Harold Alfond Foundation Awards $500 Million to Aid Maine Groups (Grants Roundup)

Here are notable new grant awards compiled by the Chronicle:

Harold Alfond Foundation

$500 million commitment to nonprofit groups in Maine to develop the state’s work force and economy and improve the quality of health care for Maine residents.

The University of Maine System has received a challenge grant of $240 million over the next 12 years, and it must raise $170 million in other gifts over the next 10 years. Of that total, $90 million will build athletics facilities for the university system; $75 million is dedicated for the Maine College of Engineering, Computing, and Information Science, which will be hosted across several campuses; $55 million will support the Maine Graduate and Professional Center; and $20 million is for student success and retention.

Harold Alfond, who died in 2007, was a billionaire investor who started the Dexter Shoe Company and sold it to Berkshire Hathaway in 1995.

PNC Bank and the Walton Family Foundation

$100 million to the Facilities Investment Fund, a new philanthropic partnership that will make low-cost loans to public charter schools for them to construct, renovate, and refinance their buildings. Civic Builders will manage loans through the fund.

Lilly Endowment

$93 million shared among 92 Christian churches in the United States through its Thriving Congregations Initiative. Each congregation received between $223,000 and $1 million. The largest grant went to Duke University, which received $3.8 million to gather data and insights from grantees over the next five years and help them learn from each other.
(The Lilly Endowment is a financial supporter of the Chronicle of Philanthropy.)

Ally Charitable Foundation

$30 million over three years to help advance economic mobility and combat systemic racism in communities where Ally Financial conducts business, particularly in Charlotte, N.C., and Detroit.

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

$15 million to the Just Project to expand rapid coronavirus testing at 10 historically Black colleges and universities for students, faculty, administrators, and their surrounding communities.

Blue Shield of California Foundation

$10.6 million to 26 nonprofit organizations and programs throughout California. Among the largest grants was $1.1 million to PolicyLink to address gender-based violence in the state.

Black Voices for Black Justice Fund

$10 million commitment to support Black community leaders in their efforts to advance racial justice in the United States. To date, 31 organizations have received grants worth between $20,000 and $50,000 to recognize efforts in education, criminal-justice reform, environmental justice, voting rights, and civic engagement. The fund was created with donations from the Bridge Alliance Education Fund, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the CityBridge Foundation, Galaxy Gives, the Greater Washington Community Foundation, the Moriah Fund, and the Joe and Clara Tsai Foundation, among other funders.

Elizabeth D. Rockwell Foundation

$6.5 million to the University of Houston Hobby School of Public Affairs to establish the Elizabeth D. Rockwell Center on Ethics and Leadership. Rockwell, who died in 2011, attended the university in 1938 and became a financial expert in the fields of retirement, estate, investments, and tax planning.

Emily Landecker Foundation

$5 million to the University of New Hampshire for the Sustainable Seafood Field Laboratory, which will expand an existing open-ocean aquaculture site to monitor local environmental conditions and its effects on fish habitats.

Southern Poverty Law Center

$4.5 million in its second round of Vote Your Voice grants to 28 voter-outreach organizations to boost election turnout among registered voters in Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi.

JPMorgan Chase

$4 million to the Family Housing Fund, in partnership with the Greater Minnesota Housing Fund, Land Bank Twin Cities, Hope Community, and Minnesota Home Ownership Center, to help longtime Minneapolis residents become first-time homeowners.

The bank also gave $2.5 million to the Detroit Housing for the Future Fund, in addition to $12.5 million in low-cost loans to help residents of Detroit buy affordable homes.

Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco

$3.5 million to 97 nonprofits in Arizona, California, and Nevada to provide both immediate and long-term pandemic relief and boost economic development in lower-income communities.

Goizueta Foundation

$2 million to Kennesaw State University to bolster Thrive and Achieve Atlanta, two of the university’s outreach programs that help scholarship students and students who attended Atlanta Public Schools succeed in earning their college degrees.

Rockefeller Foundation

$1.5 million over two years to Boston University’s Center for Antiracist Research.

Strada Education Network

$1.2 million to the Jackie Robinson Foundation to expand its scholarships and leadership-development program for students at four-year colleges.

Cargill

$1 million to the World Food Program USA in honor of the United Nations World Food Programme’s win of the Nobel Peace Prize this month.

Panda Cares

$1 million to Communities in Schools to support the academic, physical, and social-emotional needs of elementary- and middle-school students in California, Georgia, Illinois, Nevada, Texas, and Washington.

Truist Foundation

$1 million to the Greenville Tech Foundation to open the Culinary and Hospitality Innovation Center at Greenville Technical College.

New Grant Opportunity

The Internet Society Foundation is accepting letters of interest regarding grants for studies of the future and sustainability of the internet. Grants of up to $200,000 are available for research lasting up to two years in one of two categories: how the internet affects and is affected by the environment, and how digital technologies are changing our economic landscape. Nonprofit groups, independent researchers, and research institutions may submit letters of interest, and full proposals will be accepted by invitation on a rolling basis.

Send grant announcements to grants.editor@philanthropy.com.

Chronicle of Philanthropy subscribers also have full access to GrantStation’s searchable database of grant opportunities. For more information, visit our grants page.