Clair County plans to launch a land bank in the coming days, a plan officials said will improve the development of tax-foreclosed properties.

County Treasurer Kelly Roberts-Burnett and the county's metropolitan planning commission already have set up an agreement with the state's land bank.

Starting tonight, they will seek public input and partnerships with area municipalities, housing nonprofits, economic development groups and the Community Foundation of St. Clair County.

The land bank "takes property that is unproductive, inasmuch as it has habitually gone through tax foreclose, and it allows the community to turn that property around and make it productive once again," said Bill Kaufman, executive director of the county's metro planning commission.

"I think it will definitely help," Roberts-Burnett said. Once a land bank has control, it can work to demolish structures, clean the property or transfer unbuildable land to neighbors -- among many other options.

Roberts-Burnett said such intervention is needed because out-of-state developers will often buy such land without ever seeing it. "If we have these properties that have issues with them, we can take whatever steps necessary to resolve the problems."

The number of tax foreclosures in the county increased by 25% from 2008 to 2009, or an increase from 42 in 2008 to 52 in 2009.

A property enters tax foreclosure after three consecutive years without paying taxes.

Roberts-Burnett said land banks, a growing trend in Michigan, help to stabilize and revitalize neighborhoods.

"Certainly having a dilapidated property brings down values," she said. The land bank "would help the landowners if we got that cleaned up."

Citing the greatest need for emergency services seen in its 36-year history, The Community Foundation for the National Capital Region announced today that its Neighbors in Need Fund is awarding $714,300 in new grants to safety net organizations that serve vulnerable residents throughout the metropolitan Washington region.

The Community Foundation is the largest funder of nonprofit organizations in the Washington region.

The grants, awarded on a competitive basis, will help 37 charities including food banks, homeless shelters, and clothing, meal, and foreclosure-prevention programs meet the Washington, DC region`s escalating demand for basic human services.

A study of Florida's 911 system found several areas where it falls short of providing the best in public safety services.

The Gulf Coast Community Foundation of Venice, a nonprofit philanthropic organization, released its findings of a year-long study Monday.

The results of the study showed there is no single state agency that monitors the effectiveness of the 258 different call centers in Florida.

Salin Bank is proud to announce a $20,000 contribution to the Columbus, Indiana-based Heritage Fund for “A Cause in Common.” The multi-million dollar Commons project will be the flagship of the downtown area and is designed to include retail, dining and conference space. The Salin Bank donation will be paid over a two year period. The first installment was presented this week to the Heritage Fund—the Community Foundation of Bartholomew County.

The city has hired a consultant to train local community groups, non-profits and the City Council to help improve leadership and implement some of the ideas generated at the Galesburg Advantage Visioning forums.

Six visioning forums earlier this year were attended by hundreds of local people who came together to discuss ideas to improve Galesburg. The city is now working to take those discussions to the next level by building a structure to develop ideas aired at the meetings.

The visioning process, which began at the Galesburg Advantage forums, has been refined to focus on three areas: Bringing ideas to fruition through partnering local agencies with themes; targeting participation with traditionally under-represented populations; and building capacity in local agencies to support the vision concepts and cultivate leadership.

Later in the fall, Galesburg Advantage will match those themes with local organizations which can begin to tackle them. The two workshops in September will be sponsored by the city in partnership with Galesburg Community Foundation, Carl Sandburg College and University of Illinois Extension.

The visioning sessions finished in April and the city has been working with a number of local groups to see how ideas generated at the forum can be developed.

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.

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.

Cleveland continues to have rich ethnic diversity in addition to a deep-rooted social legacy of philanthropy. Wealth generated from our once booming industries has contributed to our impressive cultural institutions (world class art museum and orchestra, among many others). The Cleveland Foundation is the oldest and second largest community foundation in the nation, and we have a slew of other local foundations that contribute to many non-profits in town.

We have a strong network of excellent non-profits that are committed to the social, environmental and economic sustainability of our city. These non-profits came together to create the government position of Program Director for the City of Cleveland’s Office of Sustainability, Andrew Watterson.

Affordable housing first in four major funding initiatives

MARIN COUNTY - After close to two years of strategic planning, the Marin Community Foundation commenced July 1 a completely redesigned funding model, shifting for the first time a majority of discretionary dollars to original projects jointly created by the organization in four primary focus areas.

The plan will begin this month with the purchase of about 20 foreclosed properties that will eventually be transformed into green affordable housing.

“We started this strategic planning with the goal of finding the best way to have the greatest impact. After input from many, many people in the community, we decided that meant better focusing our resources, which did call for some tough decisions,” said foundation President Thomas Peters.

“Projects were created through a more interactive process, through work with past partners but focused on new projects influenced by community input and decided upon by the foundation’s trustees.”

About 60 percent of the funds $25 million in annual discretionary spending will go to new projects in the four specific areas including affordable housing, carbon footprint reduction, lowering poverty and increasing educational achievement.

The remaining budget will be distributed through community grants focused on efforts in arts education, engaging the public in the arts, increasing access to open space for low-income residents, integrating immigrants into the community, improving health, services for seniors, protecting Marins ecosystem and fostering social justice.

The organization also distributes another $25 million to $30 million annually from about 300 families that goes directly to groups and projects of the donors choosing.

The first project for this years discretionary funding will transform bank-owned properties into affordable housing with about 80 percent less energy use.

NorthBay Family Homes President and Chief Executive Officer Clark Blasdell, who is helping to coordinate the effort with the foundation, said his organization has been tracking about 200 homes for possible purchase during the last year and will begin the transactions this month.

Each home will then go through a four- to six-week evaluation, where those needing the most work will be transferred to Habitat for Humanity families, who are required to spend at least 500 hours working on the home. Families between two and five members with wages of about 60 to 80 percent of the areas median income will be eligible for the housing.

Other organizations involved in the housing piece include the Greenbelt Alliance, the Nonprofit Housing Association of Northern California, the Marin Housing Authority and County Supervisor Steve Kinsey.

The foreclosed home project is part of several planned under the $10-million, five-year affordable housing initiative.

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.