Archives

Grant Awards For the Year Ending December 31, 2003

Priority Grant Areas

Community Development
During 2003, the Foundation authorized ten community development grants totaling $795,000.

Direct Program Expenses $89,780
This funding supported consulting assistance to organizations in the Foundation's priority neighborhoods and citywide efforts to create stronger communities.

Priority Neighborhoods

Belair-Edison Neighborhoods, Inc. $85,000
A transitional neighborhood in Northeast Baltimore, Belair-Edison benefits from solid and attractive rowhouse architecture, Herring Run Park, a public golf course, a reviving commercial strip, and proximity to the Johns Hopkins Bayview medical campus. Over the past few years, Belair-Edison Neighborhoods, Inc., has worked with the Healthy Neighborhoods Initiative to revitalize its community by offering innovative housing loan products, marketing the area to residents and outsiders, and organizing block projects that rebuild pride and confidence in the neighborhood. This grant supports core staffing.

Charles Street Development Corporation $25,000
Composed of area property owners, businesses, and institutions, the Charles Street Development Corporation was created in 2000 to increase retail and commercial occupancy along Baltimore's "Main Street." It works with other Midtown improvement organizations to strengthen the residential and economic prospects of Charles Street between Pratt Street and North Avenue. Progress is evident. Since 2000, twenty new businesses have opened along the corridor, and redevelopment projects representing more than $400 million in investments are completed, under way, or planned for completion by the end of 2005. This grant provides core operating support.

Greater Homewood Community Corporation $175,000
Greater Homewood continues to support revitalization, economic development, and school improvement in dozens of neighborhoods in North Baltimore. The organization is implementing the priority goals of its new strategic plan, including increased revitalization of targeted neighborhoods such as Ednor Gardens, a neighborhood that is also part of the Healthy Neighborhoods Initiative. This grant provides continued support for general operating expenses, community revitalization, and economic development.

Hampden Village Main Street $25,000
Hampden Village Main Street is one of seven in Baltimore's Main Streets Initiative. Hampden has worked closely with merchants to increase investment in storefronts, foster improved merchandising, and improve the City's delivery of safety and sanitation services. The organization also has sponsored a popular series of public festivals, including the Hon Fest and Hollywood in Hampden, that have raised the visibility of Hampden's retail center. This grant provides general support.

Jubilee Baltimore, Inc. $10,000
For more than two decades, Jubilee Housing has spurred the development of affordable housing and job opportunities in its original focus area of Southeast Baltimore. In recent years, Jubilee has provided community-planning and development expertise in neighborhoods outside its original base. Jubilee is actively helping Midtown, Reservoir Hill, and other historic neighborhoods achieve their revitalization goals. This grant provides support for a strategic plan to update Jubilee's mission and to establish goals and strategies for its future.

Patterson Park Community Development Corporation $100,000
The Patterson Park Community Development Corporation continues to make solid progress in promoting investment in neighborhoods just north and east of Patterson Park. In the past year, the CDC renovated twenty-four properties for sale to new homeowners, and sold eight undeveloped properties. Since its inception in 1997, the organization has rehabilitated two hundred sixty properties, mobilizing investment of more than thirty million dollars. Housing values have risen steadily and substantially, and the number of vacancies and problem properties has declined. This grant provides support for real estate design and development staff.

Southeast Community Development Corporation $100,000
The Southeast Community Development Corporation focuses on spurring investment in the residential and commercial areas of Highlandtown, a Southeast Baltimore City neighborhood just east of Patterson Park. Like Patterson Park, Highlandtown borders areas of increasing affluence to the south and areas of abandonment to the north. Southeast CDC is targeting a commercial stretch of Eastern Avenue, working with merchants to improve sanitation and safety and brokering deals that will lead to significant new investment in the area. With support from a local bank, the CDC recently developed new offices, the Neighborhood Investment Center, on Eastern Avenue. This grant provides support for core staff, operations, organizational development, and fundraising.

Citywide Development

Baltimore Heritage, Inc. $20,000
Baltimore Heritage is a forty-year-old organization dedicated to the preservation of the City's architectural and cultural resources. With the addition of new full-time staff, the organization is reaching out to residents in Baltimore's many historic neighborhoods to increase use of the State's rehabilitation tax credit, an important reinvestment incentive for older neighborhoods. This grant supports education and marketing to increase homeowner investment in those historic neighborhoods.

Healthy Neighborhoods Initiative $150,000
Originally a project of the Baltimore Community Foundation, the Healthy Neighborhoods Initiative focuses on the revitalization of ten Baltimore neighborhoods that are neither deeply distressed nor thriving by strengthening local housing markets and social connections among residents. After three years, target areas in the Initiative's pilot neighborhoods are showing signs of success: increased sales activity and rising home values, greater investment by current homeowners, and more neighborhood events and block projects. Currently, the Initiative is making an important transition to a formal program with its own staff and board of directors. This grant provides operating support to help the program hire a full-time director and additional staff, and to provide grants and consulting assistance to participating neighborhoods.

Live Baltimore Home Center $100,000
In the past few years, both Baltimore's image and its residential market values have improved significantly. The Live Baltimore Home Center has been a crucial factor in those changes, launching marketing programs that deliver customers for the many solid but less known neighborhoods throughout the City. In particular, Live Baltimore's campaign to market Baltimore to Washington, D.C., residents shows continued success. In 2004, Live Baltimore will expand its retail marketing efforts with the opening of a new storefront office on Charles Street. This grant supports general operations and continuation of the D.C. marketing campaign.

Nonprofit Sector
Thirteen grants totaling $249,515 were authorized in this category in 2003. Nonprofit-sector grants are made in two categories: grants to individual nonprofit groups for organizational development and grants to organizations that strengthen the leadership and management of nonprofits throughout the region.

Direct Program Expenses $47,244
This funding supported consulting assistance to nonprofit groups receiving grants to improve organizational performance.

Organizational Development
Nine management assistance grants were awarded to the following organizations:

Brooklyn Curtis Bay Coalition $10,000
The Coalition is a relatively new, small community development corporation that has nonetheless achieved significant results in South Baltimore since its formal incorporation in 2001. Last year, the Coalition completed a strategic plan that established goals for promoting homeownership, improving community housing maintenance and marketability, increasing public safety, and fostering economic development. This grant helps the Coalition refine and implement a fundraising strategy to achieve its goals.

Center for Poverty Solutions $5,000
The Center for Poverty Solutions is a statewide nonprofit that is working to break the cycle of poverty in Maryland. In recent years, the organization's mission has evolved from a focus solely on relieving hunger and homelessness to helping the poor achieve self-sufficiency and to promoting public understanding and support. This grant will help the Center strengthen its public message and fundraising strategy in line with its new mission.

Chesapeake Center for Youth Development $5,000
The Chesapeake Center was established in 1974 to help young people in the Baltimore region overcome barriers to productive lives by providing remedial education, literacy development, job skill training, internships, and other services. The Center has expanded greatly in the past few years, increasing its annual client base from one hundred fifty to six hundred and expanding the number of work sites from two to seven. Program growth has been rapid, and this grant will help CCYD evaluate and improve its management systems.

Community Conferencing Center $5,000
The Community Conferencing Center was established in Baltimore in 1999 to provide a venue for conflict resolution outside the formal judicial system. The group takes the approach to resolving community conflicts by facilitating direct conversations between offenders and the people who are affected by that behavior. The Center has facilitated some three hundred fifty such conferences in neighborhoods, schools, and nonprofit organizations. This grant helps the organization better document and evaluate the impact of its work.

Episcopal Housing Corporation, $7,500
Founded in 1995, Episcopal Housing has worked in neighborhoods across the region to offer affordable and transitional housing, provide substance abuse counseling, and build community leadership. The organization has focused substantial housing and organizing resources in the Collington Square community, just north of the area in East Baltimore that will be substantially redeveloped as a life sciences park. This grant provides Episcopal Housing an opportunity to review its work, update its mission, and set new goals and strategies for the future.

Friends of the Family $7,500
Friends of the Family was established in 1986 to support policies and programs that strengthen Maryland families with young children. The organization works through twenty-six family support centers throughout Maryland. This grant will help Friends of the Family develop and implement a strategy to diversify its income base.

Maryland Mentoring Partnership $7,500
The Partnership was formalized in 1997 to promote adult mentoring of schoolchildren in Baltimore. Its mission expanded in 2001 to support the statewide development of effective mentoring programs. The organization has an engaged board of corporate leaders that raises a significant portion of the Partnership's funds each year. This grant will allow the organization to refine its fundraising strategy, linking its approach to the recently completed strategic plan.

Midtown Academy $10,000
The Midtown Academy is a successful part of Baltimore City's New Schools Initiative. Midtown has a diverse and high-achieving student body and an active group of parent volunteers. This grant helps the Academy clarify its management and governance roles for staff and board members and strengthens the board's focus on promoting the school and achieving long-term financial stability.

Women Entrepreneurs of Baltimore, Inc. $5,000
In the past decade, Women Entrepreneurs of Baltimore has become a national model for helping new business owners, particularly low-income women, establish thriving ventures. Last year, WEB developed a five-year strategic plan to guide its focus and growth. This grant helps WEB achieve its goals, through the strengthening of its fundraising strategy, particularly by increasing individual contributions as a share of overall support.

Nonprofit Sector Development
Four grants were awarded to the following organizations:

Business Volunteers Unlimited Maryland $47,500
Effective and engaged board leadership is essential to the health and success of nonprofit organizations. In 2003, Business Volunteers Unlimited Maryland officially launched a new board leadership service for the nonprofit sector, in partnership with the Maryland Association of Nonprofit Organizations. BVU Maryland has built a strong new board of local corporate leaders and has developed a strong corporate membership base. BVU is now recruiting and training rising leaders from its corporate members and matching their interests with nonprofit board placement. This grant provides general support.

Center for Community Technology Services, University of Baltimore Education Foundation $35,000
Recent surveys of the nonprofit sector reveal a persistent lack of investment in the basic information and communications technologies needed to conduct efficient and effective operations. Nonprofit investment in technology tends to react to an immediate need, as opposed to being part of a plan for longer range infrastructure and communications improvement that will help a nonprofit achieve its mission. The University of Baltimore founded CCTS last year to respond to this need by harnessing the considerable technology skills of its faculty and students. This grant supports the development of strategic technology plans for local nonprofits.

Maryland Association of Nonprofit Organizations $100,000
There is a direct connection between the effectiveness of a nonprofit organization and the skill of its top staff executive. For three years, Maryland Nonprofits has offered a program that helps board leaders manage executive transitions. This initiative has helped sixty-seven governing boards analyze their leadership needs and recruit new chief executives. Maryland Nonprofits also is an important organizational development resource for nonprofit leaders and is strengthening its capacity to provide direct management consulting services. This grant provides $35,000 to sustain its executive transition service and $65,000 to build its management assistance practice.

Maryland Association of Nonprofit Organizations $4,515
This grant provided scholarships for Goldseker grantees to attend training sessions on fundraising.

Regional Initiatives
During 2003, the Foundation authorized five grants totaling $343,500 to support regional initiatives.

Direct Program Expenses $52,779
This funding supported consulting assistance to organizations working to improve regional awareness and collaboration in the Baltimore region.

Baltimore Collegetown Network $20,000
Four-year colleges and universities in the Baltimore region are home to more than 75,000 students and employ more than 25,000 people. Yet Baltimore is not often viewed as a "college town," and many of the brightest students at local institutions leave the area after graduation. Baltimore Collegetown Network, a consortium of thirteen area colleges and universities, was created several years ago to market the region as a desirable location to students, staff members, and faculty. The Network also works to improve the college experience for students and to promote awareness of higher education's economic impact on the region. This grant supports the development and publication of College Visit materials-print and digital publications that encourage prospective students to visit local colleges and universities.

Baltimore Regional Partnership $73,500
A coalition of the Baltimore Urban League, Citizens Planning & Housing Association, Chesapeake Bay Foundation, 1000 Friends of Maryland, and Environmental Defense, the Baltimore Regional Partnership focuses on land use and transportation issues. The Partnership works to stimulate improvements in the region's environment, access to housing and jobs, and overall quality of life. It focuses on three main issues: the adoption of a regional rail plan, the development of housing equity partnerships to help moderate-income families purchase homes in more affluent neighborhoods, and the establishment of coalitions in rural counties to preserve farmland. This grant supports core staffing and operations.

Chesapeake Bay Foundation $25,000
A large and sophisticated environmental organization, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation works on many fronts to improve the health of the Chesapeake Bay, which remains threatened by pollution. As a member of the Baltimore Regional Partnership, the Foundation is a strong supporter of the regional rail plan, a long-term initiative to add six transit lines and sixty-six miles of transit to the region's currently fragmented and inefficient mass transit system. This grant funds staff essential to the Bay Foundation's rail plan advocacy: the creation of a high-level task force to push for its implementation; the acquisition of sufficient planning funds to make the Baltimore region competitive for federal transit funding in future years, and; the development of grassroots support for an expanded transit system.

Citizens Planning & Housing Association $150,000
As one of several organizations undertaking regional initiatives in the Baltimore area, CPHA has focused on creating a strong constituency for change by drawing on its established strengths in community outreach and mobilization. In recent years, CPHA organized two major Rallies for the Region; the most recent Rally attracted local, state, and national politicians and more than 1,500 citizens representing two hundred organizations. Building on this base, CPHA is working with other members of the Baltimore Regional Partnership on long-term regional goals. Its priorities include creating a first-class regional transit system, developing more neighborhoods where housing is attractive and accessible to a broad range of people, redirecting public and private investment into older communities, and a providing effective drug addiction treatment on demand. This grant supports regional staff, operations, and communications.

WYPR (FM) $75,000
Originally WJHU, the Johns Hopkins University public radio station, WYPR is the area's leading public radio station, with operating revenues of three million dollars, a rapidly growing listener and donor base, and extensive coverage of public affairs in its news and talk shows. Until recently, however, WYPR could not cover regional issues in much depth or detail. For listeners seeking an alternative to commercial radio offerings, the station did not provide extensive information about the region or interpretation of regional trends. As part of the Foundation's focus on regional awareness and initiatives, this grant supports expanded, consistent reporting and analysis of regional issues.

Established Program Areas

In its established program areas, the Foundation awarded twenty-one grants during 2003, totaling $1,389,000.

Community Affairs

CEOs for Cities $10,000
Created in 1999, CEOs for Cities brings together high-profile leadership teams from major cities-mayors; university presidents; and business, civic, and foundation leaders-semiannually to share information about their efforts to make their cities more economically competitive. CEOs for Cities has held five meetings in cities across the nation and is developing a body of knowledge about strategies for urban economic development. One goal is to create a coalition that effectively represents the interests of cities nationally. Baltimore stands to gain both from participating in CEOs for Cities and from the establishment of a stronger national voice for urban areas. This grant pays dues and provides general support.

Community Wealth Ventures, Inc. $50,000
Community Wealth Ventures-a three-year-old subsidiary of the national nonprofit Share Our Strength-has developed a consulting project to help nonprofits develop new sources of income through business ventures. CWV is coordinating the Baltimore Community Wealth Collaborative, which has selected eight local nonprofit groups to participate in a ten-month program of peer workshops and on-site coaching that will culminate in the development of business plans for income-earning ventures. This grant provides support for CWV's consulting services.

Economic Alliance of Greater Baltimore $35,000
Formerly the Greater Baltimore Alliance, the Economic Alliance links the chief executives of Baltimore City, adjacent counties, area corporations, and the State of Maryland in attracting, retaining, and expanding private-sector investment and employment. The organization has had a direct influence on companies' decisions to locate or expand in the area: in 2002, the Alliance helped retain and attract 1,398 jobs and $22.3 million in plant and equipment investment in the Baltimore region. More than one hundred fifty public and private-sector entities fund the organization's $3.1 million budget for operations and marketing. The Alliance began 2004 with a reorganized governing board, a new chairman, and a new chief executive officer. It will continue as a major force in shaping the region's economic future. This grant provides operating support.

Mayor's Office of Community Investment $75,000
Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley created the Mayor's Office of Community Investment as a way to reach out to civic, foundation, and business leaders; to actively engage them in policy analysis and decision-making; and to create a partnership for developing and implementing a coherent investment strategy for the City. The new office has hired energetic and competent staff people who are working to better align the decisions of public, nonprofit, and private-sector investors. This grant supports an immigrant support and outreach coordinator, who orchestrates this citywide effort to attract and retain immigrants, and a community investment specialist, who is working closely with Goldseker Foundation staff and others to better align and increase funding for community development.

Education

Children's Scholarship Fund of Baltimore, Inc. $30,000
Established in 1998, the Children's Scholarship Fund of Baltimore provides partial scholarships to low-income Baltimore City children whose parents are seeking alternatives to local public schools. To date, 1080 children have benefited from the scholarships to Roman Catholic, Jewish, Lutheran, Baptist, nondenominational Christian, and secular schools. A long waiting list indicates that demand for the scholarships remains strong. This grant supports operations.

Johns Hopkins University $213,000
This grant, applied at the discretion of the University's President, supports the Goldseker Scholars Program, which last year provided financial aid to twelve undergraduates from the Baltimore metropolitan area.

Midtown Academy $30,000
The Midtown Academy was established in 1997 by a coalition of parents and teachers who wanted to create a rigorous, diverse, community-based alternative to public schools in the Bolton Hill and Reservoir Hill communities. Midtown is part of the New Schools Initiative, funded by the Baltimore City Public School System but more independently designed and governed than a standard public school. There are no performance-related entry criteria; the core requirement for a child's enrollment is that the child's parents volunteer seventy-five hours a year at the school. The students' academic achievement has been impressive. This grant provides support for a volunteer coordinator and a fundraising program.

Morgan State University $213,000
At the discretion of the University's President, this grant supports the Goldseker Fellows Program, which in 2003 provided fellowships to sixty-six graduate students from the Baltimore metropolitan area. The grant also supports student participation in the Morgan State University Academy of Finance at Lake Clifton-Eastern High School.

New Song Community Learning Center $35,000
Located in the Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood of West Baltimore, New Song Community Learning Center serves underprivileged children and their families. New Song houses a preschool and a combined elementary and middle school, all run as new schools under contract with the Baltimore City Public School System. The Learning Center is part of a deeply rooted effort by the members of New Song to renew Sandtown-Winchester by working with residents to provide affordable housing, health care, job training and placement, and education. The results are promising. Children's academic performance has improved, as have their families' living situations and employment opportunities. This grant provides staff support for the Learning Center.

Teach Baltimore $30,000
Originally established by a Johns Hopkins undergraduate, Teach Baltimore provides intensive summer reading programs and math, science, and cultural enrichment activities for Baltimore City public school students. In addition, Teach Baltimore conducts research on summer learning and has amassed evidence to demonstrate that its programs have a statistically significant impact on the academic performance of the children who participate. The organization has attracted highly qualified university graduates to serve as instructors during the summer. This grant provides support for Teach Baltimore's programs, serving one hundred fifty kindergarten through second-grade students in the Greater Homewood area.

Human Services

THE ASSOCIATED: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore $213,000
This grant continues support for the Goldseker Foundation Aid and Education Fund. The fund helps new immigrants settling in the Baltimore region become independent and self-supporting.

Community Conferencing Center $30,000
Based on a model adapted from Australia, the Community Conferencing Center provides conflict resolution services to individuals, organizations, and communities in the Baltimore region. The Center's staff use a highly participatory process to help people transform their conflicts into cooperation and to take personal and collective responsibility for their behavior. At the end of a community conferencing process, parties to the conflict help design and then agree to a specific set of actions that are intended to establish new cooperation. In funding the Center, the Foundation is supporting a service that its neighborhood grantees can use to resolve potentially disruptive disputes. This grant provides staff and core operating support.

University of Maryland School of Social Work $40,000
The East Baltimore Community-University Partnership links the skills of graduate students from the School of Social Work with community-based organizations in East and Southeast Baltimore. The program has proven effective in helping to achieve significant community goals and to raise funds that sustain those operations. Since its inception in 1998, the Partnership has expanded case management services to individuals in East and Southeast Baltimore through programs launched or staffed by forty-three interns. This grant provides continuing support for supervisory staff and general expenses.

Neighborhood Development

Neighborhood Conservation Program $50,000
This program was created by the Baltimore City Department of Housing and Community Development to identify vacant structures in transitional neighborhoods and to turn those properties into assets for the community. The goal of the program is to stem blight and to spark new investment in those neighborhoods. In 2003 the Conservation Program reviewed four hundred properties in fifty-four transitional neighborhoods and selected seventy-one for acquisition. A specific solution, geared to each site's opportunities and challenges, is developed for every property. To implement those varied solutions, program staff work with neighborhood, nonprofit, for-profit, and public partners. This grant partially supports program staff.

Community Law Center $50,000
In neighborhoods across Baltimore, predatory lending practices-involving the illegal purchase, cosmetic repair, and resale of properties to inexperienced homebuyers for a dramatic profit-have resulted in high numbers of bankruptcies and foreclosures. Low and moderate-income families have suffered from those practices, and their neighborhoods have declined when houses sold by predatory lenders either did not receive needed repairs or became vacant after foreclosure. Fortunately, the Community Law Center and its partners have substantially reduced the number of "flipped" properties through a combination of prosecution, publicity, consumer education, and regulatory reform. This grant supports core staffing, administration, strategic planning, and board development.

Comprehensive Housing Assistance, Inc. $60,000
Since the late 1970s, CHAI has worked to bring substantial reinvestment to neighborhoods in Northwest Baltimore. In particular, CHAI has addressed the housing needs of hundreds of senior citizens and newly arrived immigrants. In recent years the organization also has established successful school-community partnerships and fostered effective neighborhood relations through facilitation of the City's Strategic Neighborhood Action Plan (SNAP) process. This grant provides continuing support for CHAI's community development staff and operations.

Creative Alliance $30,000
Based a few blocks east of Patterson Park, the Creative Alliance supports the revitalization of Southeast Baltimore by organizing a remarkable array of classes, exhibitions, and events that draw 14,000 people to the area each year. The Creative Alliance celebrates the racial and cultural diversity of Southeast Baltimore neighborhoods, which are home to Hispanic, African, and Eastern European immigrants along with the established Greek, Italian, African American, and Native American communities. In 2003 the Alliance celebrated the renovation and reopening of the Patterson, a one-time movie theater that now houses the organization's offices, two art galleries, a two-hundred-fifty-seat theater, eight artists' studio residences, a classroom, and a film and video production center. This grant supports core staffing.

Maryland Center for Community Development $30,000
In 1995, the Goldseker Foundation supported the merger of three nonprofit organizations to become the Maryland Center for Community Development. Since then, MCCD has become the primary membership organization for the State's nonprofit community development organizations, providing advocacy for affordable housing and technical assistance and training to nonprofit developers. This grant supports MCCD's efforts, along with those of other public and private funders and agencies, to develop a commonly shared approach for assessing the organizational capacity and program performance of community development organizations, with the aim of improving and streamlining reporting and assessment.

Neighborhood Design Center $40,000
An active partner of many community development organizations in Baltimore, the Neighborhood Design Center draws on its extensive volunteer network of design professionals to help groups redesign and revitalize their neighborhoods. The Foundation has supported the Center's efforts to develop and implement Community Strategies, which consists of two distinct approaches to urban design: New Strategies, for severely distressed neighborhoods, and Neighborly Places, for neighborhoods in the middle that are trying to strengthen housing markets and residents' social connections. Several neighborhood organizations supported by the Foundation have collaborated on Neighborly Places projects. This grant supports staffing and core operations.

Rebuilding Together Baltimore $25,000
Rebuilding Together generates volunteers and construction industry donations to repair and rehabilitate the homes of low-income people, particularly the elderly and persons with disabilities. Rebuilding Together is an independent affiliate of a national network of organizations formerly known as Christmas in April. Since the inception of the organization's work in the Baltimore region in 1990, Rebuilding Together has come to the aid of eight hundred homeowners, offering assistance valued at four million dollars. This small organization recruits roughly eight hundred volunteers each year to participate in its "Rebuilding Days." This grant helps the organization provide year-round emergency repairs and expand into additional target neighborhoods.

Shefa Fund $100,000
For several years, the Philadelphia-based Shefa Fund has explored the feasibility of establishing a TZEDEK (Justice Economic Development Campaign) initiative in Baltimore. The goal is to involve Baltimore's sizeable Jewish community in raising money to help strengthen nonprofit development organizations, in the form of loans to develop affordable housing, assist small businesses, and build day care centers, for example. The initiative began to get off the ground in 2003, with gifts from several Baltimore foundations and committed matching funds from the national Shefa Fund. This grant supports the Baltimore loan fund.

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