Grants

Sage North America announced that the Grant Professionals Association, the premier membership organization of grant professionals, has endorsed its new Sage Grant Management solution. Web-based and available either on-premises or in a hosted environment, Sage Grant Management helps nonprofit and government organizations maximize their funding potential by tracking grants and providing transparency at the organization, program, and grant levels.

Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors has announced a first round of grants through its California Education Policy Fund (CEPF) to organizations working to advance education policy reform in California.

Totaling $3.73 million over three years, the nine grants will support efforts to boost student achievement and college success, especially among underserved students. Established earlier this year with a $3.5 million gift from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and overseen by RPA, the fund aims to support an "ecosystem" of advocacy groups that can engage a broad array of stakeholders to effect policy changes at the state level.

Forty-four community organizations around the world will receive a total of $6 million in grant awards from The Coca-Cola Foundation, the philanthropic arm of The Coca-Cola Company. The grants, approved during the second quarter, support community initiatives aimed at improving education, fitness and nutrition programs, community recycling and access to clean water.

Since the beginning of the year, The Coca-Cola Foundation has awarded more than $38 million to 123 organizations. Of the $6 million allocated during the second quarter, approximately $5.4 million support the Foundation's community investment priorities, including:

The Riverside, Calif. branch of a national nonprofit that assists veterans with finding homes and jobs was awarded a $175,000 federal grant to bolster the organization's employment services, it was announced Friday.

The United States Veterans Initiative, which runs a support center for ex-service members at March Air Reserve Base, was one of 23 recipients of a total $5.43 million grant issuance by the U.S. Department of Labor's Homeless Veterans' Reintegration Program.

The Corporation for National and Community Service announced that five new intermediaries will be receiving grants from the Social Innovation Fund. The five awards total $13.9 million and will fund the initial two years of each grant, which address challenges in the critical areas of affordable housing, homelessness, obesity, early education and literacy.

The five new grantees include Corporation for Supportive Housing, Mile High United Way, NCB Capital Impact, the U.S. Soccer Foundation and the United Way of Southeastern Michigan.

Youth Villages, a Memphis, Tenn.-based national organization that provides a wide array of services to children and families in 11 states and Washington, D.C., will receive the largest grant in the organization’s history, and one of the largest ever awarded to a social services organization.

The Day Foundation has announced it will donate a $42 million legacy challenge grant that primarily will be used to expand the organization’s transitional living (TL) program, which helps older foster children become successful adults.

REI (Recreational Equipment Inc.), a national outdoor gear and clothing retailer, announced plans to grant $4.2 million this year to nonprofits across the country that work to preserve and maintain natural spaces through active volunteer programs.

The company designates 3 percent of the previous year's operating profit to its annual grants program. Because REI employees have the most direct connection to local nonprofits, store employees nominate organizations from their local community. REI invites selected nominees to apply for grant funding. Eligible organizations must be outdoor nonprofits that promote active volunteerism through their programs.

Aetna and the Aetna Foundation together awarded $1.03 million in community grants and sponsorships to Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organizations during 2010. The grants were made to organizations addressing a variety of health issues, including obesity among adults and children, racial and ethnic equity in health care, and needed improvements in the integration and coordination of health care services. In addition, grants were made in support of arts and cultural programs, human services and academic organizations, faith-based initiatives and many others.

At a time when for-profit theaters may be feeling the pressure to cave in to the economic pinch and roll out the revivals, nonprofit San Francisco-based American Conservatory Theater is still taking chances.

A Cincinnati-area nonprofit organization is assisting high school students throughout the Tri-State in not only giving to charity, but learning more about the spirit of philanthropy and social causes. Magnified Giving, a nonprofit organization based in the Cincinnati suburb of Reading, enters its fourth year of teaching students to become philanthropists through placing the decision of what charities to donate funds to upon the shoulders of students.

The program allows students and teachers in 15 area high schools to form Youth Grantmaking Councils charged with dispersing a grant of at least $1,000 to charities.