Grants

The Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles (The Foundation) announced it has awarded a total of $1.2 million in Cutting Edge Grants to seven local nonprofit organizations whose programs seek to address social issues, Jewish education for special needs students and Jewish continuity.

The grant recipients are Moishe House, Beit T’Shuvah, Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, Builders of Jewish Education of Greater Los Angeles, Simon Wiesenthal Center, Israeli Leadership Council and Academy for Jewish Religion, California.

MetLife Foundation and Theatre Communications Group (TCG) announce the fourth round of recipients for the MetLife/TCG A-ha! Program: Think It, Do It, which supports the creative thinking and action of TCG member theatres with the goal of impacting the larger theatre community. Five theatres were awarded grants, totaling $225,000, to either research and develop new ideas or experiment and implement innovative concepts.

The 2011 MetLife/TCG A-ha! Program recipients are Perseverance Theatre, Center for New Performance at CalArts, Curious Theatre Co., Salvage Vanguard Theater and The Wooster Group.

The California Charter Schools Association has received a $15-million grant from the Walton Family Foundation to add 20,000 more charter school students in Los Angeles and 100,000 statewide.

The grant is the largest by far to the California Charter Schools Assn., and also the largest of its kind from the nonprofit established by the founders of the Wal-Mart Corp.

The Rockefeller Foundation, a global leader in philanthropy, has awarded a $515,000 grant to Calvert Foundation. The grant will fund strategic planning efforts that will help determine next steps for Calvert Foundation’s role as a leader in impact investing. Calvert Foundation, a public charity, raises money from the public to finance community groups providing jobs, health care and more in the U.S., and microfinance and other poverty alleviating activities in developing countries. The objective of this type of investing is to provide a social and financial return to investors.

The National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), the largest professional organization in the world promoting excellence and innovation in science teaching and learning for all, announced that it has been awarded a $3 million grant from The Dow Chemical Company Foundation, the philanthropic organization for The Dow Chemical Co., to support the participation of 480 early-career science teachers from Louisiana, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Texas over a three-year period in the NSTA New Science Teacher Academy.

The JPMorgan Chase Foundation is making a $1 million grant to help about 70 police officers and city employees move back to Detroit over the next two years. City workers will receive money for a down payment on homes in two Detroit Works demonstration neighborhoods, and police also can qualify for assistance to purchase homes in Project 14 neighborhoods.

The Center for Arab American Philanthropy (CAAP) announced its third round of grant making, which includes AACDC and Al-Bustan Seeds of Culture among 12 grassroots organizations throughout the country to receive a total of $53,000. CAAP has awarded nearly $180,000 since it began making grants in 2009.

icouldbe.org, an online mentoring program for at-risk middle and high school students, today announced that E*TRADE Bank has renewed its support of the nonprofit organization, marking the ninth consecutive year. E*TRADE will provide icouldbe.org with a one-year grant of $300,000 to fund the organization’s online youth mentoring programs in low-income communities in New York City, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., San Diego and Los Angeles.

Help, and a lot of cash, is on the way to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill victims in North Florida. Catholic Charities of Northwest Florida, a social ministry of the Catholic Church, has been selected by the Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors to administer a $3.5 million fund that will assist local residents who were financially, emotionally or physically injured by the spill. The fund was created by an anonymous donation to the Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.

The Joyce Foundation is awarding 35 organizations more than $7 million in its summer 2011 grant-making cycle. The Foundation supports efforts to protect the Great Lakes, to reduce poverty and violence in the region, and to ensure its residents good schools, decent jobs, a strong democracy, and a diverse and thriving culture. In July 2011, Joyce awarded $7,369,338 in grants in six different program areas including Education, Employment, Environment, Gun Violence, Culture, and Special Opportunities.