Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation Commits $200 Million for Nonprofit Arts Scene in Detroit and Buffalo

Here are notable new grant awards compiled by the Chronicle:

Chan Zuckerberg Initiative

Up to $3.4 billion commitment to advance human health and artificial intelligence over the next 15 years.

Among the grantees, Harvard University will receive $500 million over 15 years to establish the Kempner Institute for the Study of Natural and Artificial Intelligence. The new institute is named for Karen Kempner Zuckerberg, the mother of Mark Zuckerberg, who is the CEO and founder of the social-media company Meta. Both he and his wife, Priscilla Chan, attended Harvard as undergraduates.

Bezos Earth Fund

$443 million to 44 organizations that are focused on climate justice, conservation and restoration, and meeting milestones in critical climate goals.

The grants include $261 million to advance the 30×30 program to protect 30 percent of land and sea before 2030, especially within the Congo Basin and tropical parts of the Andes, including the Amazon River headwaters; $130 million to dedicate 40 percent of federal investments in climate and clean energy within disadvantaged communities, as part of the Justice40 pledge in the United States; and $51 million to restore habitats in the United States and Africa.

Read more about how the Bezos Earth Fund grants will be used in the coming years.

Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation

$200 million commitment to strengthen arts and cultural organizations in Detroit and western New York. Each region will receive $100 million of the pledge.

The foundation has pledged $60 million over 10 years to establish an endowment at the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo that will make grants for general operating support and sustainability of the region’s nonprofit arts scene. Another $60 million over 10 years will create a similar endowment at the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan.

The foundation will also endow new grant-making funds for arts and culture in the Buffalo, N.Y., and Detroit metropolitan areas, and contribute $5 million apiece to the capital campaigns of the Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, N.Y.; the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, which was previously known as the Albright-Knox Art Gallery; and the Motown Museum in Detroit.

Trinity Church Wall Street

$20.1 million to nonprofit groups that aid vulnerable people in New York City. The grants ranged in size from $50,000 to $1 million.

The Osborne Association received $1 million to continue its Kinship Reentry pilot program, which helps formerly incarcerated people find places to live with relatives or friends after they are released from prison.

Southwest Airlines

$10 million commitment to Yale University’s Center for Natural Carbon Capture to develop new technology and conduct research to reduce net greenhouse-gas emissions. The pledge will also support research and educational efforts in sustainability, strategy, policy, and economics at the Yale School of the Environment.

Heinz Endowments

$5.4 million to 16 organizations through its Pittsburgh’s Cultural Treasures, in collaboration with the Poise Foundation. The grants are unrestricted and support the leaders of organizations that advance the people, arts, and culture of Black communities in southwestern Pennsylvania.

Johnson & Johnson

$5 million to Research!America to create and endow the Outstanding Achievement in Public Health Awards.

Bank of America

$4.7 million to 39 nonprofit groups that are addressing the critical needs that have arisen in Native American communities since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The grants include $1 million over four years to Water First to improve access to clean drinking water in Indigenous communities in Canada.

Ford Foundation and Open Society Initiative for West Africa

$3.8 million commitment to create Kasa: Ending Sexual Violence in West Africa.

Housed at the African Women’s Development Fund, it will be a five-year program to boost feminist activism, strengthen women’s organizations, and promote advocacy against sexual violence in West Africa.

John S. and James L. Knight Foundation

$3.5 million over three years to NewsMatch to match donations to nonprofit newsrooms during their fundraising campaigns, with a focus on attracting more local philanthropists to support publishers of color who report on issues that affect marginalized people.

Truist Charitable Fund

$3 million over three years to the Thurgood Marshall College Fund for a new scholarship program to benefit students at historically Black colleges and universities.

Wells Fargo

$2 million to the Smithsonian Latino Center to support the Molina Family Latino Gallery and the National Museum of the American Latino.

The Molina Family Latino Gallery will open next year inside the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History as a preview of the planned separate museum, which will recognize the contributions of Hispanics in the United States.

Marguerite Casey Foundation and Group Health Foundation

$1.5 million to the Freedom Scholars Awards for 2021. The program has awarded $250,000 over two years in unrestricted cash prizes to six scholars who are leading research in fields including abolitionist, Black, feminist, queer, radical, and anticolonialist studies.

Samuel I. Newhouse Foundation

$1.5 million to Tufts University’s Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life to endow the director’s position at the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement.

Jonas Philanthropies

$1.3 million over five years to Columbia University’s Department of Ophthalmology to continue the Jonas Children’s Vision Care program, which expands access to vision exams for children in need and their families.

The grant will also support a child-focused genetic-counseling program and train more ophthalmologists and eyesight specialists.

Conrad N. Hilton Foundation

$1 million to RespectAbility toward its strategic plan to counter bias and advance leadership opportunities, career training, and education for people with disabilities.

#FirstRespondersFirst

$1 million to the All In Fund, which will make grants to support the well-being of health care workers and address burnout among first responders.

This program is a collaborative project of Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Thrive Global, the CAA Foundation, the Entertainment Industry Foundation, and the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes’ Foundation.

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