The Gulf Coast Community Foundation of Venice awards more than $2 million to local nonprofit organizations

Looking to encourage growth and education while highlighting the positive aspects of its community, the Gulf Coast Community Foundation of Venice has awarded more than $2 million in grants to 25 local nonprofit organizations.

The organizations, which work in various different fields throughout the community including arts and culture, education, and environmental services, were each given a portion of $2.1 million in grants, the largest total amount of funding ever awarded by the Foundation in a single grant cycle.

Twelve grants totaling $103,725 have been awarded to local nonprofit agencies and groups for such projects as government reorganization, arts scholarships and the Special Olympics.

The Community Foundation of Muncie and Delaware County recently announced the awards for its third competitive grant cycle of 2009.

Grants are awarded in five areas of interest: arts and culture, human services, economic development, education and community betterment.

Next up for the ART for Life program is a series of mural projects, starting with one at the detention center. "It will be done in phases of six-week increments," Taylor said. "The kids in detention now are doing the background layer and the next group will do the next layer."

The ART for Life project is supported by Brazos County, the cities of College Station and Bryan, the Texas Commission on the Arts, the Brazos Community Foundation and the Barbara Bush Literacy Corps. But, Taylor says, additional community financial support is vital for this and other council projects, especially in the face of the aforementioned funding reductions.

Even in the face of the citys deep recession woes caused by the decline of the automotive industry, Detroit's citizens are still passionately committed to giving back to their community.

In just 11 hours, donors raised $3.75 million in support of 75 arts and cultural organizations in southeast Michigan, through the Community Foundation Challenge - Arts & Culture.

The challenge, which was sponsored by the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan and the Cultural Alliance of Southeastern Michigan, featured matching contributions for all donations up to the $1 million mark, provided by the Community Foundation.

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.

The Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan, in partnership with the Cultural Alliance of Southeastern Michigan, announced today the list of 75 arts and culture nonprofit organizations in southeast Michigan participating in the online giving program Community Foundation Challenge Arts & Culture on Aug. 18.

The program, which was announced on July 16, is an online giving challenge designed to generate $3 million in sorely needed operating funds for arts and cultural organizations in southeast Michigan.

The Greater Tacoma Community Foundation, which supports philanthropic activities, has recently awarded $405,910 to 42 Pierce County nonprofit organizations. In the first of five categories (Arts and Culture, Basic Need, Education, Environment and Neighborhood/Community) eight local arts organizations benefitted from the biannual grant money: Artist Trust, Arts Impact Puget Sound, the Broadway Center for the Performing Arts, the Northwest Leadership Foundation, the Northwest Sinfonietta, Tacoma Art Museum, the Tacoma Opera Association and the Tacoma Symphony Orchestra.

The funding was determined by a new framework, say Community Foundation officials, rewarding organization that "focus on root causes, identify systemic challenges, and support community driven solutions."

The Contemporary Arts Center announced that it has been awarded three separate grants originating from a family foundation, a community foundation and a Federal agency, totaling over $100,000. Bank Foundation, The Greater Cincinnati Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts all have revealed recently their awards to the Contemporary Arts Center . Bank Foundations award provides operational support. One of only a handful in the region to be awarded this grant, the CAC will use it to bring jobs to the area.

The Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan (www.cfsem.org), in partnership with the Cultural Alliance of Southeastern Michigan (www.culturalalliancesemi.org), is announcing an innovative program to help local arts and cultural organizations raise sorely needed operating funds. The Community Foundation will launch its $1 million Community Foundation Challenge Arts and Culture, an online giving challenge designed to stimulate giving to arts and cultural organizations in southeast Michigan.

For 25 years, the Community Foundation has supported arts and cultural organizations in southeast Michigan as part of our mission to improve the lives of all who live and work in the region.

Philanthropists and artists invited by the Community Foundation for Monterey County have convened to discuss the necessity of funding for local arts, and how the arts benefit our community.

I am surrounded by gifted musicians, CEOs of grand arts organizations and leaders from the Peninsula communities, who are all familiar with the fancy cheeses on the elegantly staged table. I'm wearing shoes from The Western Stage's costume shop because I had none better of my own, and the unfamiliarity of my current environment feels intimidating.

But I am on a mission: To tell these affluent supporters of the arts my own story of how The Western Stage at Hartnell College has changed my life. I was shocked that every kid I knew wasn't already enrolled.

"Immediately I signed up for the next summer program, and worked 9 to 5, five days a week. It instilled meaning and confidence into the shy child I once was, and I never felt happier.

"I continued on for years, until eventually I came to a point in my life where I had to focus on my schoolwork.

"Finally, years later, I ran over to The Western Stage and said I needed to be a part of the company in some way. It was a success, and I hope by sharing some of the good roles The Western Stage has played in my life, they saw how much good the company can do in our community as a whole.

While financial support from these wonderful people is extremely important, nothing outweighs the support from our community. John of The Western Stage in Salinas.