Fundraisers name Knox “Outstanding Foundation”

Scholarships to power state’s FIRST Robotics teams

Foundation introduces operational shift, from “funder” to “investor”

One grantmaker to another: Hartford Foundation
pledges $1.2 million over two years to arts council

United Way partners with Red Cross to improve disaster preparedness

Health care foundation targets “supervillains” in new video campaign

Special opportunity for developing community leaders

CT Transitions     

Fostering diversity in Portland; May 26 deadline

Environmental funders, activists meet to review progress,
consider future “investments” in battling climate change

Maine continues record of educational innovation
with new science grant for all 7th and 8th graders

Community foundation celebrates 25th anniversary with
endowment challenge for nonprofits serving rural Maine

Law students help victims of domestic violence with foundation’s help

York County Fund makes inaugural grants

Saving youth at risk theme of June 11 conference

Lowell foundation makes link between sports and philanthropy

More sports: Red Sox offer a chance to help children

Foundation asks: Does race/ethnicity play a role in
health care?

New ‘Healthy Eating, Active Living’ booklet shows state how to ‘lighten up’

New Hampshire women gathering for June leadership summit

Nonprofits telling their stories on the streets of Providence

Small towns and historical societies protect their relics

CVS Caremark honors “Heroes in Women's Health”

Shaw’s celebrates Earth Day with Vermont’s Nature Conservancy

Long Trail Brewing signs up for “Cow Power”

Fundraisers name Knox “Outstanding Foundation”

The Knox Foundation received the Outstanding Foundation Award at the annual Connecticut Philanthropy Awards Luncheon of the Association of Fundraising Professionals. The program was co-sponsored by the Fairfield County and Connecticut AFP chapters.

A small foundation that grants less than $100,000 each year, it was nonetheless honored for wisely targeting its awards without burdensome paperwork.

The original 42-year-old foundation was established by the estate of Betty Knox, who hoped to beautify the city of Hartford through horticulture and civic renewal. In 1977 the greening effort became the Knox Parks Foundation, and the downtown rejuvenation effort eventually became known as today’s Knox Foundation.

Scholarships to power state’s FIRST Robotics teams

United Technologies Corp is offering scholarships to high-school teams that have never competed and plan to enter the 2009 Connecticut FIRST Robotics Competition.

Inventor Dean Kamen founded FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) in 1989 as a high-school robotics tournament where teams of students work with teachers and engineering mentors to complete a major technical design challenge.

Starting this year, UTC will name five new FIRST Robotics teams that will receive multiyear grants in support of their competition activities. At least three of the five winning teams will be from public inner-city schools. The scholarships defray expenses that the high-school participants must raise each year for equipment, travel, and entry fees associated with the rigorous competition.

“FIRST inspires the next generation of future engineers, researchers and finance professionals,” said Andrea Doane, UTC Director of Community Affairs and Corporate Giving. “It is a challenging and passionate competition that bases success on math, science and engineering skills, as well as management. All of these skills are vital to continued success at UTC and other research-based industries, but there is a projected shortfall in these academic fields.”

United Technologies, based in Hartford, is a diversified company providing high technology products and services to the global aerospace and building industries.

For more information, contact John Moran, UTC, 860.728.7062

Foundation introduces operational shift, from “funder” to “investor”

Describing itself more as an “investor’ than a “funder” in its four target communities of Berlin, New Britain, Plainville and Southington, the Community Foundation of Greater New Britain has adopted new grantmaking guidelines.

The modified guidelines, designed by the Rensselaerville Institute in New York, were presented to more than 100 area nonprofit leaders and grantees at a recent workshop.

All requests for funding will now be measured by three key questions, according to Community Foundation President Jim Williamson:

• What will be the result from the proposed grant and how will it be known that it has been achieved?
• What are the chances that the results will happen?
• Is this the best possible use of Foundation funds given other opportunities?

Established in 1941, the Community Foundation of Greater New Britain annually distributes upwards of $1 million in grants and scholarships.

For more information.

One grantmaker to another: Hartford Foundation pledges $1.2 million over two years to arts council

Continuing an eight-year partnership, the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving has awarded the Greater Hartford Arts Council a grant of $1.2 million, to be paid over the next two years. The Arts Council will use the money to make grants of its own and to strengthen its fundraising capacity.

Since 2000, with Foundation support, the Arts Council has created four new grant programs:

• Community Events, which fund celebrations of all types within the city
• Heritage Advancement, which build capacity at the region’s historic sites
• Jazz and Dance, which help area organizations attract new audiences
• Neighborhood Arts & Heritage, which funds cultural projects.

The Hartford Foundation grant also will allow the Arts Council to hire two new fundraisers for its annual United Arts Campaign. The new staff will focus on workplace giving.

Arts Council Executive Director Ken Kahn noted that the region’s arts and heritage organizations have a combined economic impact of a quarter of a billion dollars each year, support 7,400 jobs, and draw an audience of 5 million people.

United Way partners with Red Cross to improve disaster preparedness

United Way of Greater New Haven announced a new partnership with American Red Cross of South Central Connecticut, which includes a $75,000 grant to increase community disaster preparedness.

The Red Cross chapter expects to visit classrooms, senior centers, and community events and distribute more than 5,000 brochures and 500 disaster kits.

It also plans to train an additional 200 citizens in First Aid, CPR, and disaster response, and will increase public awareness through community activities, events, and public advertising.

Media contact: Michelle Wade, 203.691.4202, mwade@uwgnh.org.

Health care foundation targets “supervillains” in new video campaign

Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut (UHCF) has launched the first in a series of animated webtoons in a campaign called “The Insur-Animals.” The 1:45 spot uses half animal/half insurance executive super-villains to highlight what it calls the “absurdities” in the health care system.

The “Insur-Animals,” culprits to universal health care, are embodied in four characters: “Deductibear,” “Co-Pay Cobra,” “Denial Crocodile,” and “Premium Porcupine.”

Juan A. Figueroa, president of UHCF, said the foundation has chosen animated satire “to raise awareness of the problems of the broken health-care system and make the case for comprehensive universal health care using the web. The Insur-Animals cartoon characters embody the four primary concerns that not only Connecticut residents struggle with, but also people across the country.”

Special opportunity for developing community leaders

The William Caspar Graustein Memorial Fund is offering the Community Leadership Program for the seventh year, an intensive (but free) nine-month set of workshops and retreats for New Haven’s community leaders to develop their sense of leadership and collaboration.

William Graustein, lead trustee of the Fund, and Heidi Brooks, who directs the Mentoring Program at Yale University School of Management, will facilitate the nine gatherings.

The program is limited to 20 participants who will be competitively selected from a submitted statement of interest, brief bio, and interest in the program. For more information, call Gail at 203.230.3330 ext. 19, or email gailt@wcgmf.org. Deadline is June 1.

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Maine

Fostering diversity in Portland; May 26 deadline

The United Way of Greater Portland has a new diversity initiative. In the coming year, the Diversity/Inclusion Special Response Fund will make grants up to $10,000 ($2,000 for events) to nonprofits “addressing unmet needs, connecting diverse communities to the larger community, building connections between communities and enhancing life in diverse communities.” Special consideration will be given to youth programs.

For more information, contact John Shoos, jshoos@unitedwaygp.org.

Environmental funders, activists meet to review progress, consider future “investments” in battling climate change

Members of Maine’s Environmental Funders Network met with activists late last month in Freeport to understand how private philanthropy can have an impact on climate change.

They heard three major presentations.  Dylan Voorhees, Clean Energy Director at the Natural Resources Council of Maine, discussed the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a plan originally initiated by eight states, including Maine, to steady and then decrease carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

Dr. John Hagan, director of Manomet Center’s Sustainable Landscapes Program, focused on the potential implications of a market-based emissions trading system on Maine’s forests.

Anne D. Burt, Environmental Program Director at the Maine Council of Churches, spoke about Maine Partners for Cool Communities. “Cool Communities” are cities that have made a commitment to stopping global warming by signing the U.S. Mayors’ Climate Protection Agreement and or the Governor's Carbon Challenge.

Attendees received the Catalog of Climate Change Investment Opportunities: Programs and Projects in Maine. The 87-page catalog identifies most, if not all of the organizations and efforts working on climate change in Maine as of April, 2008. It does double duty as a major directory to the state’s environmental organizations as well as a guide for funders wishing to best target their grants.

The catalog was produced by University of Maine Cooperative Extension and Maine Sea Grant along with the Environmental Funders Network, a project of the Maine Community Foundation and the Maine Philanthropy Center, and with support from the Kendall Foundation and the Horizon Foundation.

Maine continues record of educational innovation with new science grant for all 7th and 8th graders

The Gulf of Maine Research Institute (GMRI) will roll out a science education program for 32,000 7th and 8th graders across the state, thanks to a three-year grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. The initiative is also made possible by the laptops given to the students through the Maine Learning Technology Initiative.

Maine is the only state to have successfully implemented one-to-one computing across an entire age cohort.

Students will be challenged and equipped to monitor their local aquatic ecosystems for invasive species and to share their observations as part of an online community. Just like scientists, they will operate in an inquiry environment, making observations, asking questions, forming hypotheses, collecting and analyzing rigorous data, and sharing conclusions with a critical audience.

GMRI will collaborate with the Maine International Center for Digital Education (a non-profit that is coalescing around one-to-one computing in Maine to provide professional development and research services) to recruit teachers, support their adoption of inquiry-based pedagogy, and document best practice uses of digital technology for science education that emerge from Vital Signs. GMRI will collaborate with the Informatics Group of the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole on the technical development of Vital Signs, including electronic data collection forms and an electronic species identification key for the invasive aquatic plant, animal, and algal species and their native look-a-likes (92 species in all). Other funders of Vital Signs include the Lunder Foundation, the Sam L. Cohen Foundation, the Bernard Osher Foundation, and the Morton-Kelly Foundation.

For more information,Wyman Briggs, Gulf of Maine Research Institute, 207.228.1688, or wbriggs@gmri.org.

Community foundation celebrates 25th anniversary with endowment challenge for nonprofits serving rural Maine

As part of its 25th anniversary celebration, the Maine Community Foundation is launching the 25/25 Nonprofit Endowment Challenge. Through a competitive process, MaineCF will award challenge grants up to $25,000 and technical assistance to Maine-based nonprofits in Oxford, Franklin, Somerset, Piscataquis, Aroostook, Washington and Hancock Counties to establish new or expand existing permanent endowment funds.

"An endowment fund assists an organization working toward securing long-term financial sustainability," said Henry Schmelzer, MaineCF president. The challenge recognizes the community foundation's origins in rural Maine and in Hancock County where its headquarters have been located since its founding in 1983. Up to nine challenge grants will be awarded.

Deadline for application and related material is June 15, 2008. Questions should be directed to Bethany Murray, competitive grants associate, at bmurray@mainecf.org, or to Peter Taylor, director of grantmaking services, at ptaylor@mainecf.org.

Media contact: Carl Little, Maine Community Foundation, 877.700.6800.

Law students help victims of domestic violence with foundation’s help

The Maine Bar Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the Maine bar, provides ongoing support for the Domestic Violence Project of the University of Maine School of Law’s Cumberland Legal Aid Clinic.

Through the program, third-year law students, certified under court rules to appear as “student attorneys,” provide in-court legal representation to individuals seeking final Protection From Abuse (PFA) Orders in the Lewiston District Court. The Clinic provided representation to 238 individuals in PFA cases in 2007 with the Maine Bar Foundation’s support.

Clinic student attorneys work closely with court advocates from the Abused Women’s Advocacy Project, a non-profit organization based in Lewiston-Auburn, to ensure that every client receives, not only legal representation in her PFA case, but also the necessary support and resources to escape violence. In addition, every Clinic student receives training, not only on the legal remedies available to victims of domestic violence, but also the dynamics of domestic violence.

For more information, contact Calien Lewis, executor director of the Maine Bar Foundation (clewis@mbf.org) or Professor Deirdre M. Smith, director of University of Maine School of Law’s Cumberland Legal Aid Clinic (desmith@usm.maine.edu).

York County Fund makes inaugural grants

The York County Committee of the Maine Community Foundation recently awarded more than $40,000 in grants to 14 York County nonprofits. The grants are the first to be made from MaineCF's York County Fund, launched last year. The committee also made grants from the York County Children's Aid Fund.

Among the organizations and projects supported by the two funds are:

• Biddeford Free Clinic, for the "Neighbor to Neighbor: Community Wellness" program
• Camp Laughing Loon, East Waterboro, for financial aid for camperships
• Caring Unlimited, Sanford, to support activities and education for children and women exposed to domestic violence
• Child Abuse Prevention Council, Kennebunk, for "Project Prevention"
• Ethel's Tree of Life, Eliot, to expand services
• Laudholm Trust, Wells, to gain Geographic Information Systems (GIS) expertise
• Project AWARE, Inc., Saco, to raise awareness of substance abuse and bullying through theater
• Rippling Waters Farm, Steep Falls, for a composting awareness program
• Stone Soup Food Pantry, Biddeford, to enhance cooperative hunger prevention among food pantries
• Young Maine Readers, Ogunquit, to increase participation in "Family MENtors Program"

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Saving youth at risk theme of June 11 conference

Recovering students with a history of substance abuse will present the keynote address at the eighth annual Youth At Risk Conference on the Endicott College campus in Beverly on June 11. The program is geared for families and professionals who work and care for youth in various settings throughout Essex County.

In addition to a full day of workshops, a vendor resource area and nonprofit exposition, and youth performances, students from the North Shore Recovery High School in Beverly will give a first hand look at their experiences.

Youth At Risk is an initiative of the Essex County Community Foundation. The conference’s lead sponsor is the Peter and Elizabeth C. Tower Foundation, which seeks to improve the lives of children and adolescents by supporting programs and services for those affected by mental illness, developmental disabilities and substance abuse, and by enhancing early childhood and primary education.

Lowell foundation makes link between sports and philanthropy

The Greater Lowell Community Foundation is headlining its June 3 Celebrating Giving! Day as “Bridging Sports and Philanthropy.” The popular annual event will feature personal stories from sports personalities with direct connections to giving, such as:

• Jonathan Kraft, president of the Patriots Foundation
• Drew Weber, president of the Lowell Spinners and spokesman for the Joann Weber Charitable Fund
• Ray Riddick Jr. for his family’s foundation.

Registration is required.

More sports: Red Sox offer a chance to help children

The Red Sox Foundation is giving the ballclub’s fans yet another way to celebrate the 2007 season. Donate to the tax-deductible charity and the family of the person honored or memorialized will receive a letter informing them that you have made a donation in their name. And you get Red Sox rubber wristbands for the 2008 season!

All proceeds will benefit the Red Sox Foundation, which supports programs for children and families, including the Red Sox Scholars, Jimmy Fund, RBI /Rookie youth baseball, the Dimock Center in Roxbury and group homes in each New England state.

Foundation asks: Does race/ethnicity play a role in health care?

According to advocates, the number of infants who die before their first birthday in the U.S. is twice as high for African Americans than for white Americans. Even when education and income are identical, Black women deliver many more premature and low birthweight babies.

The MetroWest Community Health Care Foundation is sponsoring a free screening of the PBS documentary Unnatural Causes that asks these questions. The date is June 11 at the MetroWest Medical Center in Framingham.

The free admission includes a light dinner and an open discussion about racial and ethnic health disparities, hosted by the MetroWest Health Disparities Workgroup.

RSVP to Alexandra Muenze, 508.879.7625, amuenze@mchcf.org.

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New ‘Healthy Eating, Active Living’ booklet shows state how to ‘lighten up’

In 2006, three of every five adults in New Hampshire were overweight or obese; so were more than one in ten high school age youth. The extra weight means increased risk of diabetes, heart disease, stroke, gallbladder disease, and some cancers, not to mention premature death.

In response, a coalition of more than 200 people from 45 organizations and communities developed the New Hampshire Healthy Eating and Active Living (HEAL) Action Plan, a blueprint to help residents adopt and maintain a healthy weight.

The New Hampshire HEAL Action Plan, now available for free online, includes detailed facts and statistics about the complexity of the issue, but also proposes recommendations for schools, the health care industry, businesses and worksites, the food and recreation industries, city and town governments, and individuals and families.

The HEAL Initiative is housed at the Foundation for Healthy Communities, a partnership involving hospitals, physicians, health plans, home care agencies and other organizations concerned about improving health.

Funding and support for the HEAL Action planning process was provided by a collaboration of partners including HNHfoundation, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Foundation, NH Charitable Foundation, Endowment for Health, New England Coalition for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, New Hampshire Citizens Health Initiative, Foundation for Seacoast Health, NH Division of Parks and Recreation, and the New Hampshire Departments of Agriculture, Education, Fish and Game, Health and Human Services, and Transportation.

New Hampshire women gathering for June leadership summit

"Advancing Society by Advancing Women" on June 13 at Southern New Hampshire University hopes to “provide women with a more skilled and confident presence in sharing the leadership of organizations in New Hampshire and in shaping New Hampshire’s future.”

Sponsored by the Women’s Fund of New Hampshire and the Citizens Bank Foundation, organizers hope the daylong program will become an annual event. Featured speakers include ABC broadcaster Robin Roberts who has contributed to Good Morning America for more than 10 years, and has worked in broadcasting for more than 20 years.

&Tina Packer is founder and artistic director of Shakespeare & Company in the Berkshires. She is considered by some to be one of the foremost leading experts on Shakespeare.

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Nonprofits telling their stories on the streets of Providence

Providence City Hall will be buzzing a bit more than usual this summer. City government has invited nonprofits to use Kennedy Plaza, on which City Hall sits, “to present their missions”. "Nonprofit Tuesdays" will operate from 11 a.m.-3:30 p.m. through September.

Nonprofits may register for as many dates as desired, with registration due by May 30. For additional information, download a registration form. Questions? Email or call Deb Dormody at ddormody@providenceri.com or 401.421-2489, ext. 759.

Small towns and historical societies protect their relics

Rhode Island inventor and businessman Joseph O’Neill Ott first made his living through his company, Ott Manufacturing, which helped design Nike missile cases. But after his retirement in 1964, he devoted much of his time to historical matters and antiques.

And when he died 30 years later, he left an endowment at The Rhode Island Foundation -- the Joseph O’Neill Ott Fund -- to preserve local historical manuscripts, documents and/or municipal records dating from the 19th century and earlier.

The foundation has just announced a new set of grants from the Ott Fund, including to the:

• Barrington Preservation Society, to preserve 19th century glass negatives that portray the oldest surviving photographs of the town.
• Old Slater Mill Association, Pawtucket, to preserve a collection of records produced by the Blackstone Manufacturing Company, circa 1817-1861, which includes details of the purchase and delivery of cotton to Providence from the pre-bellum south, the contents of the store, records of the company’s expenses, and weekly counts of yards of cloth manufactured.
• Orlando R. Smith Trust, Westerly, $300, for the preservation of a 1747 document between Joshua Babcock, builder of the Babcock-Smith House in Westerly, and an indentured servant.

Foundation chooses five students as 2008 Metcalf Fellows

Five college students from Rhode Island will forfeit their carefree days of summer to learn about the European healthcare system; observe and study traditional medicine with the Kallaway Tribe in Bolivia; visit and study major architectural buildings of the United States; travel to England to study the burning of the HMS Gaspee; and learn to speak Irish in Ireland.

The five “adventures” were developed by area college students who have received support from the Michael P. Metcalf Memorial Fund and the Christine T. Grinavic Adventurer’s Fund at The Rhode Island Foundation. Metcalf was chairman and publisher of the Providence Journal before he died in a 1987 bicycling accident. Christine T. Grinavic, 26, was crewing on the sailing vessel, "Flying Colours," when it went missing off the Carolinas during the first named storm of 2007. In both cases, family members and friends contributed to the funds.

The experiences – all self-designed adventures for college students outside their college classwork – are intended “to promote personal growth through travel.” More than 50 students have had experiences from Appalachia to Zaire since 1990.

The whole story.

CVS Caremark honors “Heroes in Women's Health”

CVS Caremark, based in Woonsocket, named Drs. Marianne Legato and Roseanna Means as recipients of the 2008 CVS Caremark Heroes in Women's Health Award during National Women's Health Week earlier this month.

Dr. Legato is an internationally known academic physician, author, lecturer, and specialist in women's health. She is the founder and director of The Foundation for Gender-Specific Medicine, Inc. Dr. Legato is responsible for the first collaboration between academic medicine and the private sector focused solely on gender-specific medicine: the science of how normal human biology differs between men and women and how the diagnosis and treatment of disease differs as a function of gender.

Dr. Means founded Women of Means in 1999, which sends volunteer physicians and paid nurses into Boston area shelters to provide free urgent and immediate medical care to homeless women and children. In 2007, teams of medical professionals provided 10,000 patient visits at ten sites doing everything from treating colds and taking care of frostbitten toes and fingers, to identifying chronic illnesses.

Media contact: Carolyn Castel, CVS Caremark, 401.770.5717, ccastel@cvs.com.

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Shaw’s celebrates Earth Day with Vermont’s Nature Conservancy

In honor of Earth Day, Supervalu Inc. and its nationwide family of stores, including Shaw's in New England, celebrated Earth Day by launching a new associate volunteer program - Volunteers in Action (VIA) and participating in local environmental activities.

In addition to a donation of $7,000, Shaw's associates in Vermont planted trees and cleaned out estuaries with the Nature Conservancy. Shaw's also partnered with "Kids for a Cooler Planet," a group of New Hampshire and Vermont students that promotes use of reusable bags. In conjunction with the Trex Company, Shaw's also sponsored "Bags to Benches," a program which highlights the importance of recycling by inviting a local elementary school to bring plastic bags from home to school, where they will be placed into recycling bins supplied by Shaw's. For their efforts, each student will receive a Shaw's reusable shopping bag, and the school will receive a park bench made of TREX material.

Long Trail Brewing signs up for “Cow Power”

Long Trail Brewing Co. will be getting some of its energy from a new source: cow manure. The popular microbrewery has enrolled in Central Vermont Public Service’s Cow PowerTM, becoming the program's largest commercial customer.

According to CVPS, the “Cow Power” process is simple: manure and other agricultural waste are held in a sealed concrete tank at the same temperature as a cow's stomach, 101 degrees. Bacteria digest the volatile components, creating methane and killing pathogens and weed seeds. The methane, which is roughly 20 times more harmful than carbon dioxide in trapping heat in the atmosphere, fuels an engine/generator.

CVPS customers can choose to receive all, half or a quarter of their electrical energy through Cow Power, and pay a premium of 4 cents per kilowatt hour. It goes to participating farm-producers, to purchase renewable energy credits when enough farm energy isn't available, or to the CVPS Renewable Development Fund. The fund provides grants to farm owners to develop on-farm generation. Farm-producers are also paid 95 percent of the market price for all of the energy sold to CVPS.

Media contacts: Seth Wyman, Long Trail Brewing Co., 802.672.5011;?Steve Costello, CVPS 802.747.5427.

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Connecticut

The Connecticut Council for Philanthropy, an association of grantmakers committed to promoting and supporting effective philanthropy, has elected Dave Davison, president of the American Savings Foundation, as the new chair of the board of directors. Davison succeeds Kate Miller, executive director of The Hartford Courant Foundation.

Other new officers elected were: Vice Chair - Sheila Perrin of the Perrin Family Foundation; Secretary - Stewart Hudson of the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation; Treasurer - Rich Gray of the Connecticut Housing and Education Authority (CHEFA); and President - Nancy Roberts of the Connecticut Council for Philanthropy.

The following new board members were elected to three-year terms: Barbara Fernandez, director of Connecticut’s Office of Insurance and Financial Services; Robert Forrester, chairman and CEO of Payne, Forrester & Associates, LLC and Vice Chairman and COO of Newman’s Own Foundation; Debra Hertz, executive director of the William H. Pitt Foundation; Yvette Melendez, chief administrative officer of the Connecticut State University System; and Sue Murphy, executive director and vice president of the Liberty Bank Foundation.

Retiring board members are Juan Figueroa of the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut, Alice Fitzpatrick of the Community Foundation of Southeastern Connecticut and Sam Hamilton of Hartford Economic Development Corp. (HEDCO).

The New Canaan Community Foundation introduced new members of its Board of Directors at its 30th annual Meeting. They are: Chip Perkins, a principal of MKP Capital Management; John Rice, retired president of Unilever of the Americas; David Rucci, a partner of the firm Rucci, Burnham, Carta, Carello & Reilly; and Lisa Wrenn, who works with local nonprofits specializing in young people, including serving on the Board of Directors of The Outback Teen Center Board for four years. Currently she is vice president of philanthropy for the Service League of Boys, overseeing 25 liaisons with community organizations.  To read the full biographies.

Maine

The Elmina B. Sewall Foundation in Brunswick elected three new members to its Board of Directors. Carol Wishcamper of Freeport is an organizational consultant and has served on the Maine State Board of Education, the Maine Philanthropy Center, The Nature Conservancy, Waynflete School, College of the Atlantic and University of Southern Maine. She was also a founder of the River Rock Foundation. 

Elaine D. Rosen of Falmouth was executive vice president of UNUM Corporation in Portland prior to her retirement.  She serves as chair of the board of the Kresge Foundation. 

Robert E. McAfee, M.D. of Portland is a retired surgeon who was attending surgeon at Maine Medical Center as well as Chief of Surgery and Vascular Surgery at Mercy Hospital in Portland.  He currently serves as Chairman of Dirigo Health Agency and is a past president of the American Medical Association.
The foundation hired Jay Espy as its first executive director this past January.  Prior to that, Mr. Espy served for nearly two decades as president of Maine Coast Heritage Trust, a statewide land conservation organization.

Massachusetts

The Barr Foundation announced that Patricia H. Brandes, currently senior advisor at the Foundation, will succeed Marion Kane as executive director. Kane plans to retire in June, marking the end of a 25-year career in philanthropy.

Congratulations to Associated Grant Makers Vice President Miki Akimoto for being selected as a 2008 Balfour Foundation Fellow. As a Fellow, Miki will attend the Aspen Seminar. The Aspen Institute’s Executive Seminar brings together diverse leaders from different organizations for thoughtful residential workshops. Miki was selected for her work on AGM's member programs, including the Diversity Fellowship, and the Grantmakers for Education Urban Study tour.

The Greater Lowell Community Foundation has a new address: 100 Merrimack Street, Suite 202. The phone numbers and email addresses remain the same.

Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation has added three members to its Board of Directors. They are: J. Anthony “Tony” Sheldon of Sheffield, MA, founder and principal of Bering Consulting; Christopher Kennan of Pine Plains, a private investor; and Charles O’Brien of Williamstown, president and chief executive officer of South Adams Savings Bank. 

New Hampshire

The HNHfoundation elected Valerie A. Long of Epsom, NH as its new board chair. Long is the Nutrition Coordinator for the New Hampshire Food Stamp Nutrition Education grant, which provides nutrition and food safety education to food stamp recipients throughout New Hampshire. She also serves as Extension Professor Emeritus for UNH Cooperative Extension, and is Adjunct Professor for NH Technical and Community College. Also elected as officers were Karen M. Reed, vice chair; Barbara T. Reid, treasurer; and Linda Pimenta, secretary.

Judicial Branch administrator Gina B. Apicelli, who has played a key role in statewide expansion of the court system’s Family Division, has been awarded the Caroline L. Gross Fellowship, established in memory of the late House Majority leader to honor dedication to public service. The fellowship, which is administered by the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, will fund three weeks of study at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in a program designed for senior executives in state and local government.

Rhode Island

Neil Steinberg will be joining The Rhode Island Foundation as its new president and chief executive officer, effective August 15. Steinberg has been vice president of development and campaign director at Brown since 2004, and was formerly chairman and CEO of Fleet Bank-Rhode Island. He is on the advisory board of the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce and is a director of the Business Development Company of Rhode Island and the Urban League. He also serves on the community advisory board of United Way of Rhode Island. Steinberg was a member of the transition teams for Governor Carcieri and Mayor Cicilline. Steinberg is a former director of the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council, the Providence Performing Arts Center, and the Providence Foundation.

The Rhode Island Foundation also welcomed Frederick K. Butler, Textron’s vice president business ethics and corporate secretary, to a five-year term on the Board of Directors.