Rollstone Bank & Trust recently donated $5,000 to the Community Foundation of North Central Massachusetts, which helps 33 cities and towns in the area.

The Foundation was born out of a small group of individuals looking at ways to further build overall charitable giving. As a local non-profit organization, the Foundation is an ideal vehicle for people to give back to the community. It provides donors with a great deal of flexibility while maximizing tax advantages.

According to a story on www.mediabistro.com, Walter Cronkite’s family is asking that “donations be sent to The Walter and Betsy Cronkite Fund in care of the Austin Community Foundation.

They will distribute the funds as a tribute to their parents’ wishes and values: local and national charities they supported, among them education (including sailing), journalism, basic needs, health care and research, community organizations, planned parenthood and animals.”

All the right ingredients were in place this past Friday evening for a big-time community party in downtown Johnstown. And by the time the revelers were headed home after what obviously was a fun evening at the Pasquerilla Conference Center, the Community Foundation for the Alleghenies had $80,000 in additional funding to put toward some very worthwhile projects.

Hats are off to so many people who made this bash a roaring success, chief among them Edward Sheehan Jr. and Mark Pasquerilla. Both continue to be not only successful area businessmen, but also community leaders who have time after time shown a willingness to step forward with ideas and to guide others.

Lee County's community-based organization, Envision Opelika, has announced the implementation on the Community Foundation of East Alabama, Inc.

"The basis of the foundation is to build funds for philanthropic purposes and non-profit organizations based on identified community needs," board member Barbara Patton said. The needs will be changing, and the community foundation will be here."

The community foundation will work to preserve resources for different types of scholarships: the arts, social philanthropic groups and other types of organizations.

"We don't have any specific organizations chosen just now," said Dora James, Chairperson of the CFEA.

James also said the most successful community foundations were those who reached out beyond just one county to their whole area.

While others make a big deal of Thomas Township teen Jessica C. Page's commitment to serving others, she offers a simple yet telling explanation of her motivation.

"If I needed help, I would hope people would do the same for me," she said, after recounting the activities in June that earned her the Saginaw Community Foundation's Youth Award at its Community Celebration at the historic Temple Theatre.

"I like to help people, and I think it's important to give something back to the community."

The Foundation is a permanent source of funds that our Jewish community relies on year after year. A Foundation gift helps build our endowment, which generates interest that we invest in our children, older adults, families, the needy and our community. By making a gift to the Foundation, you ensure the continued vitality of our Jewish community for today and for all generations to come.

The first responsibility of a planned gift is to satisfy the needs of the creator, you. Planned giving, as an integral part of an effective estate plan, can help you increase our annual income; avoid Federal and State taxes including capital gains, gift, income and estate taxes; receive an immediate charitable deduction; take care of your children and other heirs, and make large gifts to your favorite charities.

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library has come to Seward and Moose Pass. Each month the Dollywood Foundation mails a brand new, age appropriate book, at no charge, to every child from birth to age 5 who is enrolled.

This program is made possible by the Seward PTSA, grants from the Seward Community Foundation, the City of Seward, Best Beginnings, Rasmuson Foundation, ConocoPhillips, and generous donations made by local businesses and individuals.

The Community Foundation of Acadiana is open to the idea of taking over nonprofit or “external agency” funding from city-parish government. CFA Director Raymond Hebert says the organization has been in talks with several city officials about the idea over the past year. Councilmen William Theriot and Jared Bellard are introducing an ordinance at tonight’s council meeting to zero out LCG’s supplemental funding of local nonprofits.

The ordinance also redirects the remaining three years of funding to the Community Foundation of Acadiana, which would then decide how the funds get distributed among the agencies.

Hebert acknowledged another idea being discussed is for LCG to continue funding nonprofits, but that the grants be awarded through the CFA, as a means of removing politics from the process.

AmeriCorps volunteers are still set to come to Incline Village this coming year even though Gov. Jim Gibbons and lawmakers didn't approve $365,000 in state funds to qualify for $7.5 million in federal money.

For the upcoming year the Corporation for National and Community service will issue the grant to keep the program funded from 2009 to 2010.

The AmeriCorps Program out of the Parasol Tahoe Community Foundation needs about $370,000 a year, and about $184,000 comes from a mix of state and federal funding. The 15 AmeriCorps volunteers work at local organizations like Tahoe Women's Services, the Tahoe Environmental Research Center, Project MANA, the Incline Village General Improvement District's WasteNot and Senior programs, the Children's Cabinet of Incline Village, the American Red Cross, The Boys and Girls club, the Tahoe Rim Trail Association and the Parasol Tahoe Community Foundation.

Originally when the bill didn't pass there was a lot of concern because AmeriCorps is such a big part of our community, said Allison Becker, AmeriCorps Program Director for the Parasol Tahoe Community Foundation. The threat of not having an AmeriCorps is pretty huge for some organizations because of the economic times.

As for the state program, Shawn Lecker-Pomaville, chief executive officer of Nevada Volunteers, which oversees Nevada's AmeriCorps program, says $32,000 is needed by early October just to keep the federal dollars coming in while efforts continue to find the full $365,000 in state or private funds.

The state money is needed to ensure the program gets $7.5 million in other funding for the next two fiscal years, starting on Wednesday and running through mid-2011. The other funding is a mix of dollars from federal, private and other non-state sources.

If we lose AmeriCorps, we really lose a major cog in the community and volunteering service sector of Nevada, she said.

In 2008, 139 AmeriCorps members, mostly college-age Nevadans who were paid minimum-wage salaries, worked in various education, human service, environment and public safety areas and also recruited more than 4,000 volunteers who donated their time.

The California Community Foundation has just awarded $900,000 to 19 Southern California nonprofit organizations. The grants are the first step in a three-phased Immigrant Integration Initiative to help immigrants integrate more fully into the civic and economic life of Los Angeles County. A total of $3.75 million has been allocated for additional programs in the Foundation’s five-year initiative effort.

Awards range from $25,000 to $200,000 for programs designed to ease tensions between immigrants and long-time residents, advocate for better community food resources and work with developers to influence local housing and commercial design projects. Other grantees will provide immigrants with increased access to job services and English language instruction in the workplace.