Issue No. 7: July 2008

The New England Philanthropy Digest brings you the news of the essential role that philanthropy plays in your communities. Published monthly, the Digest is sent to funders, legislators and media sources throughout New England.

Please email us your news and feedback by clicking here.
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A summary of recent activities by New England’s foundations and grantmakers. The New England Philanthropy Digest is brought to you by Associated Grant Makers, Maine Philanthropy Center, and the Connecticut Council for Philanthropy through a grant from the Forum of Regional Associations of Grantmakers. Editor: Rick Schwartz.

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Connecticut

Foundation helps schools prepare for leadership changes

Rebecca Wolfe of the Fairfield County Community Foundation predicts half of the public school principals in Bridgeport, Danbury, Norwalk, and Stamford will retire in the next five years. Crisis or opportunity?

The foundation launched a School Leadership Initiative last year to fill those positions “with exceptional, passionate leaders trained in the best methods available.”

Aspiring principals for those school districts just received a five-day crash course and will be coached throughout the next academic year, thanks to the foundation’s $200,000 partnership with the Connecticut Center for School Change, a Hartford nonprofit group.

"One of the most significant focuses of the [foundation’s] fellowship program is to develop the capacity to have a clear and common understanding of what good teaching is, how you support teachers in their work in the classroom, how you approach that work across an entire building and the district," Norwalk Superintendent Salvatore Corda told the Stamford Advocate.

For the Foundation’s feature story.

For more information: Rebecca Wolfe: 203-750-3200; rwolfe@fccfoundation.org.

Fashion show or arts education?

Hip fashion collided with arts education last month, and the beneficiaries are local teen apprentices.

Glastonbury-based Graffi*tee Studios unveiled new lines of graffiti-inspired tees during a show at National Jean Company in West Hartford. The owners donated part of the proceeds to the Greater Hartford Arts Council’s Neighborhood Studios teen apprenticeship program.

This summer marks the program’s 10th year. It apprentices regional youths in intensive workshops with professional Master Teaching Artists for six weeks. Apprentices receive a weekly stipend for their work and participate in a job-skills curriculum in addition to learning specific art or performance techniques. Each studio works toward a final “Showcase” presentation or exhibition, which is open to the public.

The Greater Hartford Arts Council partners with five Hartford-based cultural organizations “to provide distinctive learning experiences,” says Ken Kahn, Greater Hartford Arts Council executive director. They are Amistad Center for Art & Culture, Artists Collective, Charter Oak Cultural Center, Hartford Stage and Real Art Ways.

For more information: Karin Diamond, 860-525-8629, ext. 249; KDiamond@LetsGoArts.org

State’s oldest community foundation turns 85

The oldest of the state’s 20+ community foundations – the Connecticut Community Foundation – celebrated its 85th anniversary recently. Nearly 160 people filled the Mattatuck Museum Arts and History Center for an evening of 1920s music, to recognize the decade when local leaders first established what was then the Waterbury Foundation.

In 2007, the foundation awarded more than $1.3 million in grants to the region’s nonprofit organizations and $400,000 in scholarships to area students. The foundation’s endowment totaled $54.2 million at year’s end.

For more information: Ann Merriam Feinberg, 203-753-1315, amerriamfeinberg@conncf.org.

Nonprofit helps other nonprofits search for new leaders

Grantmakers throughout Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island have been alarmed by reports that “baby boomer”-age executive directors of nonprofits will soon be retiring in record numbers.

An advisory board of foundation experts from the Connecticut Council for Philanthropy to Cape Cod to Providence chose Third Sector New England, a nonprofit based in Boston, to design and implement the Executive Transitions Program. The initiative places expert transition consultants and interim executive directors at organizations to run, strategize, assess, and search for new leadership.

For more information: Hez Norton, 617-523-6565 or hnorton@tsne.org.

Foundation offers boost to community college grads

The Hartford Courant Foundation is offering scholarship aid to central Connecticut community college graduates so they can receive a bachelor’s degree from the University of Connecticut.

The 10-year scholarship program will run through 2018, and provides up to three years funding to students who have completed an associate’s degree at Capital, Manchester, Tunxis or Middlesex community colleges — and have been accepted at UConn through the Guaranteed Admissions Program. (Students who maintain a B average at Connecticut’s community colleges earn guaranteed admission to UConn.)

Approximately 75 percent of UConn’s students receive some form of financial assistance. Scholarships not only fill a critical need for students from low-income households, but also help attract high-achieving students from diverse backgrounds.

For more information: Kate Miller, 860-241-6472, kmiller@courant.com, www.hcfdn.org.

Company helps Hartford celebrate
200th anniversary of Lincoln’s birthday

Some people just send a card, but the Lincoln Financial Group and its foundation went all out in honoring its namesake and the 16th U.S. president. Last month, the company’s donation of $600,000 culminated in the installation of a 16-piece riverfront sculpture park depicting the life of Abraham Lincoln, whose 200th birthday will be celebrated in 2009.

The project was coordinated through a partnership with the Greater Hartford Arts Council and Riverfront Recapture.

“It was a very complex project that stretched out over four years,” Kenneth Kahn, executive director of the Greater Hartford Arts Council, told the Hartford Business Journal. “I don’t think there’s another corporation that has invested in another themed sculpture park.”

“We just saw it as a very dramatic way to enforce our commitment to the city,” added Lisa Curran, program officer for the Lincoln Financial Foundation.

Click here to view photos and a map of the Lincoln Financial Sculpture Walk at Riverfront.

For more information: Lisa Curran, 860-466-2964, Lisa.Curran@lfg.com

The Hartford donates scholarships-plus

Thirteen Hartford high school seniors are going to receive substantial scholarships from The Hartford Financial Services Group, it’s true, but they come bundled with summer employment and mentoring opportunities as well.

The company’s two annual college scholarship programs – the Alliance for Academic Achievement Scholarship and the STAG Leadership Scholarship – will provide annual stipends of $5,000 and $3,500 respectively. Both scholarship programs include summer employment, mentoring, and life skills courses.

The STAG program, now in its 42nd year, is an internship program for juniors and seniors from Hartford public and magnet high schools. STAG students receive job and life skills training through after-school and summer employment at The Hartford. Since its founding, more than 1,600 students have graduated from the program and more than 250 are currently full-time Hartford employees.

The Alliance for Academic Achievement program is a partnership between The Hartford, Trinity College, the University of Connecticut, and Howard University.

For a complete list of the scholarship awardees.

For more information: Heather Lodini, 860-547-3301, Heather.Lodini@thehartford.com.

Company makes generous grant of “people”

United Technologies Corp reports it will complement its grants to the state with human capital: UTC employees.

Under UTC's new program, "Building Community Excellence," company employees will work with Greater Hartford non-profits to increase their efficiencies and performance.

Launch projects include finance and strategic planning assistance and an energy audit for the Mark Twain House; an energy audit for Hartford Stage; information technology improvements at Connecticut Public Television to enhance customer relations; and affordable green housing for the South Arsenal Neighborhood Development in Hartford's North End.

Other beneficiaries will be the Connecticut Science Center, the Greater Hartford Marathon, and the Hartford Symphony Orchestra.

United Technologies provides high technology products and services to the global aerospace and building industries.

For more information: Kate Robins, 860-728-7980.


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Maine

New website for New England’s social entrepreneurs

There’s a new hub of interactive, social entrepreneurial activity, and it’s online at the Great Bay Foundation, based in Yarmouth.

Great Bay makes grants to nonprofits in all the New England states (except Connecticut) with “an entrepreneurial attitude, drive and vision,” that work toward social change.

The new website reports that Great Bay is looking for projects that “help individuals living on the edges of society become more self-reliant and less dependent through the acquisition of skills, improvement of their faculties, training, jobs, etc.” and leads to the organization becoming self-sufficient by generating revenue.

The site features videos like “Social Entrepreneurs: In Their Own Words,” and BlogCentral.

For more information: Elizabeth Isele, director, Outreach and Impact, 207-846-1131.

California-based (but Maine-inspired!) foundation
contributes $500k to MECA

He lives in San Francisco with his wife Barbro, who is Consul General for Sweden. But Bernard Osher is a native of Biddeford, a graduate of Bowdoin College, and began his successful business career managing his family’s hardware and plumbing supplies store in Maine.

No surprise, then, that the state continues to benefit greatly from The Bernard Osher Foundation.

The latest beneficiary is the Maine College of Art, which has received two grants totaling $500,000. A grant of $350,000 will support the construction and equipping of a lecture hall to hold academic lectures, meetings, film screenings, and visiting artist programs. The other $150,000 will be added to The Bernard Osher Foundation Scholarship Fund for Maine students.

MECA also received $75,000 from the Davis Family Foundation of Falmouth for capital improvements to its Porteous Building. The foundation supports educational, medical and cultural/arts organizations located primarily in Maine. H. Halsey Davis was president and chairman of Shaw’s Supermarkets, Inc.

Switzer Foundation includes New England students,
projects among latest environmental efforts

Ten of the 25 recently-announced 2008 Switzer Fellows chosen to further their studies and work in the environment are from New England.

The Robert and Patricia Switzer Foundation, based in Belfast, reported that the 25 Fellows come from 16 graduate schools, spanning a range of environmental disciplines. Each Fellow is awarded $15,000 towards his or her academic studies and ongoing professional and leadership development support through grants, trainings, and networking events.

(Click here for a complete list of the New England-based Fellows.)

In addition to the 25 Fellowships, the Switzer Foundation funded eight non-profit institutions to collaborate with Switzer Fellows to address an environmental issue. Two are New England-based: Dorchester Bay Economic Development Corp., Dorchester, MA; and Hubbard Brook Research Foundation, Hanover, NH.

The Robert and Patricia Switzer Foundation is a family foundation focusing on positive environmental change.

For more information: Lissa Widoff, executive director, lissa@switzernetwork.org.

Higher ed symposium: the critical link to economic growth

Plan to be at the Fourth Annual Maine Symposium on Higher Education, on Thursday, August 7, at the University of Southern Maine in Portland. Everyone else who sees higher education as essential to the state’s future will be there, including Selma Botman, incoming president, USM; Laura Fortman, commissioner, Maine Dept. of Labor; Matthew Jacobson, President & CEO, Maine & Company; and Henry Schmelzer, president, Maine Community Foundation.

Participants will be asking key questions during sessions entitled:

  • What’s the Connection Between Business Growth and Money for College?
  • What are State Government, Philanthropies and Higher Education Doing to Ensure Financial Access?
  • The Harold Alfond College Challenge – A Special Briefing
  • What’s the Gap Between Maine College Student Financial Needs and the Resources Available to Them?
  • What is Maine’s Action Agenda?

The symposium is being hosted by the Maine Compact for Higher Education, founded by the Maine Development Foundation and the Maine Community Foundation, and sponsored in part by the Portland Regional Chamber.

For more information: Henry Bourgeois, executive director, Maine Compact for Higher Education, henryb@mdf.org, 207.347.8638.

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Bank merger results in increased footprint
(and funding) for Non-Profit Training Resource Fund

The TD Charitable Foundation has increased the funding available through its Non-Profit Training Resource Fund to $300,000, but the program now serves eligible organizations based throughout the new “footprint” created by the merger of TD Banknorth and Commerce Bank, including all the New England states except Rhode Island.

The Non-Profit Training Resource Fund will donate up to $1,000 per calendar year to nonprofits to cover tuition expenses for courses that will strengthen employees' job performances.

To be eligible, an organization must have 501(c)(3) status, and its focus must be to support affordable housing for low- and moderate-income individuals; to promote small business development; or to provide financial literacy programs to low- and moderate-income youth, individuals or families.

Applications are accepted on a rolling basis.

TD Banknorth is a banking and financial services company headquartered in Portland, Maine and owned by TD Bank Financial Group of Toronto. Ultimately it will be called TD Commerce Bank.


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Massachusetts

Sturbridge summit launches effort for state’s first oral health plan

Oral health advocates in Massachusetts gathered in Sturbridge last month to begin creating a comprehensive Oral Health Plan for the state, with a primary goal of making it available for all the state’s residents. An estimated 200 or more dentists, physicians, lawmakers, state officials, insurers, and health advocates attended.

The major sponsors of the summit were the Oral Health Foundation, Partners for a Healthier Community, Massachusetts Dental Society, Massachusetts Department of Public Health, the Massachusetts Dental Hygienists’ Association, and Delta Dental of Massachusetts.

The summit followed the January 2008 release of the Catalyst Institute’s “The Oral Health of Massachusetts Children,” funded by Delta Dental of Massachusetts. The study reported that Black third-grade students experience nearly three times the level of untreated dental disease as white third-graders, while third-grade students from low-income and Hispanic families are nearly twice as likely to have untreated dental caries as their white and higher income peers.

For more information: Paul Jean/Kristie DiSalvo, 617-482-0042.

“Investors” in urban education gather for Showcase

EdVestors attracted more than 150 philanthropists, educators, and community leaders to its 6th Annual Urban Education Investment Showcase this past Spring. The annual event features a cadre of urban school improvement initiatives in Boston and Lowell into which prospective donors may choose to invest.

According to EdVestors, its donors are contributing more than $1.25 million for urban school improvement efforts in the two cities. Outcomes are shared among all donors and grantees.

For more information: EdVestors, 617-585-5740, info@edvestors.org.

New report reasserts importance of manufacturing to state’s economy

The Boston Foundation isn’t giving up on manufacturing as key to the state’s future economic growth, and outlines its arguments in a new report, Staying Power: The Future of Manufacturing in Massachusetts based on research by the Center for Urban and Regional Policy at Northeastern University.

Staying Power states that almost 10 percent of the state’s workforce is employed in manufacturing, creating almost $40 billion worth of goods annually. The sector retains more than 8,600 firms that are technologically sophisticated and well positioned to compete successfully in the emerging global economy.

The report was commissioned by the state’s 2006 Economic Stimulus bill. Partners in the publication included the Manufacturing Extension Partnership, the Massachusetts Alliance for Economic Development and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, in addition to the Boston Foundation.

National task force calls for “Broader, Bolder Approach to Education”

The Quincy, MA-based Nellie Mae Education Foundation is the lead funder for “A Broader, Bolder Approach to Education,” a national campaign led by a task force of education, social welfare, health, housing, and civil rights experts.

The task force charges that school reform alone will fail in closing the achievement gap.

“After six years, it has become clear that No Child Left Behind has not succeeded in improving the quality of education available to America's neediest children. This Task Force is united around the need for a more comprehensive approach to federal policy that specifically responds to the needs of children and schools in low-income areas,” said Task Co-Chair Pedro Noguera, a sociologist at New York University and an expert on educational policy. "Our 'Bold Approach' identifies critical community support systems that can effectively work to narrow the disheartening achievement gap that exists in America."

Among other items, “A Broader, Bolder Approach to Education” calls for:

  • smaller classes in early grades for disadvantaged children;
  • high-quality early childhood, pre-school and kindergarten education;
  • routine pediatric, dental, hearing and vision care for all infants, toddlers and schoolchildren; and
  • Improving the quality of students’ out-of-school time.

For more information: www.boldapproach.org.

Back to school for grantmakers

Associated Grant Makers is co-sponsoring a New England-wide seminar for grantmakers November 12-14 in Hartford, CT. Called “Advanced Proposal Analysis: A Critical Examination of Complex Issues,” the intensive program is designed for experienced grantmakers, and is led by national experts.

For more information: www.grantmakingschool.org.

10 best ways for philanthropy to advance civil rights

Greg and Maria Jobin-Leeds’ reflection on their family’s civil rights efforts through philanthropy appeared in the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy’s Spring 2008 newsletter.

With income from the sale of a family high-tech business, the couple established two foundations: The Schott Foundation for Public Education and the Access Strategies Fund. The Schott Foundation seeks to improve the quality of public education through movement building in Massachusetts and New York. Access works to engage voters in disenfranchised communities to improve public policy.

After more than 15 years in the field, they offered the following ten rules (for the complete article, click here):

  1. Have a clear analysis of what is wrong: Understand the forces behind the status quo.
  2. Develop roadmaps and focus on results: Create logic models, such as identifying the intended impact, mapping backward from the goal you want to reach.
  3. Include community leaders at all levels
  4. Find and empower talented successful, indigenous leaders: Help them build strong organizations.
  5. Frame your message and ground yourself in values: Use strategic communications.
  6. Do everything with undaunting integrity.
  7. Impact the fields in which you work and apply philanthropy’s strategic advantages.
  8. Foster community organizing as the root of all change.
  9. Bring a wealth of first-hand experience: Ground and surround yourself in the struggles of poor people, to raise your own consciousness.
  10. Invest your assets in ways that support your vision and mission.

Community Foundation challenges nonprofits to build endowments

The Greater Lowell Community Foundation has announced a $100,000 challenge grant to support the creation and continued growth of permanent endowment funds for nonprofit agencies in its region. The funds will be matched on a 1:4 matching basis to generate a total of $500,000.

“The Community Foundation intends to create permanent charitable capital to prevent nonprofit institutions from going the way of the mills,” said David Kronberg, executive director.

The foundation will also sponsor a series of endowment training seminars for prospective donors, board members and senior staff.

The Theodore Edson Parker Foundation and the Mark and Elisia Saab Family Fund of the Community Foundation each contributed $50,000 for the challenge grant. Sponsors for the year-long philanthropy education effort to support the challenge grant are Courier Corporation, Enterprise Bank, Foundation M, Mary Jo Leahey, Lowell General Hospital, Theodore Edson Parker Foundation, Nathaniel and Elizabeth P. Stevens Foundation, Saints Medical Center, Trinity EMS, UMass Lowell, and Middlesex Community College.

For more information: David Kronberg, 978-970-1600.


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New Hampshire

Upper Valley gets $350,000 boost for ecology education

Marguerite Wellborn was by avocation a naturalist and a writer; she spent a lifetime studying ecology. She wrote about the construction of spider webs and the complicated lives of ants; about the imbalance of a northern forest without indigenous wolves; about roses and skunk cabbages and global warming.

“The year before she died, she came to me and said, ‘Sally, I just can’t believe what’s happening to the world,’ meaning the destruction of habitat of humans and every other species,” said Sally Wellborn, Marguerite’s daughter.

In her will, Wellborn left nearly $10 million “to be used for public awareness of environmental and ecological issues in the Upper Valley...,” thus creating the Wellborn Ecology Fund, which is administered by the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation.

(Click here to download the Spring/Summer 2007 issue of SmartGiving and read more about Marguerite Wellborn and the establishment of her fund.)

NHCF has announced the latest grants of $354,925 to support environmental, ecology and place-based education programs in the Upper Valley.

The grant dollars will go to 14 projects run by local schools, agencies and community organizations in both New Hampshire and Vermont. Programs receiving support include summer nature camps, professional development opportunities for teachers, nature-center interpretive design and improved trails near schools.

The Lebanon School District (in partnership with Four Winds Nature Institute), for example, received $30,000 to begin "Linkages for E-Literacy", a planning and resource hub for K-12 environmental education partnerships and teacher professional development.

(Click here for a full list of the projects.)

“She would be very glad to know of the work that the Charitable Foundation has been doing,” said Sally Wellborn, who lives in Cornish. “I think she’d probably be amazed, really, at how efficiently...her simple bequest has been organized into something real and effective.”

The next deadline for grant requests greater than $5,000 is February 1, 2009. Applications for grant requests up to $5,000 may be submitted at any time. Grant guidelines are available at www.nhcf.org in the section “Applying for a Grant”.

Alum gives largest gift in UNH history: $25 million

The University of New Hampshire has received a gift of $25 million – the single largest gift in university history – from alumnus, entrepreneur and philanthropist Peter T. Paul, a native of Troy, and 1967 graduate in business administration. The gift will help fund construction of a new business college at the university, expected to be named the Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics. (Read a complete version.)

Paul is founder and chairman of The Headlands Foundation, which has given away more than $4 million, primarily in California and New Hampshire where he lives. Paul has previously supported educational programs at the University of New Hampshire, Boston University and the public school systems in Marin County, CA. He is president of Paul Financial, LLC, a mortgage banking company; owner and chairman of Peter Paul Wines; and president of West Biofuels.

For more information: Lori Wright, lori.wright@unh.edu, 603-862-0574.

When grants work: Women's Fund tells victory stories

Grants always start with a promise to do good...but how do they end up? The Women’s Fund of New Hampshire includes a section called “Victory Stories” on its website that currently tells the results of seven investments it has made.

One example:

VICTORY STORY 1: The Upper Room, a GED prep program in Derry.

“We had 12 students start the program,” says Case Manager Brenda Guggisberg. “This group was very attentive and on task during class time, and had a wonderful rapport with one another and the staff. Seven students tested in December, ALL passed the GED exam.

“Where they are now:

  • 4 are working full time.
  • 1 is already away at Culinary School.
  • 1 is going into the Coast Guard.
  • 1 is attending NHCTC.
  • 1 has enrolled with Northern Essex Community College for music.
  • 1 is enrolling in St. Joseph’s nursing school.
  • 1 is having a child.
  • 1 student is taking a gap year as he was only 16 and he will be applying to Full Sail College in Florida for Film Directing.”

And a student wrote: “The GED [program] has helped push me to find out what I want to be when I grow up. If I never came here I’d probably be working at a fast food restaurant for the rest of my life. Now I can do what I always wanted to be, which is a fireman.”

Read all seven Victory Stories.

Now you can dial “2-1-1” in New Hampshire

As of June, New Hampshire residents in need could be connected with health and human services throughout the state by just dialing “2-1-1”.

United Ways of New Hampshire launched the statewide initiative, 2-1-1 NH, as part of a national effort by United Ways to use the new number.

2-1-1 NH is a public/private partnership with funding being provided by United Ways of New Hampshire, the State, Citizens Bank Foundation, New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, Exeter Hospital, and Public Service of NH.

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Rhode Island

Looking for entrepreneurial nonprofits, by July 31!

Social Venture Partners of Rhode Island is looking for nonprofits that have good ideas for revenue-generating initiatives. Winning organizations will define and develop their social enterprise business plans with teams from the Brown University social enterprise course, the URI One-Year MBA program, and Bryant University’s Global Entrepreneurship program.

The student team submitting the strongest business plan will receive a $5,000 grant for their nonprofit.

Proposals must be submitted to info@svpri.org by no later than 5 p.m. on July 31.

This is just one aspect of SVPRI’s work with nonprofits. It’s perhaps better known for “Engagement Teams” of business professionals who donate both time and money to be involved in short- and long-term projects with nonprofits.

For more information: Jennifer Marrapese, executive director, 401-274-4564 ext. 3179 or jennifer@svpri.org

$25k fellowships available for RI composers

Robert and Margaret MacColl Johnson were both dedicated to the arts all their lives. Mrs. Johnson, who died in 1990, earned a degree in creative writing from Roger Williams College when she was 70. Mr. Johnson invented a new process for mixing metals in jewelry-making and then retired to become a fulltime painter.

Several years before he passed away in 1999, he began negotiating with The Rhode Island Foundation to design what has now become a $1 million+ artists fellowship program in music composition, literature, and visual arts, offering among the highest no-strings awards in the nation.

The foundation has announced it is offering three $25,000 2008 MacColl Johnson Fellowships for “emerging to mid-career music composers whose work demonstrates exceptional creativity, rigorous dedication, and significant artistic merit.”

Applications are due August 1.

Washington Trust employees dress down for charity

When Washington Trust Company employees don’t look their best, it’s probably for a good cause. One Friday each month, employees can make a donation for the opportunity to dress in business casual attire for the day. Proceeds support various organizations throughout Rhode Island and Southeastern Connecticut.

In June, the American Red Cross–Rhode Island Chapter was the beneficiary and visited four bank branches with brochures on disaster preparedness and to answer questions.

The Washington Trust Company is a subsidiary of Washington Trust Bancorp, headquartered in Westerly. Founded in 1800, Washington Trust is the oldest community bank in the nation and is the largest independent bank headquartered in Rhode Island.


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Vermont

Community Foundation awards quarter-million to build successful communities

The Vermont Community Foundation awarded $241,959 to 31 organizations across the state as part of its Successful Communities initiative, which encourages civic engagement, diversity and equity, and education.

Statewide efforts include grants to the Friends of Burlington Gardens to help establish 10 community gardens across Vermont, and to The DREAM Program, to provide camp scholarships for children of refugee and immigrant families.

In local communities, Chittenden County’s Center for Community and Neighborhoods was awarded $10,000 to support its new Inclusive Community Initiative, and Washington County’s Center for Whole Communities won support for ValleyFutures.net, a network for civic engagement around land development and conservation issues in the Mad River Valley.

For a complete list of grants.

August a great month for Understanding Vermont

The Understanding Vermont calendar is full for the month of August. These are all activities largely open to the public that are both enjoyable and rich to understanding the life of the state. Examples:

  • August 2: Old Time Rules Will Prevail: The Fiddle Contest in Vermont, Union Christian Church, Plymouth
  • August 2: Vermont's Flood of 1927: A New Look, Union Christian Church, Plymouth
  • August 3-15: Community Design/Build, Yestermorrow Design/Build School, Warren. Past projects have included public playground structures, village green bandshells, park pavilions, and bus stops.
  • August 3: Vermont Fresh Network Forum— Connecting the Dots: Healthy Farms, Innovative Chefs, Vibrant Communities, Shelburne Farms, Shelburne
  • August 6-9: Changing Health Practices in a Changing Rural Environment, Sheraton Hotel and Conference Center, Burlington
  • August 6: I have doctored myself as well as I could, Shoreham Historical Society, Shoreham. Two historians discuss medicine of the 19th century as practiced by women on the frontier.
  • August 8: Alternative Fueled Vehicles: A Solution or Just More of the Same? University of Vermont, Burlington
  • August 21: Council on the Future of Vermont, St. Albans

Understanding Vermont is a program of the Vermont Community Foundation designed to provide useful information for philanthropists and other grantmakers who want to learn more about the issues that shape Vermont communities.

Upper Valley gets $350,000 boost for ecology education

The Wellborn Ecology Fund at the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation announced grants of $354,925 to support environmental, ecology and place-based education programs in the Upper Valley. (See also under New Hampshire.)

The grant dollars will go to 14 projects run by local schools, agencies and community organizations in both New Hampshire and Vermont. Programs receiving support include summer nature camps, professional development opportunities for teachers, nature-center interpretive design and improved trails near schools.

Vermont-based projects include:

  • Audubon Vermont received $30,000 for the first year of a three-year program to expand local awareness of the importance of bird habitat in the Upper Valley.
  • Green Mountain Union High School was awarded a grant of $5,000 to support improvements to the trail system adjacent to the school in Chester, to facilitate nature study by students and community members.
  • Marsh-Billings Rockefeller National Historical Park (in partnership with Shelburne Farms, National Wildlife Federation and Green Mountain National Forest) was awarded a three-year $75,000 grant to further develop and promote the Forest for Every Classroom Fellows program.
  • Nature Museum at Grafton received $22,150 for the third phase of development, implementation and evaluation of “Beyond Your Doorstep”, a professional-development program for teachers focused on nature journaling.
  • New England Institute for Landscape Ecology received $4,750 to support a three-day intensive field-immersion program for environmental science/biology teachers in the Upper Valley.
  • Vermont Institute of Natural Science received $30,000 for expansion of its summer Nature Camp programs.
  • VerShare received a two-year, $22,500 grant to provide core operating support for environmental components of the VerShare Community Camp in Vershire.
  • White River Natural Resources Conservation District received $20,000 to assist with expansion of the BLUE summer nature camp and school program in Newbury.

(Click here for a full list of the projects.)

The next deadline for grant requests greater than $5,000 is February 1, 2009. Applications for grant requests up to $5,000 may be submitted at any time at www.nhcf.org.

Arts funds contribute $100,000 to state’s cultural scene

The Vermont Arts Endowment Fund and the Concert Artists Fund, two component funds of the Vermont Community Foundation, have awarded a total of $100,885 to 29 organizations and individuals across the state.

The Arts Endowment Fund was established in 1990 through a generous gift from an anonymous Vermonter and a matching grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. The Fund supports new work by Vermont artists and provides technical assistance for Vermont arts organizations.

The Concert Artists Fund was funded through the estate of Charles Goetz to support performances of western classical music in Chittenden County.

For a full list of grantees.

Good deeds on the coffee blog

Posted this month on the Green Mountain Coffee “Café”, the company’s blog:

“One great perk of working for Green Mountain Coffee is “Cafe Time”, which is paid leave for community service. Yesterday, Cafe Time came to life for our Marketing group as ten of us worked on a Habitat For Humanity house in Milton, VT. Many of us here believe Habitat For Humanity is a great cause. The mission of the VT Green Mountain chapter is:

  • Constructing simple, decent, affordable houses in partnership with families who currently live in unfit, indecent, inhuman conditions and have no possibility of obtaining a home through any conventional means.
  • Selling these homes to the partner family for cost, with no profit and no interest. Reinvesting the mortgage payments from these partner families to build more simple, decent, affordable homes.
  • Providing a means for people who have resources of time, money, or materials to channel them to the poor. Involving an ever increasing number of people in the work of Green Mountain Habitat for Humanity.
  • Tithing from donations to support the work of Habitat for Humanity International in countries with greater need than exists in the United States.
  • Working with people of good conscience and other organizations with similar interests to raise awareness of housing issues so that everyone in the world can have the opportunity to have a simple, decent, affordable place to live.

We enjoyed helping the cause.”


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Connecticut

The Connecticut Community Foundation welcomes three new trustees: Margaret (Margie) Field of Warren, former head of school of St. Margaret’s-McTernan (now Chase Collegiate) School; Dr. Richard Lau of Cheshire, retired veterinary surgeon with Cheshire Veterinary Hospital and former chair of the Cheshire Board of Education; and John Millington of Washington Depot, a retired publishing professional who serves on the boards of environmental organizations including the Connecticut Fund for the Environment and League of Conservation Voters.

The foundation extended its gratitude to departing trustees Ann M. Burton of Washington, who was also the Board’s most recent president; Arri Sendzimir of Waterbury; and Kathy Berman of Cheshire.

It also presented the Traurig Family Award for Philanthropy to Thomaston Savings Bank. The award honors an area business that exemplifies the Traurig family’s commitment to the community through charitable giving and volunteerism.

Priscilla (Penny) F. Canny, Ph.D. has joined the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven as its new senior vice president for Grantmaking and Strategy. Canny will be responsible for all grantmaking and leadership initiatives, as well as other duties. For the past 11 years, Canny has worked for Connecticut Voices for Children, a research-based policy and advocacy organization, as director of research, and more recently, as managing director and CEO. She was previously assistant dean for the Yale School of Medicine Department of Epidemiology and Public Health.

Douglas K. O’Connell, a well-known local tax lawyer and a partner in the Winsted law firm of Howd, Lavieri & Finch, LLP, has been elected to the board of directors of the Community Foundation of Northwest Connecticut. O’Connell is also a member of the Torrington Board of Education and has served on the boards of the Chamber of Commerce of Northwest Connecticut, United Way of Northwest Connecticut, Winsted Area Child Care Center, and the Winsted Rotary Club, among many other community activities.

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Maine

At its annual meeting, the Maine Philanthropy Center added five new members to its Board of Directors for three-year terms. They include:

  • Jay Espy, first executive director of the Elmina B. Sewall Foundation. Espy had been president of Maine Coast Heritage Trust, a statewide land conservation organization.
  • Barbara A. Leonard, MPH, vice president for programs, Maine Health Access Foundation. Prior to MeHAF she was president of The Leonard Group, a public health consulting organization.
  • Andy Mayo, director, Hannaford Foundation. Mayo is the Vice President of Engineering at Hannaford.
  • Marcia Minter, vice president, creative director, L.L. Bean. Minter has served on the Maine advisory board of The Trust for Public Land and the board of PCA Great Performances. She also chairs the Center for Cultural Exchange Foundation.
  • Michael Rayder, Jr., Senior Vice President, Foundation Manager and Community Development Manager for Maine, TD Banknorth Charitable Foundation. Rayder served on the board of Greater Portland Landmarks and was named to the board of the Cumberland County YMCA last year.

Stewart Rawlings Mott, president and founder of the charitable trust that bears his name, died last month. Unabashedly progressive, and with a fortune inherited from his father – a pioneer with General Motors – Mott gave early and generously to causes like birth control, abortion reform, feminism, gay rights, and anti-war activity. He was a prominent supporter to both the Eugene McCarthy and George McGovern presidential campaigns, for example. Though the Trust is based in Washington, DC, it is a member of the Maine Philanthropy Center through its program associate and Maine resident Anne Zill. Grants to Maine organizations have included Peace Action Maine, Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, Genesis Community Loan Fund, Maine Women's Fund, and Maine Initiatives. Tributes to Mott can be found through the Trust’s website.

Massachusetts

Kathy McHugh left MassINC in early July to become executive director of the Cabot Family Charitable Trust. Effective August 15, reach her at kmchugh@cabwel.com and the Trust at www.cabwel.com.

The Lenny Zakim Fund has selected Susan Rothman as the new Chair of its Board of Directors. Rothman, a founding member, has been active in Fund's grantmaking, fundraising, and educational activities since its inception in 1995. She is principal and founder of Hearts On Fire, a jewelry brand.

The Essex County Community Foundation has named David M. Welbourn as its new president and CEO.

The EOS Foundation in Harwich has named Mari Brennan Barrera as vice president. Barrera, most recently executive director of the Highland Street Foundation, previously served as deputy director of the Hunt Alternatives Fund.

The South End Community Health Center gave its annual Health Care Hero award to Ralph Fuccillo, CEO of the Oral Health Foundation. Fuccillo was honored for his leadership in advancing preventive healthcare and reducing health disparities in emerging populations.

Barbara E. Casey has succeeded Jack Clymer as The Hyams Foundation’s new board chair. Casey is Managing Director of Wealth Management at Bank of New York Mellon. The foundation also announced it had hired Tammy V. Tai as a Program Officer in the Teen Development area. Tai is a former program manager of Greater Phoenix Youth at Risk and the director of Success by 6 at the United Way in Phoenix. She is a graduate of Harvard College, with a recent MBA from Brandeis’ Heller School.

Ken Vacovec is the new chair of the Board of the Crossroads Community Foundation, succeeding outgoing president John Schwarz. Vacovec is a founding partner of the Newton-based law firm Vacovec, Mayotte & Singer, LLP, where he practices tax law. He is the past president, trustee, and chairman of the Philanthropy Committee of Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education. He has also served as president and trustee of the Massachusetts Bar Foundation.

Crossroads also inducted two new trustees: financial planner John Steiger and philanthropist Meg Ramsey.

New Hampshire

Deborah Schachter, senior program officer for the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation (NHCF), has been selected as one of 38 members of the Leadership NH Class of '09. The nonprofit organization trains and builds a network of knowledgeable and engaged leaders for the state. LNH grew out of the Governor’s Commission on the 21st Century, created by then-Governor Judd Gregg. The Charitable Foundation and the Business and Industry Association were the program’s early champions and chief architects.

Also at NHCF, Shari Landry of Concord has come on as its new Vice President of Philanthropy. Landry most recently served as Vice President of Development at the Crotched Mountain Foundation in Greenfield, NH. She has worked with Child and Family Services and Easter Seals New Hampshire, and owned her own consulting firm.

Ina Ahern, a science teacher at Plymouth AREA/Regional High School, has been awarded the Christa McAuliffe Sabbatical for 2008. The Sabbatical was established in 1986, when then-Governor John Sununu and the New Hampshire legislature permanently endowed a fund to permit one New Hampshire teacher annually to explore new ways to enhance classroom teaching through a self-designed project.

The primary goal of Ahern’s project, Enhancing Student Learning with GIS Across the Curriculum, is to expose New Hampshire teachers and students to Geographic Information Systems technologies.

“GIS technology and methods are critical components of decision-making in government, academia, business and industry,” Ahern said. “Yet most teachers are unaware of its existence, much less its capacity to transform teaching and learning.”

The statewide program is administered by the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation with oversight from a steering committee made up of the Governor, the President of the Senate, the Speaker of the House, the Chair of the of the State Board of Education, the Presidents of the National Education Association and American Federation of Teachers, and a McAuliffe family member.

Citizens Bank recognized Cathy McDowell, executive director of the Family Resource Center of Gorham, and Maureen Beauregard, president of Families in Transition, with “Good Citizens” awards at the bank’s 12th annual community relations celebration at Canterbury Shaker Village. The bank presented the “Good Citizens” Awards to McDowell and Beauregard for their leadership, vision, and commitment to New Hampshire communities.

The late Louise Tillotson of Dixville Notch believed in teachers. “[Louise] had great confidence in the fact that a strong education system would boost the community as a whole,” said her attorney Ben Gaymen. So before her death in 2006, she endowed The Louise Tillotson Teaching Fellowship for North Country teachers at the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation. A panel has named the first four honorees to receive $10,000 fellowships in Tillotson’s name.

They are: Jeannine Fogg Brady of Lemington, VT, a third grade teacher at Canaan Memorial Schools, Michael Brosnan of Shelburne, a social studies teacher at Gorham High School; Sharon Breeze Lane of Errol, a teacher for Errol’s K-4 classroom; and Ginette Lemay White of Pittsburg, who teaches at Colebrook Academy. (Click here for full biographies of the teachers.)

The Fellowship Selection Committee included: Peter Benson, NHCF; Raymond Burton, Executive Councilor, District 1; Katherine Eneguess, president, White Mountains Community College; Robert Mills, superintendent of SAU #7; Irene Mosedale, director of the North Country teacher certification program at Plymouth State University; Gail Paine, former NH school board member; and Charlie Thibodeau, executive director of North Country Educational Services.

Rhode Island

The Narragansett Council, Boy Scouts of America has bestowed the Senator John H. Chafee Distinguished Citizen Award on John F. Treanor, president and chief operating officer of the Washington Trust Company. Treanor “represents the purposes of Scouting in developing leadership, character, citizenship and service in young people.” He serves as chairman of the board of Meeting Street School, a trustee of the YMCA of Greater Providence, and as a member of the CEO council of Junior Achievement, and is chairman of the board of Home and Hospice Care of Rhode Island.