Grants

Opus Bank and the Opus Community Foundation announced that the Foundation’s board of directors approved 13 grant awards. The grant awards will provide financial support to nonprofit organizations that make a positive and meaningful impact in the community and improve the quality of life of individuals and families, particularly the least advantaged, living in Opus Bank's communities.

A $5.375 million, multiyear grant recently awarded to the Alliance for Children and Families by The Kresge Foundation will encourage Alliance members to elevate the role of strategy in their work.

Recognizing that nonprofits face difficult challenges in achieving greater capacity and sustainable futures, the grant — the largest the Alliance has ever received — will underwrite the implementation and evaluation of various strategy models at 19 Alliance member agency pilot sites.

More than $1.2 million in federal grants from the national service program AmeriCorps has been awarded to five nonprofit organizations in Rhode Island.

The grant recipients — The Providence Plan, The Institute for the Study and Practice of Nonviolence, The Providence Children’s Museum, Save The Bay and Brown University — will use the money to support the work of 105 new AmeriCorps volunteers who will work with the organizations to provide services to needy youth and families.

The Obama administration plans to spend $500-million to help states expand innovative early-learning and child-care programs, the bulk of which are operated by nonprofits.

The new fund, called the Early Learning Challenge, will consume most of the $700-million that was allocated by Congress in April for Race to the Top, the grants program to help states improve the quality of their schools.

Like previous Race to the Top competitions, the Early Learning Challenge will award grants directly to states. The program will be administered jointly by the Department of Education and Department of Health and Human Services.

It's difficult to resist petting these hard workers. But Freedom Service Dogs have a job to do. And the Englewood, Colo.-based organization that trains the canines and pairs them with people with disabilities who can benefit from these working dogs' help ensure that they're able to do that job.

Stamford Hospital has received a $10 million grant from OdysseyRe, a leading worldwide underwriter of reinsurance and specialty insurance based in Stamford, to help fund the Hospital's recently approved Master Facility Plan. OdysseyRe was honored for its gift last night at Stamford Hospital's annual Leadership Dinner, held at the Rockrimmon County Club in Stamford.

Stamford Hospital announced in December 2008 an ambitious master facility plan that would include building a new hospital at its current location over a 10-15 year timeframe. The project is estimated at $575 million.

Nonprofits' grantseeking work may be finding its footing two-and-a-half years after the economy shattered, a new survey says.

Among 867 nonprofits responding to an online survey conducted by GrantStation and PhilanTech, 49 percent applied for more grants in the last six months of 2010 than they had in the same period a year earlier, and 34 percent applied for the same number of grants.

In the last six months of 2009, in comparison, 45 percent of respondents applied for more grants than they had in the same period of 2008.

Feeding America has announced a five-year, $5 million grant from the ConAgra Foods Foundation to help provide free and reduced-price meals for children over the summer months, when many lose access to nutritious meals at school.

Last year, the United States Department of Agriculture provided healthy meals to more than 20 million children during the school year, but to only 2.3 million children through its Summer Food Service Program. The foundation aims to supplement that program by awarding Hunger-Free Summer grants to foodbanks in twenty-three states.

The Shalem Center announced that it has received a $12.5 million challenge grant from the Tikvah Fund to help establish Israel’s first liberal arts college. The grant, intended to galvanize other major philanthropists to support the launching of Shalem College, provides a one-to-one match for gifts that are received during the college’s first four years. Shalem’s application for accreditation from Israel’s Council for Higher Education is pending, and it is anticipated that the college will open in fall 2012.

Education Pioneers, a national network of leaders and entrepreneurs committed to improving leadership within public education, but outside the classroom, announced it received a $7.6 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The grant will allow Education Pioneers to attract and develop more than 500 professionals, many of whom are specifically trained in data and analysis, to work in school districts, public charter organizations and state departments of education. This is the largest grant Education Pioneers has received in its eight years of operation.