Grants

A dollar a month may not seem like much, but it can go a long way to improving literacy skills in communities across New Jersey while also giving people the opportunity to succeed. Thanks to the generosity of Verizon customers in New Jersey who participated in the company's Check Into Literacy program, 51 nonprofit organizations throughout the state received $250,000 in grants to support literacy programs.

Johnson & Johnson, the pharmaceutical company, announced today that it will commit $200-million over five years to improve the health of women and children in poor countries.

Three-quarters of the commitment from the company, in New Brunswick, N.J., will be in the form of cash grants to nonprofit organizations; the rest will be medicines and other supplies.

The Philadelphia Orchestra has received a $4.5 million pledge to its recovery efforts - the single largest vote of confidence to date in its still-evolving institutional vision. The award comes from the William Penn Foundation, which specifically cited the orchestra's new leadership as an impetus and stipulated that the money be split into three separate allocations:

$3 million will go directly to the orchestra's emergency bridge fund, bringing to $13 million the total raised for the effort, which has a current goal of $15 million.

Microsoft has announced the expansion of Elevate America, a community initiative that aims to provide twenty-first century technology skills to people in need of employment.

Through the initiative, the software giant will provide $4 million in cash and $6 million in software and technology skills-training support over the next two years to organizations working to develop scalable programs that respond to the skills-training needs of people across the country.

Sage North America today announced the Connect with Sage grant contest for its recently launched Sage Fundraising Online service. The contest will award grants to six nonprofit organizations. Entrants will be in two categories — smaller organizations and larger organizations — based on annual funds, and contest winners will be determined based on the total amount raising using Sage Fundraising Online.

The Board of Trustees of The Prudential Foundation recently approved $3.575 million in grants to nonprofit organizations dedicated to quality public education, enhancing community-based economic development, and sustaining livable communities.

For the second consecutive year, as part of its Environmental Champions campaign, the Sempra Energy Foundation will contribute $1 million to non-profit organizations with an environmental focus.
 This year’s initiative will extend to organizations in Southern California, Arizona, Nevada, Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi.

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- The Salesforce.com Foundation, the global leader in integrating philanthropy and business, today announced its 2010 Technology Innovation grant recipients, representing organizations from around the world working on issues ranging from poverty to human trafficking to helping at risk children. The Technology Innovation grants are awarded to visionary nonprofit organizations who are customizing their use of salesforce.com's technology to support their and others' abilities to implement their social change missions. This year's 15 recipients received a total of $240,000 and access to a dedicated salesforce.com employee volunteer to share their expertise and best practices

Charities nationwide are again facing financial strain because of state budget crises—and many states expect their woes to continue into 2012 and 2013.

Nearly every state expects revenue in the 2011 fiscal year, which started in July, to exceed collections from 2010, but state officials worry that revenue growth won’t be enough to replace lost federal stimulus dollars.

Kristin Mugford Elected to Gift Fund Board of Trustees BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Fidelity® Charitable Gift Fund ('Gift Fund'), the nation’s largest donor-advised fund program and third largest public charity1, today reported that its donors made more than 152,000 grants totaling $531 million to nonprofits nationwide during the first six months of 2010, up 27 percent and 16 percent, respectively, from the same period last year. Both of these totals represent the strongest first half for outgoing grants in the Gift Fund’s 19-year history2. 'Our donors continue to give at record levels, reflecting their ongoing commitment to supporting the causes