11.09.15 US Nonprofit News

Nov 9, 2015 | News, Philanthropy Journal

Toyota donates $30,000 to VH1 Save The Music Foundation, Mothers Against Drunk Driving to host a National Day of Remembrance, the Peter C. Alderman Foundation names new Executive Director, Landesa receives the Hilton Humanitarian Prize, and more.

News about grants, gifts

Social Venture Partners Boston has selected four semi-finalists – My Life My Choice, Room to Grow, uAspire, and 826 Boston – to compete for a lucrative three-year package of financial and volunteer support from the organization. They were evaluated for their leadership, sustainability, societal impact, and innovation and survived the cut from an original pool of 25 organizations.

Toyota donated $30,000 to VH1 Save The Music Foundation following a national music festival activation and social media campaign to benefit music education. The grant will fund an entire instrumental music program for the LaPlace Elementary School in New Orleans.

The NoVo Foundation is helping the Tahirih Justice Center scale its protection of immigrant women and girls throughout the US with a $450,000 multi-year grant. Tahirih Justice Center plans to increase, by 250%, the number of women and girls it can serve through national expansion of its legal services, public policy advocacy, and education initiatives.

Life is Good and Hole in the Wall board member, actress Bridget Moynahan congratulated local hero Mackenzie Page for her fundraiser The Great Pumpkin Challenge, benefiting The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp on Friday, October 30th, 2015 in Newtown, CT. This year, Mackenzie’s Challenge raised over $36,000. Life is Good donated $15,000.

Prudential hosted the 4.01K Race For Retirement in partnership with the 1:1 Fund at RFK Stadium on November 7. The event was designed to raise awareness of the importance of saving for retirement and inspire lower-income families to take action and save for college. Prudential presented the 1:1 Fund with a $400,000 check, which will seed thousands of Children’s Savings Accounts.

The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation‘s distinguished panel of independent international jurors selected Landesa as the recipient of the Hilton Humanitarian Prize. The $2 million prize, the world’s largest humanitarian award, will help fund Landesa’s continued efforts to provide rural women, men, and their families with secure rights to land.

Eight nonprofit organizations located throughout the country have been selected in the fourth quarter to receive grants from the Voya Foundation.

A $3 million gift has established The Colorado Trust Chair in American Indian Health at the Centers for American Indian and Alaska Native Health in the Colorado School of Public Health at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.

Silicon Valley Community Foundation has awarded more than $1.6 million to support organizations that provide financial education and services to low- and moderate-income residents of San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, and organizations working to improve land use, affordable housing and public transportation options for people of all income levels.

In conjunction with the “Give the Gift of Home” campaign and in partnership with Habitat for Humanity International, Air Wick is donating $250,000 through a portion of its profits this holiday season to assist families in securing adequate housing to build a brighter future.

The 5th Avenue Theatre will receive $326,000 over three years from the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust to support the organization’s resource development capacity.

News about people, groups

The National Parks Conservation Association welcomes Theresa Pierno as their new president and CEO. Pierno is the first woman to serve in this role in the organization’s 96-year history.

The National FFA Organization announced the winners of the 2015 National Agricultural Proficiency Awards on Friday, Oct. 30 during the sixth general session at the 88th National FFA Convention & Expo. Awards were given in 49 categories.

Ceres tied for 6th place in a worldwide ranking of NGOs leading on sustainability. The GlobeScan/SustainAbility Sustainability Leaders Survey asked expert stakeholders from business, government, NGOs and academia across 82 countries to name, unprompted, who they thought were the top-performing NGOs working to advance sustainable development.

The Council for Economic Education raised over $700,000 at their 10th Annual Visionary Awards dinner on October 29th. The Visionary Awards honorees were Ann Kaplan, Partner, Circle Wealth Management; Robert E. Moritz, U.S. Chairman and Senior Partner PwC; Prof. Robert J. Shiller, Sterling Professor of Economics, Yale University; and Andrew Ross Sorkin, Founder of DealBook, Financial Columnist for The New York Times, and CNBC Co-Anchor of “Squawk Box.”

November is National Adoption Month, and Wendy’s is celebrating the five thousandth child placed with a forever family in the US through Wendy’s Wonderful Kids, a signature program of the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption (DTFA). The DTFA focuses on helping children who have been waiting the longest in the foster care system get adopted.

Services for the UnderServed will honor its Board chairman emeritus, Andrew Hurwitzv at the Annual Benefit on November 17 in Brooklyn, NY. As the Chair, Andrew oversaw the organization’s growth from $90 million to $180 million in just three years.

Fisher House Foundation, which provides comfort homes for families of patients receiving medical care at major military and VA medical centers, achieved the coveted 4-star rating from Charity Navigator for the 12th consecutive year.

The Center for Curatorial Leadership selected 12 art museum curators for their class of 2016 fellows.

Donors Forum has changed its name to Forefront. The rebranding captures the cutting-edge work the organization and its Members are doing, as well as better represents its evolving constituency.

The Peter C. Alderman Foundation has named Allan Freedman its new Executive Director. A senior leader in humanitarian response and development, Freedman is responsible for the US-based agency’s work across Africa and Southeast Asia.

Allison R. Brown, a former civil rights attorney who most recently was responsible for racial justice grant-making at the Open Society Foundations, was named the Executive Director of the newly formed Communities for Just Schools Fund.

The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the Mount Sinai Health System announced the MSHS-CHOP Children’s Services Collaboration, an alliance designed to give children in the New York metropolitan area access to an unprecedented scope of pediatric services.

Give To Cure has launched the world’s first nonprofit that accelerates drug development through “cure-funding,” or funding promising clinical trials directly and transparently by harnessing the power of the crowd.

News about opportunities, initiatives

To culminate the organization’s 35th Anniversary, Mothers Against Drunk Driving will host a National Day of Remembrance on December 3rd with events taking place in cities across the country to commemorate the hundreds of thousands of people impacted by drunk and drugged driving and underage drinking.

The Vodafone Americas Foundation opened the call for submissions for the eighth annual Wireless Innovation ProjectTM. The award will recognize the outstanding projects of nonprofits, universities, non-governmental organizations, and social entrepreneurs who develop wireless-related technologies with the high potential to solve critical issues facing the world today. Online applications will be accepted from November 2nd, 2015 through February 27th, 2016, with winners announced in June 2016.

Honeywell and NASA will bring their award-winning, hip-hop physics education program, FMA Live! Forces in Motion, to more than 40 public, private and military-connected middle schools in the Midwest this fall. The show brings together hip-hop music, dancers, larger-than-life demonstrations and audience participation to illustrate how physics plays a role in everyday life. It aims to inspire future innovators to pursue careers in STEM.

The Independence Blue Cross Foundation and the National League for Nursing will cohost a national conference, Paradigms in Nursing Leadership, on Tuesday, November 10, drawing more than 550 leaders in health care to the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia.

Festival of Children Foundation is hosting its Carousel of Possible Dreams fundraiser at Disneyland’s King Arthur Carrousel on Thursday, November 12 from 7 a.m. to 9 a. m. This is the sixth year for the unique fundraiser that has raised more than $2.1 million and fulfilled 70 dreams for children’s programs across the country.  The Foundation funds all program costs so all monies raised go directly to the participating charities.

Now, through the end of November, Move Your Mountain encourages social media users to participate in their #ThanksToYou campaign. For every share of their graphic on social media during the campaign, Move Your Mountain will donate one meal to a person in need.

On Veterans Day, November 11, Sierra Club‘s Military Outdoors will take part in #DayForTheBrave, hosted by Razoo, the nation’s first online Giving Event to exclusively raise funds and awareness for charities serving the needs of veterans, service members and their families.

ASMBA STAR Foundation is partnering with Lightning 100 on Veterans Day, Wednesday, November 11, for “Salute to Vets.” Funds raised during the day-long radiothon will benefit the ASMBA STAR Foundation, a Nashville based, non-profit organization that provides grants and raises money to improve the quality of life for all military personnel.

The Greater Cincinnati Foundation will hold its Annual Luncheon on Monday, December 7, 2015 at the Hyatt Regency Cincinnati downtown.

Alternative Investment Industry veterans Sarah Colvin of Twin Capital Management; Tom Munster of Clinton Group; and Elana Margulies Snyderman of EisnerAmper, will host the inaugural Wall Street Unplugged 2015 Jam Session Monday, November 9th at Turtle Bay NYC on 987 Second Avenue in New York to raise money for three childrens’ charities: Juvenile Diabetes Research FoundationToys for Tots and Phyt Cares.

One Drop, the nonprofit started by Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte, has launched a campaign to help moms and their children who need it most by providing sustainable safe-water solutions.

Marco’s Pizza has partnered with USACares to identify veterans who are interested in becoming Marco’s Pizza franchisees, and through the pizza maker’s Apprenticeship Program, provide financial assistance to make the dream of becoming a business owner a reality.

Macy’s Believe campaign returns for the eighth year to benefit Make-A-Wish. From November 6 through December 24, “Believers” of all ages can bring their stamped letters to Santa to their local Macy’s store or send a letter by visiting macys.com/believe. For each letter received, Macy’s will donate $1 to Make-A-Wish, up to $1 million, to help grant the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions.


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