Archives
Grant Awards for Fiscal Year Ending December 31, 2000
Community Affairs
Association of Baltimore Area Grantmakers / $3,250
The Association of Baltimore Area Grantmakers is a membership organization of more than 90 foundation and corporate grantmakers founded to strengthen and promote organized private philanthropy. This grant pays membership dues.Baltimore Community Foundation / $235,500
As the Baltimore Community Foundation continues to build a permanent, independent civic endowment to benefit current and future generations of Baltimoreans, this grant is helping to strengthen the organization's fundraising and grantmaking capacity. The Community Foundation raises, manages, and distributes funds for charitable purposes in the Greater Baltimore region. So that the income provides a permanent source of grant monies for general or specific purposes, contributions from individuals, corporations, or other foundations often are pooled and invested. In other instances, contributions are used immediately for a special project or a current need in the community. Current assets are more than $100 million, and this past year grants of more than $11 million supported the arts and humanities, education, health, housing, human services, and neighborhoods.Maryland Association of Nonprofit Organizations / $50,000
Established in 1992, the Maryland Association of Nonprofit Organizations has quickly become one of the largest state associations of nonprofits in the United States, with about 1000 organizational members. Maryland Nonprofits provides information and expertise to its members through its resource library, mailings, phone consultations, training, and short- and long-term consulting. In an annual survey, members reported that Maryland Nonprofits helped them to understand their basic legal and financial obligations and saved them money through joint purchasing agreements. It informed them about ethical issues they need to address and helped them understand how nonprofits are affected by legislative and regulatory action. Although Maryland Nonprofits raises an impressive percentage of it's funding internally through members, vendor fees, sale of services, and other means. It requires additional support to maintain an effective and adaptable operation. This grant provides operating support.
Education
Children’s Scholarship Fund Baltimore / $75,000
Created in 1998, the Children's Scholarship Fund Baltimore (CSFB) offers partial scholarships to children of low-income families in Baltimore City who want to send their children to private or parochial school. Parents pay the portion of the tuition not covered by the CSFB scholarship. In 1998, the Goldseker Foundation made a four-year grant of $500,000 to CSFB for scholarships. Since the fall of 1999, 421 students ranging from kindergarten through eighth grade have enrolled in local private or parochial schools with assistance from CSFB. Current challenges for CSFB are to generate funding for staff and consultants, who are essential to running the scholarship program effectively, and to locate funds to continue the scholarships in the future. This three-year grant provides CSFB with operational funding to help the organization provide a range of educational opportunities for low-income families in Baltimore.
Johns Hopkins University / $235,500.
This grant, applied at the discretion of the university's president, supports the Goldseker Scholarship Fund, which this academic year is providing financial aid to 13 undergraduates from the Baltimore metropolitan area.
Midtown Academy / $83,000
The Midtown Academy, a parent- and teacher-run New School established in 1997, brings together children and parents from the Reservoir Hill and Bolton Hill neighborhoods, in an effort to provide a high-quality public school education to children from diverse racial, religious, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Because it is one of the city's seven New Schools, Midtown must find outside funding to cover the costs of rent, building maintenance and renovations, materials and books, classroom resources, administration, professional development, athletic equipment, and field trips. Parent volunteers provide the school with an important source of free labor and expertise, but managing those volunteer hours effectively is a challenge to the school's busy administrative staff. This two-year grant supports a consultant and a staff person who pursue private and public sources of funding and coordinate the thousands of hours of volunteer time donated by parents.
Morgan State University / $235,500
At the discretion of the university's president, this grant supports the Goldseker Fellows Program, which currently provides fellowships to 72 graduate students from the Baltimore metropolitan area. In addition, this grant provides funding for the acclaimed Morgan State University Choir and for the Morgan State Academy of Finance, a magnet program at Lake Clifton - Eastern High School designed to motivate students to prepare for careers in finance.
Human Services
The Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore / $235,500
The grant continues support for the Morris Goldseker Foundation Aid and Education Fund. The fund assists new immigrants settling in Baltimore to become independent and self-supporting.
Big Brothers and Sisters of Central Maryland / $40,000
Founded in 1952, Big Brothers and Sisters of Central Maryland has served approximately 15,000 children in nearly 50 years by setting up one-to-one mentoring relationships between children and adults that help the children become more confident and competent individuals. The organization works throughout the Baltimore region, and by 2002 it plans to serve 1000 children each year. A national study concluded that the benefits of mentoring for participating children include improved school attendance and performance, less use of drugs and alcohol, and less violent behavior. This grant supports the establishment of a school-based mentoring program, in Baltimore City and Baltimore County, with additional support from Big Brothers and Sisters of America.
The Book Thing / $30,000
Created in 1999 by an individual with an extraordinary commitment to making free books available to residents of Baltimore, the Book Thing has quickly become an organization able to gather, store, and redistribute large numbers of books that would otherwise not circulate. The organization's distribution center in the Charles Village neighborhood now contains more than 100,000 books. The organization's founder has received an Open Society Institute fellowship and has created partnerships with Baltimore Reads, the Baltimore Teachers Network, and the Blum Mentoring Program. This grant supports the founder's efforts to create a professionally staffed organization with adequate administrative support.
Eden Jobs / $75,000
Eden Jobs, which is part of New Songs Ministries, is a job readiness, training, and placement program in the Sandtown - Winchester neighborhood. Eden Jobs' range of activities includes one-on-one job readiness training; computer classes; placement assistance; and recruitment, training, and transportation for Home Depot and other employers in Howard County. An average of 60 community residents are enrolled in Eden Jobs at any given time, and men represent 60 percent of the program's participants and job placements. This grant supports strengthening the Men's Employment Network by putting more emphasis on recruitment of unemployed or underemployed men living in the community and by reaching out to business leaders more effectively. To promote savings among network participants, the grant also helps fund a pilot Individual Development Account program.
Hebrew Free Loan Association $ 35,000
Founded more than 100 years ago to help merchants purchase carts, the Hebrew Free Loan Association (HFLA) provides small loans to individuals in the Baltimore area. Since 1990, HFLA has placed nearly $2.5 million in 1500 individual loans ranging from $500 to $3500. A loan fund established by the Goldseker Foundation in 1977 benefits immigrants who come to Baltimore from Russia, other countries of the former Soviet Union, Iran, and Iraq. This grant replenishes the loan fund, on the assumption that immigrant business activity is important to small-scale economic development in the Baltimore area.
Jubilee Baltimore / $50,000
Jubilee Baltimore is a housing development and job placement organization that operates out of Southeast Baltimore, although its staff works on projects throughout Baltimore City. In 1998 Jubilee introduced a program called Moving Up, which has helped 65 individuals in low-wage jobs move up to higher paying positions. Impressively, the average wage of Moving Up participants has climbed from $6.25 an hour without benefits, to $11.25 an hour with benefits. This grant supports the expansion of Moving Up, so that Jubilee can hire additional program staff to assist some 150 clients each year.
Literacy Works, Inc. / $30,137
Established in 1990, Literacy Works coordinates, supports, and promotes adult literacy services in Baltimore County, where 16 percent of adults do not have a high school diploma and where 20 percent perform at or below a fifth-grade level on reading tests. Literacy Works focuses on increasing learners' test scores, helping them find employment or advance to a better job, and encouraging and enabling parents to become more involved in their children's education. This grant provides continuing funding for a literacy center in the Villages of Huntington, a low-income apartment complex in the Liberty Road corridor.
Maryland Center for Arts and Technology / $150,000
In operation since 1998, the Maryland Center for Arts and Technology (MCAT) is a job training and placement initiative that has established distinct programs in financial services and health care management. The programs train participants for jobs with two local partner corporations, Johns Hopkins Health System and Commercial Credit Company. MCAT training is demanding, and participants benefit from classes in hard skills (such as database management) and soft skills (such as critical thinking) as well as from supportive services. From the first five classes, MCAT placed 90 percent of its financial services graduates and 100 percent of its health care management graduates in paid internships or full-time positions. The overall goal of MCAT is to provide an opportunity for motivated individuals to gain specific skills and to help them move up the job ladder over time. This grant provides operating support for MCAT over three years.
Maryland Regional Practitioners' Network for Fathers and Families / $59,200
Established in 1996 as a volunteer network, Maryland Regional Practitioners' Network for Fathers and Families is a group of more than 170 individuals and organizations working in human services who are trying to break down the barriers that discourage fathers from taking full social and financial responsibility for their children. Headed by a former deputy chief of police for Washington, D.C., the network has become an important source of expertise and resources for organizations seeking to start programs for fathers. This grant helps the network to strengthen its basic organizational capacity, as its staff expands a variety of coordination, training, and advocacy efforts.
Baltimore City Main Streets / $52,300
In 1999, the National Main Street Center, a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, helped establish Baltimore City Main Streets. This is the second citywide Main Streets program in the country; Boston's was the first. In the summer of 2000, after a competitive process, the mayor of Baltimore designated seven neighborhoods as Main Streets communities: Belair/Edison, East Monument Street, Federal Hill, Greenmount Avenue, Hampden, Pennsylvania Avenue, and Washington Village/Pigtown. Each area, with help from national program and local staff, will work to improve four facets of its commercial district: design, organization, promotion, and economic restructuring. This grant supports two projects: a series of workshops (open to designated and nondesignated communities) to provide training in key business and marketing concepts, and the provision of high-quality architectural and design services to designated Main Streets areas.
Neighborhood Development
Baltimore City Main Streets / $52,300
In 1999, the National Main Street Center, a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, helped establish Baltimore City Main Streets. This is the second citywide Main Streets program in the country; Boston's was the first. In the summer of 2000, after a competitive process, the mayor of Baltimore designated seven neighborhoods as Main Streets communities: Belair/Edison, East Monument Street, Federal Hill, Greenmount Avenue, Hampden, Pennsylvania Avenue, and Washington Village/Pigtown. Each area, with help from national program and local staff, will work to improve four facets of its commercial district: design, organization, promotion, and economic restructuring. This grant supports two projects: a series of workshops (open to designated and nondesignated communities) to provide training in key business and marketing concepts, and the provision of high-quality architectural and design services to designated Main Streets areas.
Baltimore Neighborhood Collaborative / $225,000
The Baltimore Neighborhood Collaborative (BNC), established in 1995, brings together more than 30 foundations and banks and individuals to increase the resources available for community organizing and self-help projects in Baltimore neighborhoods. Through 2000, BNC distributed $900,000 in financial and technical support to 6 community organizations working in 26 neighborhoods across Baltimore City. The financial and technical support provided by BNC has enabled grantee neighborhoods to achieve tangible community improvements, increase residential and community participation, develop new leadership, and leverage additional funds and resources. A small technical assistance grant provided by BNC served as a pilot project for the Healthy Neighborhoods Initiative, a public/private partnership focused on helping transitional Baltimore neighborhoods using a combination of loans, grants, and training. This three-year grant provides $150,000 in core support to BNC and $75,000 to BNC to support the Healthy Neighborhoods Initiative.
Bon Secours of Maryland Foundation / $50,000
The Bon Secours of Maryland Foundation (BSMF) is a small organization that developed out of Bon Secours Hospital to focus on housing and community development initiatives in Southwest Baltimore. In 1998, BSMF helped launch Operation Reach-Out Southwest, a coalition of residents and stakeholders from 11 neighborhoods around the hospital, to develop a comprehensive social, economic, and physical reinvestment strategy for the area. BSMF manages a range of projects, which produce over $2 million in fees, and it seeds and supports efforts in surrounding communities to establish effective organizations and programs. The grant supports staff and administrative expenses of BSMF.
Charles Village Benefits District / $60,000
The Charles Village Benefits District (CVBD), an organization supported by special tax revenues from area businesses and homeowners, has historically focused its efforts on reducing crime and grime in its neighborhoods. More recently, however, CVBD also has worked to improve the environment for economic development in its commercial areas, particularly on Upper Greenmount Avenue, and in South Charles Village. A grant from the Baltimore Main Streets initiative, which includes technical assistance from the national Main Streets program, supports efforts to make Upper Greenmount a more attractive and dynamic place to own a business or to shop. This grant provides funding for staff to work on economic development issues in South Charles Village, a diverse area with substantial potential to attract new businesses and residents.
Citizens Planning and Housing Association / $185,000
The Citizens Planning and Housing Association (CPHA) was the driving force behind the creation of the Healthy Neighborhood Alliance (HNA), which brought Baltimore City and the State of Maryland, as well as a large number of banks and foundations, together to provide loans, grants, and technical assistance to six city neighborhoods. Now coordinated by the Baltimore Community Foundation, HNA brings a market-oriented approach to revitalizing neighborhoods that have definite assets but that show symptoms of decline, such as a lack of maintenance, slow markets, and declining reputations. This approach uses a combination of market-rate and low-interest loans to sell houses to responsible owners, and to increase individuals' investments in their homes. The neighborhood organizations funded by HNA require assistance from CPHA staff (and others) to carry out the program effectively. This grant provides $135,000 for CPHA staff working on HNA and $50,000 in general support for CPHA.
Coalition for Low-Income Community Development / $15,000
The Coalition for Low-Income Community Development (CLICD) is a national organization that moved its headquarters to Baltimore from Washington, D.C., in 1999. Its board consists of representatives of national planning, community organizing, and housing organizations and the Maryland Center for Community Development. For many years, CLICD focused on national community development issues, such as budget, appropriations, and regulatory issues. In 1995, CLICD began to provide training to nonprofits around the country in the areas of citizen participation, community organizing, neighborhood planning, and community mapping. This grant supports a community-mapping project in Baltimore that will introduce the mapping technology to a broad range of organizations working locally in community development, underwrite mapping training, and provide follow-up technical assistance for staff from up to 10 nonprofit organizations.
Comprehensive Housing Association, Inc. / $105,000
Comprehensive Housing Association, Inc. (CHAI) undertakes initiatives in senior housing, home rehabilitation, community outreach, commercial revitalization, and education to stabilize and revitalize the Northwest Baltimore neighborhoods of Cheswolde, Cross Country, Fallstaff, and Glen. CHAI has attracted new homeowners to Northwest Baltimore, helped build awareness and understanding among the different ethnic and religious groups in the area, and worked to promote reinvestment along local commercial corridors. This two-year grant continues support for CHAI's community development program, which will focus on encouraging public and private investment along Park Heights Avenue, improving the business climate in specific blocks of Reisterstown Road, working with neighborhood associations to track and address housing code and zoning violations, and enhancing existing partnerships between public schools and the surrounding community.
Liberty/Randallstown Coalition / $20,000
The Liberty/Randallstown Coalition (LRC) works to stabilize the Liberty Road corridor in Baltimore County by building channels of communication that otherwise might not exist: between residents of multifamily housing units and managers of those buildings; between recent arrivals in the area and long-term residents; among members of the area's business community; and among residents, stakeholders, and Baltimore County government. LRC also works with countywide and regional government and nongovernment organizations. LRC's accomplishments over the past few years include defusing racially motivated fights in local schools, improving services available to low-income residents in multifamily buildings, and undertaking a needs assessment for capital improvements in the area. This grant supports staffing costs.
Maryland Center for Community Development / $100,000
Created in 1994 from the merger of three nonprofit housing organizations, the Maryland Center for Community Development (MCCD) provides technical assistance, quality standards, advocacy, and training for community development organizations throughout the state. In 1998, MCCD began collaborating with the Development Leadership Network on the Success Measures Project, a national effort to develop clear, measurable indicators of success in community development. In the fall of 1999, the Development Leadership Network produced Success Measures Guidebook, a tool to help community-based groups better focus, plan, and evaluate their work. This two-year grant provides funding for a consultant to work with six Baltimore-area community organizations on using the guidebook effectively to integrate planning and evaluation into basic program management.
Midtown Community Benefits District / $75,000
Created in 1995, the Midtown Community Benefits District (MCBD) is a coalition of community residents, businesses, and nonprofit organizations that coordinates efforts to improve safety and sanitation and expand citizen involvement in the neighborhoods of Midtown: Bolton Hill, Charles North, Madison Park, and Mount Vernon/Belvedere. MCBD recently also coordinated the development of the Midtown Community Plan, which focuses on revitalizing the neighborhood through changing the environment, stimulating good development, and harnessing the power of law and regulation. Although MCBD has created the Midtown Development Corporation to implement the renovation of distressed residential properties throughout the area, MCBD will continue to organize residents to participate in revitalization activities. This grant supports the position of director of community development for three years.
Midtown Development Corporation / $225,000
As described above, the Midtown Development Corporation developed out of a planning process coordinated by the Midtown Community Benefits District, and it is charged with implementing recommendations in the Midtown Community Plan concerning the physical redevelopment of the area. The corporation's purpose is to make Midtown a desirable place to live by facilitating a critical mass of residential renovations and sales. Although the area has hundreds of businesses and cultural organizations, 80 percent of its developed properties are residential. Realizing Midtown's potential requires creating a housing market in which the value of a renovated building is at least equal to the costs of its acquisition and renovation, which currently is not the case. This grant supports the corporation's staffing and administration.
Neighborhood Design Center / $40,000
The Neighborhood Design Center (NDC) mobilizes volunteer professionals and resources in support of community-sponsored initiatives that directly improve neighborhood livability and viability. In recent years, NDC has recruited more than 150 new volunteers for project design and committee work, learned how to work on comprehensive community-based initiatives, developed demonstration projects that raise awareness about critical neighborhood issues, and expanded access to resources for the neighborhoods it serves. This grant supports two demonstration projects that focus on different kinds of neighborhoods in Baltimore City. The first is New Strategies, which works directly with some of the depopulated neighborhoods that are home to the majority of vacant and abandoned houses and properties in the city and tries to stimulate a more productive citywide dialogue on strategies for revitalizing these areas. The second is Neighborly Places, which works with community-based organizations in older transitional neighborhoods to develop housing strategies and resources that improve neighborhood marketability.
Patterson Park Community Development Corporation / $110,000
The Patterson Park Community Development Corporation (PPCDC) is trying to stop the deterioration of neighborhoods to the north and east of Patterson Park in Southeast Baltimore, specifically as there is rapid turnover of homeowner properties to absentee investors. PPCDC buys properties that might otherwise be rented or resold in an irresponsible manner, thoroughly rehabilitates those houses, and then sells them to homeowners at affordable prices. Improving public perception of Patterson Park is essential to improving the residential neighborhoods that border the park. This two-year grant supports staff to market and coordinate events in Patterson Park. Already the park has been the site of several popular events: a yearly bike race, elaborate water ballets staged in the swimming pool, and Halloween plays acted out on roller skates.
South East Community Organization / $20,000
South East Community Organization provides human services, community organizing, and economic development assistance to a range of neighborhoods in Southeast Baltimore, which include areas along the waterfront, where the private commercial and real estate markets are very active, as well as areas that are losing population and businesses. This grant supports an organizer to work on existing projects designed to improve economic development opportunities in several different neighborhoods. The projects include completing a development plan for the Recreational Pier in Fells Point, working for city funding to improve Greater Bayview's streetscape, and identifying development opportunities for an industrial property near the Johns Hopkins Bayview facility.