Generous Rhode Islanders and national foundations also contributed $19 million in 2003 to create 46 new, permanent endowments, aid Station Nightclub fire victims, support Providence and Coventry schools.

Defying the economic and political uncertainty that gripped the state and nation at the end of 2002, The Rhode Island Foundation forged ahead in 2003 with a fully revamped grants program and its usual optimism about the generosity of Rhode Islanders.

The end-of-year 2003 figures have rewarded the Foundation’s efforts. Final figures reported by the Foundation today show the 88-year old charity distributed $21.5 million in grants – the vast majority to Rhode Island nonprofits – including $3.7 million through a highly competitive new grants program, also announced today.

The Foundation also welcomed $18.99 million from a variety of sources, most of which will go into permanent endowments. Of the total, $6 million will “pass through” from national foundations to local schools or projects, or will benefit the survivors and families of victims of the Station Nightclub Fire Relief Fund ($1.2 million).

“We expected that the primary thrust of our efforts in 2003 would be to implement a state-of-the-art grants program called ‘Attaining Vibrant Communities’,” reported Foundation President and CEO Ronald V. Gallo. “And we hope that achievement leads our list of accomplishments in 2003.

“But The Rhode Island Foundation is a multi-faceted institution, and our work with philanthropic Rhode Islanders is a major component of our mission.”

Gallo said Rhode Islanders and nonprofits established 46 new endowments in 2003, ranging from 20 “donor-advised” funds, where the donor recommends grants during his or her lifetime; to bequests such as the $100,000 left by West Warwick resident John J. Redding to fund soup kitchens and food pantries in Warwick, Coventry, and West Warwick, or the $2.8 million left by furniture magnate turned broadcaster Richard Richmond to benefit his hometown(s) of Westerly/Pawcatuck.

Gallo said, too, that seven nonprofits transferred all or part of their endowments to the Foundation to take advantage of the Foundation’s sophisticated investment portfolio. (Though figures are not yet final, the Foundation’s investments apparently added $55 million to raise the Foundation’s assets to $377 million.) The contributing institutions included, for example, Linden Place in Bristol and the Island Free Library on Block Island.

National foundations Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Annie E. Casey Foundation, among others, also chose to make their grants to local organizations and school districts through the Foundation, Gallo added. The Gates Foundation, for example, transferred $3.7 million to the Foundation to oversee its longstanding investments in Providence and Coventry Public Schools.

End of year grants program “invests” $3.7 million
Among the most satisfying accomplishments of 2003, Gallo said, is its grantmaking, which reached $21.5 million in 2003, thought to be the largest grantmaking program in Rhode Island this year. Many of those grantees were recommended by the individuals or families who established the endowments.
“But the Foundation is perhaps best known for the grants it makes from unrestricted endowments,” Gallo said, “and the highlight of that was the introduction of “Attaining Vibrant Communities.” Gallo reported grants, or “investments in the community”, ranging from $10,000 to $225,000, and voted in the last days of 2003.

In its inaugural year of awarding grants by three newly-identified strategies – policy, advocacy and systems reform; organizational and leadership development; and innovative models and proven programs – the Foundation has voted $3,692,395 to 95 organizations.

“This was the first year of a grantmaking process that looked at all the exciting ideas nonprofits proposed – all 315 of them – at one time. We could see how certain ideas and opportunities fit together and how Foundation support could have the greatest impact in a geographic area or on a particular challenge in Rhode Island,” remarked Gallo.

What emerged, he said, falls into a number of “clusters” – cutting across the three strategies – that seek to address such statewide challenges as access to health care, adult education and business/workforce development, affordable housing, arts and culture, natural resource protection and open space, and education reform.

The newly-named and just-awarded Strategy Grants include:

Access to Quality Healthcare

• CareLink, $70,000, for development of an application to bring PACE (Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly) to Rhode Island, a program that coordinates and provides seniors with all needed health care services so they can continue living in the community as long as possible.
• Family Service, $50,000, for start-up costs of the Providence Child Development-Community Policing Program which, in partnership with the Providence Police Department, will serve Providence children and their families who are victims, witnesses, or perpetrators of violent crimes or domestic violence.
• Fellowship Health Resources, $40,000, for Fellowship Community Re-integration Services, a prison-based, statewide initiative at the Adult Correctional Institute that provides services to inmates with mental illnesses.
• Gateway Healthcare, $25,000, for start-up costs for the Integrated Primary Care Project (IPCP) which will provide Pawtucket and Central Falls residents with primary care and behavioral health services at Pawtucket Memorial Hospital.
• Ocean State Action Fund, $33,500, for the Health Care Organization Project which seeks to preserve the successes of RIte Care, to assure access by all Rhode Islanders to high quality and affordable health care, and to provide leadership in the debate regarding the increasing cost of commercial health insurance.
• The Rhode Island Free Clinic, $30,000, for implementation of a computer information system to track volunteer staff, patient demographics, and clinical records for this Providence-based medical facility that only serves people without health insurance.
• Rhode Island KIDS COUNT, $100,000, for support of its statewide efforts to sustain public investments in child care and other income supports for families transitioning from welfare to work, as well as to launch extensive policy efforts in the areas of improving the mental health system for children, establishing early learning standards for child care, and developing policy research and materials for public education advocacy and reform.
• Rhode Island Legal Services, $25,000, for the Rhode Island Family Advocacy Program which is based on the principle that there is a basic connection between a child’s environment and his/her health and on the realization that medical professionals are more effective when they have access to legal assistance.
• Thundermist Health Center, $47,000, for support of Be FIT (Fitness Initiative of Thundermist) as a model program that focuses on how the promotion of nutrition and physical activity can be integrated into the work of schools, with the program being tested in three Woonsocket schools.
• Thundermist Health Center, $40,000, for start-up costs for two models of integrated health services, one in Woonsocket and the other in Pawtucket, that will work to improve integration of behavioral and primary care health services.

• Amos House, $40,000, for expansion of the Amos Culinary Education Program, an employment training and job readiness initiative that prepares Providence residents for entry-level employment in the food service industry.
• AS220, $50,000, to support the Providence arts organization in its efforts to create business opportunities with and for youth involved in the Broad Street Studio that will allow them to use their creative talents and make an honest living wage doing so.
• Central Rhode Island Development Corporation, $25,000, for its Growth TEAM Strategy to expand into Cranston to assess the capacity of the city’s manufacturing companies and barriers to growth, to identify potential areas for change, develop company-specific strategies, assist with implementation costs, and leverage additional finances to execute the plan.
• Community College of Rhode Island Foundation, $20,000, toward renovation of the Dental Hygiene Clinic at the Lincoln campus.
• Dorcas Place Adult and Familiy Learning Center, $39,000, to support planning for the Career Academy program, a community-to-career model for Providence adults with literacy, numeric, and language skills below the currently-accepted training program minimums.
• English for Action, $24,750, for the neighborhood-based English for Speakers of Other Languages classes in Olneyville.
• Family Resources Community Action, $40,000, for expansion of the Project Impact program to include more child development and parent skill development components in this Woonsocket program that serves teen parents.
• Institute for Poverty Awareness and Education, $56,000, for Thrive, an 18-month program that includes financial training, budgeting, and business plan development for Woonsocket women who strive to create freedom from debt and the ability to thrive.
• Kent County Visiting Nurse Association, $30,800, for Building the Best of the Best, a comprehensive professional development and training program for nurses and certified nursing assistants.
• Kent Hospital, $60,000, to implement the Shared Leadership project, a long-term strategy for nurse retention and patient care at this Warwick-based community hospital that serves central Rhode Island.
• Rhode Island College School of Social Work, $125,000, to support the statewide Poverty Institute’s role in providing data and policy analysis relating to low income families and to focus on insuring that Rhode Island’s tax and budget policies are equitable, produce adequate revenue to finance the state’s basic services, and support economic development that creates jobs offering career advancement.
• RI Institute for Labor Studies & Research, $50,000, for the Immigrant Workers’ Rights Project to improve workplace conditions statewide for immigrant laborers through legislative initiatives, administrative policy reform, workers’ rights education and labor union reform.
• Rhode Island Parent Information Network, $24,000, for an expanded training module for the Parent Consultant Program which trains women who have had experience navigating the healthcare system and places them in positions where they become advocates for families statewide in the often intimidating and unfamiliar healthcare world.
• RiverzEdge Arts Project, $40,000, for this innovative model program that provides youth empowerment and economic development through micro-enterprise and the arts to Woonsocket area youth.
• Southside Community Land Trust, $30,700, for the New Farmer Incubator Project that is designed to support the new farm business ventures of recent and low income immigrants from Providence’s Southside.
• Stop Wasting Abandoned Property(SWAP), $25,000, for establishment of the Neighborhood Contractor Working Capital Loan Program to enable small contractors from Providence to secure loans to purchase necessary supplies and materials for their projects.
• United Way of Rhode Island, $60,000, for Making It Work, a program that links job training and placements with important social supports to reduce barriers to staying on the job that are often experienced by public assistance recipients throughout Rhode Island.
• Welcome House of South County, $71,552, for Rebound, a six-month program that will place residents of this homeless shelter as employees of a planned local food market in Peace Dale.

• American Institute for Social Justice, $38,000, to support Rhode Island ACORN’s (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) efforts in Providence and Woonsocket to organize low- and moderate-income families around such issues as predatory lending, utility rates that disproportionately affect low income people, the proliferation of rats in Providence, and quality issues in the public education system.
• Church Community Housing Corporation, $25,000, for the Affordable Housing Strategic Plan to inventory buildings and sites on Jamestown that could be made available for renovation and/or construction of new affordable housing, either for rent or purchase.
• Grow Smart Rhode Island, $32,000, for support of the statewide organization’s work in policy research, issue education, and capacity building around the issues of affordable housing, state investment in growth centers, property tax reform, and Brownfield redevelopment.
• Housing Network of Rhode Island, $46,000, for the statewide Developing New Partners for Neighborhood Revitalization project that works to more actively engage the private sector in neighborhood revitalization work and to forge legislative efforts to continue and expand the current lobbying work of the organization.
• Local Initiatives Support Corporation, $225,000, for its Neighborhood Development Fund that provides training and support to community development corporations (CDC) throughout the state as these CDCs work to revitalize neighborhoods and create affordable housing.
• Olneyville Housing Corporation, $50,000, in support of the Olneyville Capacity Building Initiative that is working to continue building Olneyville neighborhood’s assets and vitality.
• Pawtucket Citizens Development Corporation, $32,650, to support Barton Street neighborhood revitalization efforts through the outreach and education activities of a community organizer.
• The Providence Plan, $34,000, for Urban Land Reform in Providence, a project to create a city-wide, Internet-based real estate database that supports both a strategic plan for using vacant and abandoned property and an early warning system to predict and prevent property abandonment.
• Rhode Island Housing Development Corporation, $50,000, for neighborhood revitalization in Pawtucket, Central Falls, Woonsocket, South Kingstown, North Kingstown, and Providence.
• South County Habitat for Humanity, $25,000, to develop a collaborative corporate fundraising plan with West Bay Habitat allowing them to make more significant contributions towards building the stock of affordable housing in Rhode Island.
• University of Rhode Island Foundation, $46,000, for capacity building of the Washington County Regional Planning Council, enabling the partnership to strengthen its network by hosting regular legislative sessions for state senators and representatives and by holding training sessions for town planners and managers.
• George A. Wiley Center, $45,000, for the Structural Solutions to Poverty project that focuses on the growing statewide lack of affordable housing for low and moderate income families and the soaring costs of electricity and natural gas.
• Woonsocket Neighborhood Development Corporation, $64,760, for the Northern Rhode Island Affordable Housing Coalition, a multi-year project for six communities in northern Rhode Island to meet the state’s 10% affordable housing goal.
  

• 2nd Story Theatre, $25,000, for this statewide arts organization’s capital campaign to purchase the building in Warren which they have rented for the past three years.
• Arts and Business Council of Rhode Island, $25,000, for marketing and operations support of ArtTix, enabling this statewide ticketing and box office service to market to specific consumer groups, further develop its website, and develop a comprehensive membership survey.
• AS220, $25,000, for a joint AS220 and Perishable Theater capital campaign that will enable these Providence arts organizations expand their capacity.
• Community MusicWorks, $30,000, to expand music education for at-risk children and families in the South Side and West End neighborhoods of Providence.
• Everett Dance Theatre, $35,000, to support the Tiered Mentorship program which targets at-risk, inner-city youth from Providence in an improvisational program of music, dance, film making, writing, and community and leadership development exercises.
• Festival Ballet/Providence, $25,000, for strategic planning and the development of a business plan for this 23-year-old, statewide performance and arts education organization.
• Island Arts, $28,000, for a new Community Arts Project that, in collaboration with other nonprofits, will allow this Newport organization to expand its arts offerings; and for its new Teen Entrepreneurship Program that connects the creativity of high school-aged teens to the designing, marketing and production of their own artistic products.
• New Urban Arts, $30,000, for a marketing program for this Providence organization that seeks to empower youth as artists and leaders through after school youth development programs.
• Providence Black Repertory Company, $55,000, toward a comprehensive marketing initiative that will allow this seven-year old, statewide theatre company to expand its constituency, and build support.
• Providence City Arts for Youth, $40,000, for the sustainability and stabilization initiative of this established program which serves at-risk youth in South Providence, Elmwood, Washington Park and the West End.
• Rhode Island Black Storytellers, $15,000, for the organization’s Funda Festival, a statewide celebration honoring the contributions of African-American arts and artists with school performances throughout the state and concerts in Newport, South County, Woonsocket and Providence.
• Rhode Island Philharmonic, $25,000, for Creative Communities, a program that provides opportunities for music instruction and performance for youth living in two public housing developments in Pawtucket.
• Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre, $40,000, for the salary of the managing director for this new-to-Pawtucket, but 19-year-old theatre that primarily serves Pawtucket and Central Falls.
  Natural Resource Protection and Open Space
• Aquidneck Island Land Trust, $15,000, to assess the conservation status of municipal, non-profit and privately-owned parcels of land on Aquidneck Island and to support the preservation of open space held by the Trust and/or other organizations.
• The Nature Conservancy, $35,000, for an executive director for the statewide Land Trust Council in its work to advocate at the state level for land preservation issues.
• New England Grassroots Environment Fund, $20,000, for grants and training for grassroots organizations in Rhode Island that are involved in, as their motto states, “Protecting the Environment and Practicing Democracy.”
• People's Power & Light, $25,000, for its statewide work with consumers to reduce the economic and environmental strain of energy use.
• Rhode Island Natural History Survey, $46,150, for the Rhode Island Rivers Council role of coordinating and supporting the state’s numerous watershed protection organizations.
• Rhode Island Natural History Survey, $40,000, for the Ecological Inventory, Monitoring and Stewardship Program to provide scientific data that can be used to make management decisions about Rhode Island’s natural environment.
• Rhode Island Public Interest Research Group, $17,000 for the Clean Cars, Cleaner Air project that is advocating for a “clean cars standard” in Rhode Island, thus reducing toxins emitted into the air.
• Saugatucket River Heritage Corridor Coalition, $20,000, to support the coalition’s efforts to attract new members, expand services, and increase fundraising capacity of this Washington County river protection organization.
• Save the Bay, $25,000, to support the organization’s efforts to build public and private support for the bi-state (Rhode Island and Massachusetts) Bay Agreement for Narragansett and Mt. Hope Bays, resulting in water quality improvement, habitat restoration, public access, and environmentally sound growth of the Bay economy.
• South Kingstown Land Trust, $15,000, for the Washington County Land Trust Coalition to conduct a series of planning exercises to prioritize the most important land protection projects from a regional perspective that involves eight local land trusts.
• Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council, $35,000, for the Urban Rivers Recreational Access Project, a joint effort of three watershed associations that are collaborating on the design and development of three-to-six canoe/kayak launches that will benefit Pawtucket, Cranston/West Warwick, and Providence/Johnston.
• Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council, $25,000, toward the Providence Greenspace Initiative, an effort to organize Providence citizens and organizations to develop a city-wide plan and a series of workshops on the value of neighborhood park development.

• Brown University, $30,000, to enable teachers from Providence, Pawtucket, Central Falls and Woonsocket to participate in an extended professional development program that applies debate skills to math, science, English as a Second Language, and social studies.
• International Charter School, $40,000, for a strategic growth plan for this charter school serving Pawtucket and Central Falls that will include a performance and curriculum assessment and a feasibility study for expansion into middle and high school.
• Sophia Academy, $35,000, to develop a career mentor program to assist students at this middle school for girls from Providence’s low-income neighborhoods.
• Southern Rhode Island Collaborative, $32,675, for training programs for local school committees within the collaborative, a partnership of nine Kent County and Washington County school districts.
• Textron Chamber of Commerce Academy, $20,000, so the Rhode Island League of Charter Schools can hire a full-time coordinator.
• Times 2 Academy, $40,000, for implementation Project 2061 at this middle school in Providence, a project that provides a comprehensive framework for teaching science and is named for the year in which Haley’s Comet will again be visible.
• Urban Collaborative Accelerated Program, $50,000, toward planning costs for a northern Rhode Island alternative high school that, like UCAP’s Providence school, will focus on small classes and overall school size.

• Elizabeth Buffum Chace House, $25,000, for a capital campaign of this Warwick-based domestic abuse shelter and service provider, enabling the organization to renovate the former Conimicut School and Ferris Health Center into a comprehensive family resource center.
• Johnston Senior Citizens Center, $25,000, toward a capital campaign for a new senior center, to be housed in an inter-generational complex comprised of human services, Head Start, adult day care, and a senior center anchored by a recreation center.
• Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence, $100,000, for the Abuse Prevention Education Network’s efforts to triple the availability of school and community-based abuse prevention initiatives statewide.
• Boys & Girls Club of Newport County, $20,000, toward the costs of a resource development office to assist the club to implement a fund development program.
• Boys & Girls Club of Pawtucket, $55,000, toward preparation for the club’s first formal capital campaign in its 103-year history.
• Federal Hill House Association, $25,000, for the Bundles of Joy Family Resource Center that provides a baby shop, home visits, developmental play groups, a father’s program, parenting workshops, family gatherings, and an early literacy program for Providence’s expectant parents and families with children under the age of three.
• John Hope Settlement House, $40,000, to support this Providence organization’s Family Resource in its efforts to strengthen parents’ abilities to care for their children.
• Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center, $15,000, for support of Teen Center programs with the long-term goal of having the center and its teen board viewed as a policy advocate in Newport, bringing youth voice to the tables where decisions are made.
• Youth Pride, $47,858, for OutSpoken, an advocacy initiative that attempts to build the capacity of Rhode Island’s public schools to combat homophobia by empowering youth and their adult allies in schools and the community.
  

• Rhode Island Community Food Bank, $25,000, for its capital campaign for a new, larger facility.
• Westerly Area Rest Meals, $40,000, for a volunteer coordinator for this Washington County emergency shelter and soup.
• Westbay Community Action $20,000, for the establishment of a cooperative supermarket adjacent to the organization’s other services on Buttonwoods Avenue in Warwick that will enable eligible families to select free food items in a supermarket setting.

• Rhode Island Parents for Progress, $30,000, for support of its Building Organizational Capacity through Leadership Development and Public Policy Change project in Pawtucket and Central Falls to promote self-sufficiency through job and welfare advocacy and to advocate for basic needs such as housing, food, clothing, education, health insurance and childcare.
• Blackstone Valley Chamber of Commerce Education Foundation, $13,000, for Leadership Blackstone Valley, a project to help residents of northern Rhode Island and south central Massachusetts to build a common vision for change and to develop their skills as leaders.

• The Cathedral of Life Christian Assembly, $36,500, for the Providence Citizens Education Campaign, a nonpartisan voter registration and engagement project targeted at residents of Providence’s lower South Providence and Elmwood neighborhoods.
• Direct Action for Rights & Equality, $30,500, for Behind the Walls, a statewide prison organizing project with a dual focus on the human rights of prisoners, ex-offenders, and families and on the public economic toll of incarceration.

• Youth In Action, $30,000, to enable the Providence agency to grow from a club-like organization to a more mature grassroots agency.
• Association of Fundraising Professionals-RI Chapter, $40,000, to assist the organization increase its services and support to the Rhode Island nonprofit community through support of a new position, a director of volunteers, programs, and marketing.
• Ocean State Action Fund, $35,000, to strengthen the statewide advocacy organization.
• Progreso Latino, $45,000, for a strategic planning process.
• Bristol State House Foundation, $25,000, toward costs for the final stage of the restoration and renewal of this historic building, including restoration of the 1816 courtroom.
• Rhode Island School of Design, $20,000, toward planning the Urban Design Institute that will serve a dual role as both a flexible center for architecture-based urban design research and a conscientious participant in regional/statewide urban development.