Students entered their original work in art, essay, music and poetry categories, with professionals in each category evaluating entries and selecting the winners.

All entries addressed one of two themes: Tell us about any African American past or present and why you want to be like that person or how are you making history in your community/neighborhood?

Scholarship winners

Two Plymouth-Canton students were among 20 students who were awarded scholarships by Plymouth-based Community Financial Credit Union in collaboration with the Community Foundation of Plymouth and the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation.

Margaret Dunning Scholarship winners included Christine Kardel of Canton and Lauren Conley of Plymouth.

Community Financial scholarships are part of an annual essay and recommendation-based program.

Presents at Albion

Eric Guindi co-presented a research/scholarship project titled “Albion Accelerator Projects: Makerspace” during a two-day celebration of student research, scholarship and creative activity at Albion College’s Elkin R.

Make billions, then give it away: Gates, Buffett talk philanthropy

Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett have amassed huge fortunes that they’re determined to give away through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

“It’s pretty phenomenal that right as we had learned a lot of things, when we were building up our capacity, that we got this doubling of capacity so that, things like agriculture and malaria eradication over time,” said Microsoft founder and Gates Foundation co-chair Bill Gates.

“With me, it started on July 5, 1991, and Bill was reluctant to meet me, but we hit it off,” Buffett said.

Gates Foundation co-chair Melinda Gates said: “It’s funny.

Two years ago, Melinda began a project to give women in developing countries access to contraceptives and education on family planning.

According to the Gates Foundation, there are over 220 million women in developing countries who don’t want to get pregnant but lack access to birth control.

“I remember once, early after we [Bill and Warren] met, that the Buffett Foundation was accused of funding a cherry-flavored condom and it turned out they were guilty.”

Community grants improve quality of life : Crown Point Community

Grant application packets are available from the Crown Point Community Foundation Inc.

CROWN POINT | The Crown Point Community Foundation awarded $124,049.57 in 28 community grants during its recent grant cycle. Grantees ranged from a pet rescue to a community theater, all in the Crown Point and surrounding community :

Calumet College of St. Francis Rescue – $1,000 to pay veterinary care of rescued catsChasing Dreams – $3,000 to purchase teaching aids for families and children with special needsChild Evangelism Fellowship of NWI – $1,000 to start Good News Clubs for elementary school childrenCity of Crown Point – $14,500 for a score board for new baseball fieldsBulldog Workshop CPHS Transition Program – $750 to continue the “Bulldog Bucks” incentive programCASS Program – $7,500 to solidify and maximize the healthy psychosocial well being of Crown Point high and middle school studentsCPHS AP Testing – $2,000 to pay for AP testingCPHS Vex Robotics-Underdogs 1233 – $5,130 for the creative and educational after-school activityLake Street Elementary School Kindergarten – $1,261.76 to purchase stability ballsPositive Behavior Support Program – $3,000 for grades K-5 anti-bullying programSolon Robinson Elementary School – $3,500 to purchase musical instrumentsVisiting Cartoonist – $2,700 to help fund a visiting cartoonist for six elementary schoolsCrown Point Community Theatre – $5,000 for signage and marketingCrown Point LaCrosse – $5,000 to grow the programCrown Point Panthers Inc.

OUR VIEW: Goshen Theater is worth saving – Goshen News: Opinion OUR VIEW: Goshen Theater is worth saving

GOSHEN THEATER INC. (GTI), headed by Gina Leichty, has breathed new life into the Goshen Theater and is committed to making sure it plays a role in the vitality of our city. Then known as the Jefferson Theater, the rebuilt theater helped usher in a golden age of theater in Goshen, attracting big-name shows from Chicago and New York.

Salem Community Foundation names officers, reviews financials – SalemNews.net | News, Sports, Jobs, Ohio, Community Information – The Salem News

SALEM – Published annual financial statements were reviewed, officers were re-elected, and three grant requests were approved when Salem Community Foundation directors met for their combined regular April quarterly and annual meeting.

Copies of the annual financial report featuring the Salem Historical Society’s Dale Shaffer Research Library are available at the Salem Community Foundation office located in the Consumers National Bank at 141 S. All serve five-year terms without compensation.

Grant requests approved at the regular meeting were awarded to the Salem Community Theatre, $8,246 to make improvements to the facility; Sophia Women’s Center, $13,364 to purchase office furniture and equipment for the center; and Salem Community Center, $6,820 for, a starting system, stopwatches and LED scoreboard to be used in the Reasbeck Natatorium.

The Salem Community Foundation continues to work diligently to enhance the quality of life for all residents in our community by supporting the arts and humanities, education, public and community services, and human services. The foundation has a rich history of granting millions of dollars over the years that have touched every local citizen in a positive way.

Tonti shared the following thanks at the annual meeting, “I would like to express my sincere gratitude to those who have been a vital part of the building and sustaining of the Salem Community Foundation.

Grant applications and guidelines are available at or by phoning the Salem Community Foundation office at 330-332-4021.

This yearas recipient is Elaine Katz, the senior vice president of Grants and Communications for the Kessler Foundation.

Elaine Katz(Photo: Courtesy of Community Options)

Story HighlightsCommunity Options provides housing, employment services to people with disabilitiesBetty Pendler Award was named for Betty Pendler, a member of the Board of Directors for the AHRC

PRINCETON a Every year since 1991, Community Options presents a citizen with the Betty Pendler award. Department of Education and disability advocate Madeleine Will (2000) and chairman of NJ Republican State Committee David Norcross (1997).

Through her years of continued advocacy and support for people with disabilities everywhere, Community Options is proud to honor Elaine Katz with the Betty Pendler Award.

About Community Options

For over 25 years, Community Options has developed housing and employment programs for people with disabilities.

Here are ways you can join the community effort to show appreciation for teachers and other staff in the La Crosse School District:

On Facebook or Twitter, share your thanks or reflections on favorite teachers, using the hashtag #ThankATeacher.

Join other community members at your local school to offer thanks in small staff gatherings on Wednesday before school. Call the La Crosse Public Education Foundation office weekdays at 608-787-0226 or check with your school for times and locations.

Write a personal note or make some other gesture of thanks to individual teachers or staff members.

If you’d like to give a gift in honor of a teacher or other staff member, find more information at www.LaCrosseEducationFoundation.org.

And many of those people were teachers.

Please join with the La Crosse Public Education Foundation on Wednesday for Thank a Teacher in La Crosse Public Schools Day.

Mayor Tim Kabat will issue a proclamation, joining the members of the La Crosse School Board, Superintendent Randy Nelson and other district leaders in support of the day of recognition.

Volunteers will be delivering messages of thanks plus some muffins, doughnuts and fresh fruit throughout the district before the start of school on Wednesday.

Treats for nearly 1,000 employees are provided because of grant support from the La Crosse Community Foundation’s Carol and Duane Taebel Family Fund. Other community volunteers are expected to participate, including Rotary Interact Clubs from Central and Logan high schools.

Later on Wednesday, the La Crosse Public Education Foundation will join in another special celebration as we help sponsor the school district’s annual retirement dinner.

This year’s event will honor 26 people teachers and a host of other district employees from cooks to custodians to counselors with a combined 550 years of service in La Crosse’s public schools.

While several have already retired, most will complete their service when the school year ends in June.

The end of the school year is a good time to reflect on what teachers and other staff have meant to our lives.

Recently, we received a gift along with a letter indicating the donation was being made “in honor of our granddaughters’ teachers this year” at Emerson Elementary School.

The letter went on to say: “We are thrilled with (our granddaughters’) love of learning and their excitement with Emerson Elementary and its offerings. It’s important to us that public education and public school teachers know they are appreciated.”

We hope you’ll join us Wednesday or any day in showing gratitude for the valuable contributions made each day by teachers and all employees of the School District of La Crosse.

David Stoeffler is executive director of the La Crosse Public Education Foundation.

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Donors and nonprofits must anticipate and prepare for the eventual end of most grants.

Major gifts are the lifeblood of nonprofits enabling them to pay overhead, hire workers and implement the programs designed to achieve their missions. Some grantees may even develop a sense of entitlement.

When individual, family, foundation or corporate donors decide to exit the funding relationship and move on, a nonprofit can be left reeling from the loss of funding. Valid reasons for a donor’s exit might include:

A change of focus area as donors become increasingly strategic in their grant making.

A decision to discontinue the business of grant-making by “spending down” a foundation’s endowment or a donor-advised fund’s corpus.

Dissatisfaction with a nonprofit’s impact on an issue of importance.

A breakdown in personal relationships or a redirection of philanthropic priorities because of a change in leadership on either side.

Running out of money because of an economic downturn or other circumstances.

In the corporate context, a merger or acquisition that results in a geographic relocation or a change in grant-making strategy.

Different strategic priorities in the next generation of family funders.

Deciding to stop funding

A donor’s decision to stop funding can be very challenging for a nonprofit depending on the amount of the donation, the lead-time given by the donor and the way in which the decision is communicated.

The biggest challenges can include finding other sources of funding, reducing staff, cutting programs, facing the stigma of the loss, dealing with the board’s response and acting quickly to assure the nonprofit’s long-term sustainability.

The decision to end funding can be difficult for the donor, too. These steps include:

Clear, honest, consistent and repeated communication (written and oral) with grantees about the reasons for, and the timing of, the decision to end the funding relationship.

Providing as much lead time as possible to enable the nonprofit to adjust to cuts or generate alternative funding sources.

Internal organizational training along with consistency in preparation and messaging so that a nonprofit is unable to make an “end run” in an attempt to reverse a funder’s decision especially when the funder is a corporation or foundation.

Genuine offers of support to the nonprofit to assist it with building capacity, finding other funding sources, managing technology and public relations, and convening grantees to facilitate collaboration.

Acknowledgment and celebration of the successes achieved and the impacts that resulted from the funding relationship.

A recognition of the unique power dynamics between funders and grantees and a sensitivity to the difficulties faced by grantees because of the disparity.

An understanding that the end of a funding relationship is a natural and normal part of the process and, ultimately, healthy for the nonprofit sector.

A good way to lessen the impact of the end of a funding relationship is to set realistic expectations from the start about relationship parameters, including the duration of anticipated support.

The Roxy Theatre’s electrical facilities were upgraded thanks to a Vancouver Foundation grant.

The Roxy Theatre’s electrical facilities were upgraded thanks to a Vancouver Foundation grant.

Registered charities in Greater Victoria received more than $900,000 last year from the Vancouver Foundation, Canada’s largest community foundation with assets of nearly $1 billion.

Now, the foundation wants to dish out even more dollars through its revamped field of interest grants that offer up to $75,000 per year for social innovations.

“Although we are called Vancouver Foundation, we have a provincial mandate,” said Jon Garner, communications manager for grants and community initiatives.

Charities and other qualified organizations are invited to find out more about three new types of field of interest grants aimed at innovative projects in arts and culture, education and training, environment and health, and social development before the May 15 deadline.