies that enhance the quality of life for Cambridge residents of all ages and backgrounds. CCF has a rich history of bringing people and institutions together to meet the challenges of changing community needs.

The Kern Community Foundation released an important new study today, looking at the "Status of Women and Girls" in Kern County.

The full report can be read online, but warning: it's not for the faint of heart. As the report said, the most pressing issues faced by women and girls in Kern County are "domestic violence, substance abuse and self esteem."

When Kempner, a 59-year-old retired corporate executive (he was a vice-president of Gillette and chief executive of LoJack, the car-security company), makes grants, he does so through the Kempner Family Foundation.

Kempner's "foundation" is actually a donor-advised fund, an account designed for philanthropic giving that is administered by a charity. Some of the largest donor-advised funds are administered by charities set up by financial-services firms, such as the Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund, the Schwab Charitable Fund and the Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program.

Gifts of stock and property also receive favorable tax treatment: With a donor-advised fund, you can deduct the value of such gifts up to 30% of your AGI, compared with up to 20% with a private foundation.

Managers of donor-advised funds point out that the funds are also less expensive to run than small family foundations. That said, the largest donor-advised funds typically grant 20% of their assets annually; funds sponsored by community foundations give about 15% of their assets each year.

Because donor-advised funds have so many advantages, Libbey expects a 40% increase in the number of foundations that Fidelity will convert to funds in 2009 compared with last year.

Bunnie Riedel had the pleasure of meeting Jerry Adams about a year ago and the pleasure of seeing the Human Services Coalition (HSC) of Prince George's County in action at a conference this summer. What the HSC does is fantastic! It leverages its members' capabilities and helps those Nonprofits build capacity.

There cannot be a more important time than now for Nonprofits to come together, share resources and support one another. I am reminded that whatever issues we face in our communities, it is usually Nonprofits at the forefront of solving those issues and providing service.

The Partnership for Prince George’s, a philanthropic effort hosted by the Prince George’s Community Foundation, has funded HSC to develop a public policy initiative concerning the county budget. We also collaborated on hosting three excellent forums on advocacy seeking to get more of our members comfortable with joining the advocacy efforts.

Silicon Valley Community Foundation has awarded more than $800,000 in grants to help the regional planning efforts to improve the California community.

Among the goals that the foundation hopes to achieve with the funding is to reduce the community’s traffic and air pollution, create affordable housing units and mixed use developments close to transportation. According to the foundation, the San Francisco Bay area could see an increase of 2 million residents looking for jobs and housing.

Eighteen Jews in their 20s and 30s have been selected as the 2009-2010 members of Roots & Branches Foundation. This initiative of Rose Community Foundation provides young adult Jews with hands-on grantmaking experience. Roots & Branches Foundation includes Jews from throughout the Metro Denver area. They represent a broad spectrum of Judaism, describing themselves as Orthodox, Reform, Reconstructionist, Modern Orthodox, Conservative and secular Jews.

The Barry Community Foundation is sponsoring a summertime classic: a double feature drive-in movie night.

A huge outdoor screen will be erected Friday on the Barry County Expo site along M-37.

Proceeds from the event will go to the Next Generation Fund, one of the foundation's many branches. The Next Generation group plans activities each year around a theme; this year, it's substance abuse. Past focuses were after-school activities, literacy and the arts.

The Los Altos Community Foundation plans to launch a new community program, Family Giving Project, a four-part series that will provide children in grades 1 through 7 and their parents the tools for lifelong community philanthropic engagement.

LACF will match the fee and return $100 to each family at the end of the course to be used as the families first post-course giving project.

This way, the children and their parents can put into action what they've learned and have a chance to share where and why they decided to give their $100, said Nancy Lippe, LACF program officer.

In June, Katie Alford replaced Nancy Jones, a legend in her own right and “the only president the Community Foundation of Abilene ever had.”

“Katie is a young star in our community who sees the big picture,” Paul Cannon, chairman of the foundation’s board of trustees, said when Alford was selected as president and chief executive officer.

No one was happier with Alford’s selection than Jones, who hired Alford in 2005 as finance director for the foundation. In March, Jones was named chief executive officer of the Community Foundation of North Texas, headquartered in Fort Worth.

Alford, 32, was chosen from among 27 applicants to replace Jones, who said she expects Alford to lead the foundation to new heights.