The Daily Tell

The Carnegie Corporation of New York has announced $10 million in grants to be used in the development and implementation of new elementary, secondary and post-secondary school designs and systems.

The grants are part of the corporation’s larger effort to support designs that address the weaknesses in the U.S. education system – such as poorly designed curricula, isolation from external resources, understaffed schools, incoherent management systems and entrenched school models that stifle innovation.

"If we as a nation are serious about offering all students the education they need to compete in a global economy – and deserve as citizens – we must seriously raise our expectations about student achievement and take whatever steps are necessary to replace dogma with solutions that will provide America’s students with the highest level of educational excellence," said Carnegie Corporation of New York president Vartan Gregorian.

The grant is to be divided among three institutions working to improve the United States educational system.

The recently-formed U.S. Education Delivery Institute will receive $2.5 million, intended to help the nonprofit work with state and governmental education programs in cultivating the skills and technical capacity to implement education reform on a grand scale.

Another $2.5 million will be awarded to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The funds will help the foundation develop a one-year mathematics program designed to help community college students segue into four-year educational programs in the humanities and social sciences.

The final $5 million will go to the NewSchools Venture Fund. The group will invest the money in nonprofit entrepreneurial organizations that are dedicated to closing the achievement gap for underprivileged, underserved and immigrant children. Including this gift, the Carnegie Corporation has awarded the NewSchools Venture Fund with more than $7 million in the past 18 months.

The Carnegie Corporation was founded by Andrew Carnegie in 1911. In the words of its founder, the corporation is dedicated to promoting "the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding."

New York City’s performing arts will be getting a much-needed financial boost from the Open Society Foundations, which announced $11 million in grants for several area music, dance and theater groups.

"This initiative is part of our wide-ranging, ongoing work to address the economic crisis nationwide," said Ann Beeson, executive director of U.S. Programs at the Open Society Institute, who helped managed the program. "We’re not an arts foundation, but we know the central role arts and culture play in economic stability and social change."

Ms. Beeson added that nonprofit arts groups employ three times as many people in New York City as law firms do.

According to a report released in May by the Alliance for the Arts, more than 60 percent of arts organizations in New York City reported significant budget cuts following the economic crisis. The lack of available funding has resulted in fewer jobs in the arts industry. Thanks to the generous gift from the foundations, a total of 79 nonprofit organizations dedicated to the fine arts will be receiving grants that will enable them to increase their public programming, retain jobs and even hire new performers.
The two-year operating grants, which range from $65,000 to $250,000, are made possible through the Performing Arts Recovery Initiative, a one-time grant program sponsored by the Open Society Foundations and managed by the Fund for the City of New York. The dance, music and theater organizations selected to receive grants operate on budgets between $75,000 and $7 million, and were selected for their commitment to artistry and their contribution to New York’s culture.

The organizations receiving grants include the Bronx Art Ensemble, Ballet Hispanico and the New York Youth Symphony.

"The arts and arts education are a vital part of the fabric of New York City," said George Soros, chairman of the Open Society Foundations. "This funding will help organizations that have been under severe strain because of the economic crisis."

The Open Society Institute and Soros Foundations were established by George Soros in 1993. Soros, a survivor of Nazi-occupied Hungary, has been involved in philanthropic pursuits for more than 40 years. To date, he has given away more than $7 billion for causes including domestic abuse prevention, HIV/AIDS testing, ending global poverty and rebuilding urban areas.

The Rockefeller Foundation has announced the 2010 winners of the Jane Jacobs Medal, a prestigious recognition awarded to New York City residents whose actions and accomplishments in exemplify the late author and civic activist’s principles.

Joshua David and Robert Hammond, co-founders of Friends of the High Line, were named winners of the 2010 Jane Jacobs Medal for New Ideas and Activism, and are each to be awarded a $60,000 gift.

David and Hammond transformed the decrepit and abandoned High Line elevated railroad system into one of New York’s unique public parks. Struck by the landmark’s connection to New York’s industrial past, Hammond and David set about transforming the structure after they heard about plans to demolish it.

After founding Friends of the High Line, David and Hammond received support from numerous public officials, including New York City mayor Michael C. Bloomberg. Bloomberg reversed the decision to demolish the railway system and instead converted it into a park, which has seen more than 2 million visitors since opening in June 2009.

On the more rural side, Elizabeth Barlow Rogers, founding and longtime president of the Central Park Conservancy and current president of the Foundation for Landscape Studies, was selected to receive the 2010 Jane Jacobs Medal for Lifetime Leadership, and will receive $80,000.

For the past 46 years, Rogers has worked to preserve New York City’s treasured parklands. Thanks to her dedication, Central Park – which had fallen into severe disrepair in the 1960s and 70s – was revived and preserved.

Rogers held the dual position of Central Park administrator and president of the Central Park Conservancy until 1995, overseeing the fundraising campaigns and rehabilitation efforts that eventually ended the park’s decline.

The Rockefeller Foundation, founded in 1913, was supported in its early years by iconic New Yorker John D. Rockefeller, an oil magnate who is often regarded as the richest man in history.

The John Templeton Foundation has awarded Wake Forest University $3.67 million to study the nature of human character – the largest grant ever awarded to the North Carolina-based institution for humanities research.

The foundation is providing funding for The Character Project, an exploration of the basis of human nature to be carried out by Wake Forest professors William F. Fleeson and Michael R. Furr, both from the department of psychology, as well as philosophy professor Christian Miller.

"When we think about how to understand human behavior, one of the first things we tend to mention is someone’s character and character traits such as honesty, courage or laziness," Miller said. "We are very excited about using the complementary perspectives of psychology, philosophy and theology to better understand what our characters are like and how we can improve ourselves as persons."

Miller is the principal director of the study, which is expected to span three years. The project will build on research previously completed by Fleeson and Furr, which studied the genesis of personality traits.

Wake Forest president Nathan O. Hatch called the project "ground-breaking," adding that "character and how to develop it are at the core of who we are as human beings."

John Templeton Foundation vice president for philosophy and theology Michael J. Murray expressed the organization’s interest in The Character Project.

"Sir John Templeton was very keen to fund research projects aimed at discovering the nature and content of character, with the goal of better understanding how to become virtuous, flourishing individuals, family members and citizens," he said.

Miller is also writing a book, entitled "A New Theory of Character."

Wake Forest University’s research into the formation of character is part of a growing desire to understand how we develop personality traits and moral compasses. Another nonprofit group, the VIA Institute on Character, is also working to unlock the secrets of human nature.

The Iowa West Foundation has announced second-quarter grants totaling $3.7 million to be distributed among 42 area nonprofits.

The Council Bluffs-based foundation intends for the grants to be used to help nonprofits and governmental organizations fund local projects, including educational programs. Funding for the grants is made possible through investment earnings and the Iowa West Racing Association, which receives contracted fees from casinos such as Harrah’s and Ameristar.

Todd Graham, president and CEO of the Iowa West Foundation, stated that education improvement continues to be "one of the Foundation’s over-arching goals," adding that three of the 42 grants will be directed toward educational attainment in Pottawattamie County.

In total, $458,200 will be donated to the STARS Scholarship Program, a helpful but underutilized project that provides scholarships for lower-income parents who live in the region and want to return to school. The money is meant to help the program expand so that more adults can make use of its services.

Thanks to grants from the Iowa West Foundation, "there have been over 100 additional STARS participants over the past two years," said Marsha Grandick, STARS scholarship director. She added that that number is equal to the total number of scholars in the previous 10 years combined.

An additional $420,000 will go to the Council Bluffs Community School District to support the School Administration Managers Project, an initiative that aims to provide assistance that would free up principals and school leaders to improve school curriculums. Another $100,000 will be awarded to the Green Hills Area Education Agency to assess the technology needs in seven Pottawattamie County rural school districts.

Other grant recipients include the Community Housing Investment Corporation, the African-American Heritage Foundation and Ballet Nebraska.

The Iowa West Foundation, established in 1994, is one of the largest nonprofit organizations in the Midwest.

The University of California at Berkeley’s Haas School of Business has received a $1-million grant to establish a China Fellowship Fund.

The gift, which was contributed by Haas School advisory board member Hsioh Kwang Wu, is aimed at enabling Chinese graduate students in business to study in the U.S. Each year, the Hsioh Kwang Wu Family Fellowship Fund will provide funding for two Chinese students to travel to Berkeley’s prestigious Haas School and enroll in the executive education program, along with other courses of study.

"We are deeply grateful for the generosity and dedication that Hsioh Kwang Wu has shown to the Haas School since becoming a board member just one year ago," said dean Rich Lyons. "His gift will enable Berkeley-Haas to build even richer connections with Asia as the region’s importance continues to grow in the business world."

The school has recently redoubled its focus on international education, especially in Asia, a continent to which Northern California’s historic ties are especially significant. The University of California system has also been in the news for its plans to develop a fully-online bachelor’s degree program that would enable international students to receive a UC education without ever leaving their home countries.

In addition to serving on the Haas advisory board, Hsioh Kwang Wu is a council member of the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry and a member of the standing committee of the Chinese Association of Enterprises with Foreign Investment. He is also the founder, executive chairman and CEO of Straco, a Singapore-based developer and operator of tourism-related businesses.

Online video pioneer YouTube, a subsidiary of the multimedia giant Google, has announced a $5-million program designed to help amateur video-makers get noticed and bring more traffic to the website.

Many YouTube video creators have been able to generate substantial views – in some cases reaching numbers that rival those of broadcast networks – while mainting creative control over every aspect of their video production process. However, even the most popular of YouTube stars lacks the financial funding and resources available to major television studios.

"Ultimately the game has changed, and people are throwing the rules out the window," George Strompolos, partner development manager at YouTube, told the New York Times. "Folks who ten years ago couldn’t even get their content shared to friends across the street are now connecting with audiences around the world."

YouTube doesn’t want financial difficulty to be the reason its most successful stars can’t continue to produce content that the website’s visitors love. To that end, the company has established the Partner Grants program to support the efforts of a select group of video content creators who are at the forefront of innovation. The grants, which will allow the video creators to invest in professional camera equipment and editing software, hire staff members and expand their marketing, will serve as an advance against their future revenue share. The goal of the program is to raise the standard for online video creation, allowing it to rival traditional media creation by major studios.

In forging this direct relationship with its content creators, YouTube follows in the footsteps of many other online companies, such as Amazon. The popular bookseller now has a platform that allows aspiring authors to self-publish on its electronic reader, the Kindle.

YouTube, which was founded in 2005, is the most popular video sharing and creation platform in the world. The company has struck partnership deals with many major television production studios, including CBS, the BBC and the Sundance Channel.

Philanthropist Lily Safra has donated $2.5 million to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research to support the Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiative.

Safra is the widow of the banker and humanitarian Edward J. Safra, and has served as a board member for the Michael J. Fox Foundation as well as chairman of the Edward J. Safra Foundation, a principle partner of the former.

"My husband had a visionary belief in the power of human ingenuity to conquer disease," said Mrs. Safra.

Mrs. Safra’s gift will be used to fuel the foundation’s search for a biomarker of Parkinson’s disease progression. The PPMI study is aimed at discovering the indicators of Parkinson’s disease development so as to better diagnose, track and treat the disease, one day leading to a cure. The study will employ state-of-the-art neuroimaging, biomedical testing and careful subject observation to better understand the biomarkers of Parkinson’s development, helping to halt or even reverse the effects of the progressive neurological disorder.

Mrs. Safra added that during her husband’s lifetime, he was a prominent supporter of medical research and patient care.

"In his memory, it is my privilege to sponsor PPMI, a characteristically strategic effort by the Michael J. Fox Foundation to fill gaps in medical research in order to speed improved treatments and a cure for Parkinson’s disease," she said.

Mrs. Safra’s donation, along with a consortium of funding partners, have made the study possible. It is expected to cost $40 million over five years, and requires 400 newly-diagnosed Parkinson’s patients who are not yet taking medication and 200 controls to volunteer as subjects.

Michael J. Fox, a prominent actor, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 1991, though he would not share the news with the public for seven years. Since then, he has been fighting to fund research to treat and cure the disease as well as ease the suffering of those affected by it. The Michael J. Fox Foundation has funded nearly $196 million in research to date.

The Silicon Valley Community Foundation will be donating more than $1.2 million dollars to charities in the San Mateo and Santa Clara valleys in Callifornia.

The eleven organizations receiving grants focus on helping more than 5,000 low- and moderate-income families learn how to save, gain access to money management programs and achieve financial independence.

The grants range from $5,000 to $50,000 per organization, and are intended to increase the number and availability of financial assistance programs that can provide adults with the incentive to save money and the tools to make financial decisions that will benefit them in the future.

"We need to help people learn to manage money, evaluate complex financial options and start setting aside something for emergencies," said SVCF president and CEO Emmett D. Carson. "These grants will help nonprofits provide and extend those services to immigrants, low-income families, students and others who are not part of the financial mainstream."

Organizations receiving grants from the foundation include the Earned Asset Resource Network, which was given $125,000 to expand its programs providing education on adopting new financial behaviors. Another grantee, Self-Help Economic Development, was awarded $150,000 to support a credit union in East San Jose, California, that provides capital and asset-building programs to immigrant families.

"Our goal is to increase the economic security of those in our region who are least secure," said Carson.

The SVCF was formed in 2006 with the merger of the Peninsula Community Foundation and Community Foundation Silicon Valley, two philanthropic organizations focusing on the Silicon Valley region of Northern California.

As of 2009, the SVCF has awarded more than $250 million in 9,293 grants over its lifetime, including $8.5 million in international grants. It gives, on average, 70 gifts per week, and is ranked number 101 on the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s Philanthropy 400. It also ranks 14th among the nation’s largest foundations in terms of total giving.

Omidyar Network has announced plans to award $2.1 million in grants to the Foundation for Ecological Security to help secure land rights for India’s poor.

The grants, which will be distributed over two years, will help FES fund its growing operations, advance its policy advocacy and enact programs that will help India’s most impoverished citizens gain rights to community land. The foundation is also committed to preserving the wildlife, flora and natural resources that India’s common land has to offer.

"For more than 300 million of India’s rural poor, the commons act as a critical safety net—contributing income, water, and everyday nutrition when they are needed most," said Dr. Amrita Patel, Chair of FES’s Board of Governors.

Approximately 30 percent of India’s rural poor depend on the community land – known as the commons – for their livelihood, but very few enjoy legal rights to it. FES is India’s largest organization dedicated to helping secure access to the commons for the working poor.

With the funding from Omidyar Network, Patel said FES will be able to "reach thousands of additional rural communities with programs that enable them to access, share and conserve their common lands."

FES was founded in 2001, inspired by a speech given by India’s prime minister decrying the poor condition of more than one-third of the nation’s land. This land, the prime minister stated, was inextricably linked with the livelihoods of the people who lived and worked on it. FES’s mission is to protect and, where necessary, restore India’s vast landscape so that citizens of the country can enjoy better lives.

For its part, Omidyar Network is dedicated to raising awareness about the fundamental role property rights play in alleviating poverty worldwide. Jayant Sinha, managing director of Omidyar Network India Advisors, said that the philanthropic organization was "proud to support FES’s goal to materially improve the lives of millions and believe their work demonstrates the potential of property rights to unleash economic growth for lasting impact."