The Daily Tell

As he promised last year, President Barack Obama has donated the $1.4 million reward he received along with the Nobel peace prize, the White House announced recently.

The president distributed the cash to 10 wide-ranging organizations, such as funds that provide scholarships to minorities and another that provides relief in Haiti.

The White House press secretary released a short announcement from the president that approved of the education advocates, foundations, and charity nonprofits chosen, saying they bring benefit to society at multiple levels.

"These organizations do extraordinary work in the United States and abroad helping students, veterans and countless others in need," said President Obama. "I’m proud to support their work."

Nine months into his presidency, the Nobel committee shocked some people and pleased others by supporting Obama as the winner of the prestigious prize for promoting peace. Obama was quick to pledge all of the cash reward he would receive for the controversial award.

While Obama made several $125,000 donations to college funds, such as the United Negro College Fund, the Hispanic Scholarship Fund and the American Indian College, he also gave to three organizations that serve the needy in other parts of the world.

Obama donated $200,000 to the Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund, to help the country and its survivors recover from the devastating earthquake earlier this year. Another $100,000 was donated to AfriCare, an charity that helps with hunger issues and the AIDS crisis in Africa, while $100,000 was designated for the Central Asia Institute, which helps educate girls in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

But the largest donation went to the Fisher House, which provides aid to veterans and their families being treated at major military and VA medical centers.

Obama isn’t the first major U.S. politician to donate money from the Nobel prize. Al Gore donated his 2007 reward to a environmental nonprofit that he chairs.

The Noyce Foundation, a philanthropy that provides support to young science students across the country, recently announced a $1.7 million donation to the 4-H Council towards its science, engineering and technology program.

The foundation, created in the memory of Intel co-founder Dr. Robert Noyce, believes this partnership with the 4-H system will help it achieve its goal of attracting a million young people to work in science, engineering and technology by 2013. The 4-H’s SET program provides a non-formal, out-of-school education experience that offers hands-on learning that applies national science teaching standards and encourages critical thinking to foster youth development.

The 4-H Council, the nonprofit arm of the national organization that works to provide youth with leadership experience and life skills, believes the donation will bring benefit to society by investing in the education of the next generation.

"Noyce’s investment will allow 4-H to expand state and county-level SET leadership teams which are integral to reaching our goal of addressing the nation’s critical workforce shortages by building the next generation of youth excited about careers in science, engineering and technology," said National 4-H Council president Donald T. Floyd, Jr.

4-H, supported by its adult dedicated volunteers, now helps 6 million young people throughout the year, with 5 million involved with its science, engineering and technology projects. Through summer camps and after-school activities, 4-H projects involve environmental protection, agriculture, animal science, computer science, renewable energy, robotics, and rocketry.

Children in 4-H programs are nearly two times more likely to go to college and are 25 percent more likely to start giving back to the community, according to youth development research by Tufts University.

Two other foundations named after major computer tech creators gave to nonprofits helping students go to college. The Gates and the Hewlett foundations recently contributed $3.6 million to the Academy for College Excellence to help unprepared students learn computer skills.

The Everything Channel, a technology marketing and sales firm, conducted a "technology makeover" at a California elementary school with the help of a local nonprofit volunteer action center, the organization announced recently.

As many public schools struggle to meet student needs in a difficult economic period, members of the marketing firm along with volunteers from the nonprofit L.A. Works installed six new library computers and updated the operating systems of 34 others as well as provided new keyboards in the elementary school’s computer lab.

Administrators at Dayton Heights elementary school said that without the employee volunteer initiative, the school’s computer system wouldn’t be able to adequately serve its students.

The new technology was presented to students, school officials and community leaders during a ribbon cutting ceremony.

"We are very grateful for the business community’s generosity in helping us revitalize the library and computer lab at Dayton Heights Elementary School," said Brutchey. "Everything Channel and members of the technology industry have set aside valuable time to help us improve the facility of one of our community partners. We appreciate this tremendous support of our mission to increase volunteer participation and build the capacity of our nonprofit partners."

Also involved in the IT makeover partnership are several technology companies, such as Microsoft, which was the underwriter of the program. Samsung, a major electronics company, donated a printer, two monitors and two projectors for classroom audio visual presentations.

In addition to the technology makeover, Everything Channel employees helped beautify areas around the school and one volunteer painted a mural nearby.

Other initiatives to help under-served students by supplying technology are sprouting up in other parts of the country as well.

Take Stock in Children, a nonprofit based in Florida that supplies mentors and college scholarships to low-income and at-risk students, recently distributed 10 anonymously donated laptops to the children it serves.

Clean Out Your Office, a Massachusetts company that specializes in the disposal of electronic waste, is donating dozens of discarded computers to an after-school program based in Boston.

Through a partnership with Victory Generation, a faith-based nonprofit organization with a mission to build and sustain after-school services in low-income communities, the company delivered nearly 100 PCs to 11 schools and church centers. COYO plans to supply more computers to the after-school sites and has also made the goal of the partnership to give each of the 543 after-school students in the program a computer for their home by June 30, the Daily News Tribune of Waltham reported.

Janine Spinola Taylor, director of education for Victory Generation, called the charity donations from Clean Out Your Office a "win-win" situation that will surely be a benefit to society by giving less fortunate students a more equal playing field.

"It shows an after-school program meeting another business and collectively they serve the needs of children who do not have a computer," Janine Spinola Taylor, director of education for the partnership, told the news provider. "Without a computer, they are not able to compete in school and do the after-school work. The computer divide would have only increased."

If it were not for the company’s charity, the after-school program would have to pay from $200 to $300 for a refurbished computer, according to COYO’s cofounder.

COYO picks up its computers from small corporate customers – universities, law firms, and IT companies – that pay for the removal and recycling of monitors, copiers, printers and servers. COYO now waves $17.50 in recycling fees to customers who will donate their computers to Victory Generation.

For businesses and organizations in other areas who would like to donate, computerswithcauses.org offers to pick up computers and donate them to a school, veterans center, homeless shelter, or another cause affiliated with its global computer education program.

More than 70 percent of young Americans start some kind of secondary training or education program within two years of receiving their high school diplomas, yet many never make it to graduation day.

According to the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems, roughly half of the students who start four-year bachelor degree programs full-time finish in six years. America was once first in the world but now ranks 10th with respect to the percentage of young adults with a college degree, reports the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development.

America is quickly slipping behind global competitors, which is especially alarming in light of the fact that in just 10 years the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce predicts that more than 60 percent of jobs will require at least a bachelor’s degree.

A new nonprofit organization hopes to change the grim outlook for America’s youth in the global workforce by increasing the number of Americans who earn a college degree. Complete College America focuses on implementing changes in educational policy at the state and national levels to boost college completion rates.

Seventeen states have already formed partnerships with the organization to work on local college completion rates. Now the nonprofit and affiliated states will get a little help thanks to a $12 million gift from foundations including the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the W.K Kellogg Foundation, the Ford Foundation and more.

The funds will be used to provide colleges with guidance on applying for and effectively using federal funding to produce more degrees. The money will also be used to give schools technical support and start degree completion initiatives on campuses.

Vartan Gregorian, president of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, thinks this gift is an investment in America’s future. "Our hopes for preserving a vibrant democracy and the promise of social mobility that lie at the heart of the American dream depend on more students earning their college degrees," he said.

With its wide array of interactive exhibits, thought-provoking shows and cultural features, along with a steady stream of young students and families coming in everyday since 1830, administrators at one of Boston’s biggest museums feel they could use an upgrade to their computer systems.

Now Microsoft has made it happen.

The computer tech company, known for its long history of contributions to charity, gave $1.9 million worth of software and other support to the Museum of Science in Boston, the museum announced recently. The endowments include the most up-to-date Microsoft Office programs as well as server and development tools.

In a statement, leaders at the museum celebrated a continuing partnership with Microsoft that has comprised of not only financial charity but corporate volunteerism involving Microsoft’s 1,000 Boston-area workers.

"This is a milestone partnership," said Ioannis Miaoulis, president and director of the museum. "We all look forward to the collaborations Microsoft will make possible, from corporate volunteer programs to new exhibits that showcase the latest innovations in technology."

The museum has been a beneficiary of Microsoft ’s philanthropy since 1997, according the statement. The computer company is not alone: Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and MathWorks, both of Massachusetts, stand along with Microsoft as what the museum calls its premier partners.

"We are pleased to support one of Boston’s most vital institutions," said Ted MacLean, general manager of Microsoft’s strategic alliances division. "The museum is undergoing exciting changes in the ways it presents information and delivers educational information. We are thrilled to help make these shifts a reality."

Microsoft founder and board member Bill Gates has made education the focus of his philanthropy, giving back to the community by recently pledging $335 million in grants to enhance the performance of teachers in four major cities around the country, Tampa Bay’s St. Petersburg Times reported.

It’s not every day that big corporations just give away the costly, high-class art they own. But in the case of Safeco, giving back to the community along with protecting the heritage of its paintings and sculptures goes hand in hand.

Safeco, a national insurance agency owned by Liberty Mutual, donated $3.5 million worth of fine art from its private collection to a nonprofit art consortium in Washington state, where the company is based.

Among the 800 pieces of art are works from globally-renowned artists, including Fay Jones, George Tsutakawa and Jacob Lawrence, all of whom reign from the northwest U.S.

Safeco is proud to put its artwork in the hands of the nonprofit, the Washington Art Consortium, by putting the pieces in museums all over Washington.

"The Washington Art Consortium is our perfect partner, and we look forward to watching the collection come to life in museums across our state," said Safeco president Michael Hughes. "Safeco has a rich legacy in art investment expanding more than 30 years, so it was important to find a donation partner that could preserve the collection in such a way that would honor the rich history of the Northwest and its art."

The Washington Art Consortium claims to be the first group of its type in the country: an educational cooperative that engages in a partnership with seven art institutions to secure photos, paintings on paper and other works by distinguished artists of the last century. The partnership aims to encourage an appreciation for art among the public.

In Washington’s neighbor to the south, Oregon, Bank of America was also giving back to the community through art last month by offering a $600,000 corporate donation to the Portland Art Museum, and also planned a permanent endowment, to allow children and teenagers to visit for free.

The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation is giving back to the community in California through $1.2 million of grants designed to help dozens of disparate campaigns and nonprofit organizations that serve economically disadvantaged areas.

The endowments, which will aid 54 organizations that are giving back to society in a variety of ways – from battling teen pregnancy, to improving the performing arts – were approved by the foundation’s board this past November and were announced last week.

The foundation awarded a grant to the Bayview Hunters Point Foundation, a nonprofit human services agency, based in San Francisco. It aims to use the $150,000 grant to open a youth center and clinic that offers pregnancy prevention and mental health services.

On another note, two grants were given by the foundation to two music-oriented causes, also based in San Francisco. The Hewlett Foundation gave $100,000 to the EXIT Theatre, for the expansion of its four-venue, 250-seat "theatreplex," which provides constant opportunities for any willing actors and low cost rentals of performance areas to production crews. A $250,000 grant was given to the Music National Service Initiative as well, a national nonprofit with a team of 20 music teachers in four major cities – deemed a "musical Peace Corp" by the organization – to teach music full-time in hospitals, public schools, public schools and parks.

Adding an environmental aspect to the well-rounded set of endowments is a $250,000 grant to the Coalition for Clean Air, of Los Angeles, that will work to lessen the level of air pollution in Los Angeles and the Central Valley.

As the result of other Hewlett Foundation contributions to the RAND Corporation, a study published today revealed striking connections between two different fields: health and the environment. California’s pollution has caused more than $193 million in hospital care from 2005 to 2007, according to the report.

Teach for America, a nonprofit organization combating educational inequity with a corps of recent college graduates who devote two years to teaching, will triple its staff in Miami-Dade, Florida’s most needy neighborhoods through a $6 million grant it received last week.

Teach for America will be able to dedicate 350 local teachers to the area by 2014, it announced on Friday, because of the grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, an organization that promotes journalism and giving back to the community. Founded by the Knight brothers who co-owned the Knight Ridder media company, which was the second-largest newspaper publisher until it was bought in 2006 by The McClatchy Company, the Knight Foundation helps philanthropy efforts aimed to benefit society in the 26 communities where the Knight Brothers owned newspapers.

The partnership will allow Teach for America educators to help more than 25,000 students in the Miami-Dade area, the nonprofit said.

Teach for America first expanded to the Miami-Dade area in 2003, and the organization says it has produced tangible results, through fast-paced reading advancement and improved test scores.

"The typical Miami-Dade student in a Teach for America teacher’s classroom advances 1.5 reading grade levels over just one academic year," the nonprofit said in a statement.

The organization also points to improved FCAT scores at Central Senior High School, where Teach for America recruit Kimberly Williams "quadrupled" the number of her students passing the FCAT retake.

The Florida Department of Education’s commissioner said that the nonprofit has some of the finest educators working for them and that Teach For America is an excellent way to raise educational success levels for students from low-income backgrounds.

"Miami-Dade is home to some of the best teachers in the nation," said Education Commissioner Dr. Eric J. Smith. "The expansion of Teach For America through this generous grant from [the] Knight Foundation is going to push that progress even further."

The Ross Institute for Advanced Study and Innovation in Education, a New York-based not-for-profit school, is doing good things by teaching its students about cultures from all across the world.

The Sag Harbor Express reports that staff from the Ross Institute for Advanced Study and Innovation in Education, founded by Courtney Sale Ross in 1996, were visited by the Bhutanese government to be part of its Educating for Gross National Happiness conference.

As the only U.S. K-12 school invited to the conference held in Bhutan’s capital city of Thimphu, Sally Booth, associate direct at the Ross Institute Academy, told the paper that the Ross model of teaching was highly regarded by the Asian kingdom.

"The Bhutanese government was especially interested in the way the Ross curriculum values the history of traditional cultures," she said, according to the paper. "They especially valued the integrated perspectives and the importance placed on both eastern and western wellness traditions."

Courtney Sale Ross founded the Ross School in East Hampton, New York with her late husband Steven J. Ross in 1991. Since that time, the Ross Institute has gone global with the Tensta Gymnasium in Stockholm, Sweden partnering with the institute to use its curriculum.

According to its website, the Ross Institute takes a very different approach from traditional education systems with what might be best described as a holistic approach to teaching. According to its vision statement, the institute tries to prepare students for an "increasingly globalized world" by incorporating technology and research into its curriculum.