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.

I would like to thank the Buck Foundation for the many years of support it has shown to our community and schools.

I had the privilege of being the recipient of these funds indirectly several times throughout my career in Vacaville. Most recently, my fifth-graders at Callison Elementary School were dazzled by the presentation from Ancient Artifacts on the Revolutionary War. This was made possible through a grant from the Solano Community Foundation, which received much of its support from the Buck Foundation.

As an educator and community member, I truly appreciate all the Buck Foundation has given. It has left quite a legacy.

"Orchestras are not funded by ticket sales," Beaudoin said. "I don’t think people understand what it costs."

"Given the months of preparation that have already gone into this concert, this was a very difficult decision," Behrens said. "It is part of a package of decisions relating to personnel, future programming, development, and marketing strategy designed to keep the orchestra solvent and set it on a firm foundation for the future."

Similar issues surround the cancellation of the summer holiday concerts.

In Beloit, the Stateline Community Foundation and businesses sponsored the holiday show. The Stateline Community Foundation was hard hit by the stock market plunge, as well.

The symphony is already preparing for the fall 2009-2010 season and is on "solid ground," Beaudoin said.

The Advance Library was recently awarded a $13,500 grant from the Community Foundation of Boone County.

The funds were used to purchase a new heating and air conditioning unit and will be used for a new front door. With the upgrades and many donations, the building has been opened to the community. A number of volunteers and donors have come together to make this facility a reality.

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The Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation has earmarked three areas to benefit from the $1 million donation made by Pfizer Inc. as it announced that it would close it's operation in the city.

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THROUGHOUT the history of the Marin Community Foundation, a defining theme of our work has been the promotion of equity and social justice: giving people from all backgrounds and circumstances the chance to thrive, often in the face of major obstacles.

Equity and social justice per se are not program areas at the foundation. They are, even more fundamentally, core values that pervade all our activities – our grantmaking, our efforts to bring people together to solve problems, and, when called for, our advocacy efforts.

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But bucking perceptions that high levels of immigration are jeopardizing national cohesion, the data showed that today's immigrants, like those before them, are embracing an American identity. In Los Angeles County, for instance, the proportion of native Spanish speakers fluent in English increased to 51.4% in 2007 from 44.6% in 2000. The share of naturalized citizens among the foreign-born grew to 43.3% from 38% over that time.

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Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust has awarded 21 grants totaling $3.3 million for innovations in pediatric hospice care, fighting childhood obesity, expanding a popular entrepreneurial training program for youth and creating a new Jewish history center on the site of the first synagogue in Phoenix.

"Piper Trust is honored to support projects that introduce new models and best practices, and build on the rich heritage of the Valley," said Judy Jolley Mohraz, Ph.D., president and CEO of Piper Trust. "These grants will make a difference in the lives of our youngest to our oldest residents throughout the Valley."

$3.3 million in grants made to Maricopa County nonprofits.

The University of Hawai’i at Manoa’s Lyon Arboretum has been awarded $105,000 over 3 years by the Hawai‘i Community Foundation for expansion of its collections of culturally significant native Hawaiian plants in its display gardens, greenhouses, and seed and tissue culture laboratory facilities. “Because of our unique ability to propagate such plants, we will not only be serving as an important storage, or ‘bank’ to safeguard important culturally-significant plants, but will also provide a distribution center for other organizations,” says Dr. Christopher Dunn, the Arboretum’s director.

News from the University of Hawaii 10-Campus System.