For the Fiscal Year Ending December 31, 2010

Priority Grant Areas

Community Development

During 2010, the Foundation authorized 12 community development grants and related program expenses totaling $1,337,500.

Direct Program Expenses $197,500
This funding supported consulting assistance both to organizations in the Foundation’s priority neighborhoods and to citywide projects focused on creating stronger communities.

Baltimore Integration Partnership $50,000
In 2010, Baltimore was selected as one of five cities to participate in the Living Cities Integration Initiative, a three-year effort to address some of the most pressing challenges facing America’s cities. Baltimore will receive up to $19 million in grants, loans, and program-related investments from Living Cities, a funding collaborative of 22 of the world’s largest foundations and financial institutions, to link transit, physical redevelopment, and employment opportunities in three defined neighborhoods: Station North, the East Baltimore Development area, and the proposed Red Line Transit corridor. The Association of Baltimore Area Grantmakers is coordinating the local partnership of the region’s public, private, philanthropic, and nonprofit institutions. This grant allows ABAG to hire a project director prior to the start of Living Cities funding in 2011.

Baltimore Neighborhood Collaborative $50,000
The Baltimore Neighborhood Collaborative brings together local and national funders, public sector agencies, and business and civic organizations to coordinate and increase investment in Baltimore’s neighborhoods. This grant supports BNC’s personnel and administration costs, and contributes to the pooled fund for Neighborhood Revitalization, which makes grants to organizations providing housing counseling services for foreclosure prevention.

Baltimore Homeownership Preservation Coalition $20,000
With an unprecedented number of homeowners seeking assistance to resolve mortgage delinquencies, housing counseling organizations are encountering bottlenecks at the mortgage servicers that process requests for loan modifications. A model program at the Center for New York City Neighborhoods has had success resolving difficult mortgage cases by appointing a central loan modification specialist to take difficult cases off the hands of housing counseling organizations and follow up with mortgage servicers. This grant will supplement funds from a national funder to bring this model to Baltimore, with the Baltimore Homeownership Preservation Coalition overseeing implementation of the program through the Maryland Housing Counselors Network.

Banner Neighborhoods $85,000, 2 years
Banner Neighborhoods is a community organization working to enhance the quality of life in 10 Southeast Baltimore communities through an array of programs, including youth activities, senior home maintenance, and neighborhood beautification projects. A grant to Banner in 2009 enabled it to hire a community organizer to build strong neighborhood associations, develop effective leaders, and encourage a high level of resident involvement to preserve the gains made over the last decade in the neighborhoods north of Patterson Park. This grant continues support for the next two years while Banner seeks additional funding to sustain the work beyond the grant period.

Belair-Edison Neighborhoods, Inc. $80,000
BENI is a nonprofit community-based organization that works to preserve and market Belair-Edison’s great homes and enhance the spirit of community. This grant provides core operating support to allow BENI to continue its well-respected housing counseling and foreclosure prevention outreach, its Healthy Neighborhoods market-building activities, and its commercial revitalization along Belair Road.

Central Baltimore Partnership $100,000
The Central Baltimore Partnership is a collaboration of city government, neighborhood organizations, major property owners, three higher education institutions, and nonprofit agencies in a comprehensive, long-term project to restore Baltimore’s crossroads. By increasing investment and improving the economic and social health of the area from Penn Station to 24th Street, between Howard Street and Greenmount Avenue, the Partnership seeks to make Central Baltimore the city’s next great destination. This grant is for core operating expenses and financial consultant services.

Comprehensive Housing Assistance, Inc. $130,000
Arguably the strongest community development organization in the city’s Northwest quadrant, CHAI has, for more than two decades, served five communities west of the Jones Falls Expressway and north of Northern Parkway, and has recently supported the efforts of Park Heights Renaissance to redevelop the neighborhood south of Northern Parkway. This grant provides core operating support for CHAI’s homeownership services and community engagement programs.

Greater Homewood Community Corporation $175,000
For more than 40 years, Greater Homewood Community Corporation has been working to ensure good schools, thriving business districts, affordable homes, a healthy environment, cultural amenities, and a strong sense of civic engagement in 40 north central Baltimore neighborhoods, home to 70,000 residents. This grant supports senior management salaries and activities related to neighborhood and economic revitalization.

Healthy Neighborhoods, Inc. $200,000
Healthy Neighborhoods helps strong but undervalued Baltimore neighborhoods increase home values, market their communities, create high standards for property improvements, and forge strong connections among neighbors. At the end of 2010 and its first decade of operation, Healthy Neighborhoods had lent $30 million in purchase and rehabilitation loans to 170 homeowners in 41 Baltimore City neighborhoods. It had also awarded 27 neighborhood capital improvement grants totaling $610,000; supported 155 block projects totaling $201,000; and partnered with Baltimore City to provide matching grants for home rehabilitation totaling $639,000. This grant is for core operating support.

Jubilee Baltimore, Inc. $125,000
Jubilee Baltimore’s real estate developments, historic tax credit consulting, and neighborhood planning initiatives generate new investment and quality housing in several historic Baltimore City neighborhoods. Jubilee continues to be a key contributor to the Central Baltimore Partnership—in 2010, Jubilee developed 77 new units of affordable housing for artists in the City Arts building in Greenmount West, and assisted the New Greenmount West Community Association and the Baltimore Montessori Public Charter School plan for the shared use of a former vacant school building, to be redeveloped as a middle school and community center. This grant provides core operating support.

Neighborhoods of Greater Lauraville, Inc. $50,000
Neighborhoods of Greater Lauraville implements the Healthy Neighborhoods model of residential market building in a collection of neighborhoods in Northeast Baltimore, providing funding and organizational support for block projects, capital improvement projects, home improvement and refinance loans, and neighborhood-wide events. This grant provides $25,000 outright in core operating support and includes a challenge to match $25,000 one-for-one from new revenue sources to encourage diversification of the organization’s funding base.

Southeast Community Development Corporation $75,000
The oldest community development corporation in Baltimore, Southeast CDC operates the Main Street commercial revitalization program in Highlandtown; the Healthy Neighborhoods residential market-building program in several neighborhoods, including Greektown and Bayview; and the Highlandtown Arts and Entertainment District in the Highlandtown and Patterson Park neighborhoods to stimulate investment, strengthen homeownership, and enhance the quality of life in Southeast Baltimore. This grant provides general operating support.

Nonprofit Sector

In 2010, the Foundation awarded 11 grants totaling $102,990 in the nonprofit sector. These grants were made in two categories: grants to organizations that strengthen the leadership and management of nonprofits throughout the region and Management Assistance Grants to individual nonprofit groups for organizational development. In the decade since the Management Assistance Grant program was created in 2001, the Foundation has contributed $1 million to build the capacity of the nonprofit sector.

Maryland Association of Nonprofit Organizations $15,000
MANO is one of the largest and most successful nonprofit associations in the United States, providing its members with education and training, legal advice, technical assistance, consulting services, and cooperative buying programs. This grant provides core operating support.

Management Assistance Grants $87,990
The Foundation awarded 10 Management Assistance Grants totaling $87,990 in 2010. These grants allow nonprofit organizations to engage consulting expertise to help improve their board governance, staffing, and financial performance, and conduct strategic planning and program evaluation.

Management Assistance Grants were awarded in the following categories:

Fund Development and Financial Sustainability
Grants to develop multiyear plans to diversify and expand income and to improve the financial management of organizations.

Baltimore Neighborhoods, Inc. $9,140
The mission of Baltimore Neighborhoods, Inc., is to fight housing discrimination, support integrated communities, improve relations between tenants and landlords, provide community education, and support persons with disabilities on housing accessibility issues. This grant is for a consultant to help organize and train a Fund Development Committee of the board, assist staff in creating a fundraising plan, and provide ongoing coaching to the board and staff in implementing the plan.

Baltimore Water Alliance $10,000
The Baltimore Water Alliance was created in 2010 with the merger of five small watershed organizations. The merger creates the opportunity for one larger, financially viable, regionally focused organization to impact water quality and thereby the quality of life in the Baltimore area. This grant is for a consultant to help the new organization define its board and management structures, and to assess the accounting system needs of the new organization, which expects to compete for large federal grants and needs to establish a strong system of financial accountability to be successful.

Public Justice Center $10,000
The Public Justice Center is a nonprofit public interest law office that works to enforce the rights of children in foster care, the homeless, and immigrants, among others. PJC also works with the Baltimore Homeownership Preservation Coalition to educate Marylanders about the rights of tenants in foreclosed properties. This grant is for a consultant to help PJC establish a major giving program in conjunction with its 25th anniversary celebration.

The Woman’s Industrial Exchange $10,000
The Woman’s Industrial Exchange provides opportunities for local craft artists to refine, market, and sell their handmade goods to supplement their income. This grant is for a consultant to help the board’s fundraising committee develop a plan to raise funds for an operating endowment, and to train the board, staff, and volunteers to implement the plan.

Women’s Housing Coalition $10,000
The Women’s Housing Coalition is dedicated to breaking the cycle of homelessness by providing a range of affordable housing options, including three single-room occupancy buildings for single women, one nine-unit facility for women with children, and 23 scattered site units for singles and families, as well as wraparound case management services. This grant is for a consultant to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of WHC’s current operations, focusing on its financial systems; make recommendations for improved efficiency through procedural, staffing, accounting, and processing changes; and calculate the additional resources needed to undertake the organization’s next housing project.

Program Evaluation
Grants to evaluate program reach and impact and to design systems for ongoing program review and improvement.

House of Ruth Maryland $10,000
The House of Ruth provides a comprehensive range of services—including a 24-hour hotline, shelter, child and youth services, community advocacy, legal clinic, counseling, and education and training—with the goal of ending violence against women and their children by confronting the attitudes, behaviors, and systems that perpetuate it, and by providing victims with the services necessary to rebuild their lives safely and free of fear. The agency recently completed a two-year restructuring, with all functions now integrated into a client-based system. This grant is for a technology consultant to help the organization redesign its client management database system to support its new streamlined continuum of client services.

Strategic Planning
Grants to review factors that can affect an organization’s future success, establish program priorities, and set measurable goals.

The Baltimore Station $10,000
The Baltimore Station is a 150-bed therapeutic recovery program, serving primarily homeless veterans with drug and alcohol addictions. This grant is for a consultant to conduct an organizational assessment and prepare recommendations for the board and staff about board membership and structure, delineation of responsibilities between board and staff, and communication systems as the nearly quarter-century-old organization expands and professionalizes its services.

Maryland Asset Building & Community Development Network $5,850
The Maryland ABCD Network’s mission is to ensure strong and stable asset building and community development organizations through education, networking, and advocacy. It serves as a forum for community development organizations around the state to come together to share best practices, learn about funding opportunities, and speak collectively on policy issues that affect the field. This grant is for a consultant to help the organization, which currently operates under the fiscal sponsorship of another nonprofit, explore the costs and benefits of various organizational structures and facilitate a decision about which option to pursue.

Maryland Consumer Rights Coalition $8,000
Maryland Consumer Rights Coalition advocates for programs and laws that protect people from identity theft, predatory mortgage lending, inaccurate credit reports, and abusive credit card and debt management practices. This grant is for a consultant to help the board and staff develop the organization’s first strategic plan.

Board and Leadership Development
Grants to clarify leadership and management roles and responsibilities, recruit and train board members, and manage executive transitions.

Downtown Baltimore Family Alliance $5,000
The Downtown Baltimore Family Alliance was founded in 2008 by a network of young families in Baltimore’s waterfront and central city neighborhoods to support family life in the heart of Baltimore, with the goal of attracting and retaining families with children in the city. After almost two years of volunteer leadership, the board decided to hire its first executive director in 2010. This grant is for a consultant to guide the board through the process of creating a job description and managing roles and responsibilities as the organization transitions from all-volunteer to staff-led.

Regional Initiatives

During 2010, the Foundation authorized two regional grants totaling $105,000.

Central Maryland Transportation Alliance $75,000
The Central Maryland Transportation Alliance acts through a board of prominent area business and civic leaders to improve travel efficiency within the region by advocating for creation of a rapid, reliable regional transportation network. The Foundation was a founder of the Alliance in 2006 and has provided consistent operating support ever since. This grant provides $50,000 outright for core operating support, with an additional $25,000 contingent upon a matching amount being raised from new contributors.

WYPR, Your Public Radio Corporation $30,000
WYPR is the public radio station serving metropolitan Baltimore, with coverage throughout the state of Maryland. To support the ongoing effort to inform and influence the region’s thought and opinion leaders about the importance of a more rational, efficient transportation network for a robust regional economy and greater employment mobility, this grant is for an eight-month broadcast series focusing on different aspects of regional transportation.

Established Program Areas

Community Affairs

Audubon Maryland-DC $20,000
The mission of Audubon Maryland-DC is to restore the natural ecosystems of Maryland and the District of Columbia, focusing on birds, other wildlife, and their habitats. With a consolidation of statewide operations at the Audubon Center at Patterson Park, Audubon Maryland-DC has become yet another partner in the ongoing cultural renaissance of Southeast Baltimore, enhancing science and environmental education programs for local schools and providing community programs that foster volunteerism, environmental stewardship, and social interaction among neighbors in the park. This grant is for general operating support.

Baltimore Community Foundation $200,000
In 2008 the Goldseker Foundation awarded a $1 million five-year challenge grant to increase the permanent endowment and thereby enhance the Baltimore Community Foundation’s discretionary grantmaking ability. In 2010, BCF successfully raised another $400,000 in unrestricted endowment to qualify for the Foundation’s $200,000 matching grant.

Business Volunteers Unlimited $30,000
With programs to connect business leaders to nonprofit boards, skilled volunteers to nonprofits in need of short-term assistance, and young professionals to civic leadership opportunities, BVU provides an important group of services to companies, nonprofit organizations, and individuals seeking to strengthen the social fabric of Baltimore City. This grant provides support for the board leadership, skilled volunteer placement, and GIVE (Getting Involved in Volunteer Experiences) programs.

Community Law Center $25,000
The Community Law Center provides free or reduced-cost legal services to organizations and individuals working to improve the economic and environmental condition of Baltimore’s neighborhoods and to combat unethical real estate practices. This grant is to support the CLC with project costs and core operating funds as it winds down the five-year-old Project to End Predatory and Deceptive Real Estate Practices..

Creative Alliance $15,000
Operating out of a renovated theater in the heart of the Highlandtown Arts & Entertainment District, the Creative Alliance serves as a model of arts-driven commercial revitalization. The Alliance’s community festivals draw thousands of people every year to Patterson Park and Eastern Avenue in Southeast Baltimore, and its partnerships with Southeast CDC reinforce the residential neighborhood revitalization taking place through the Healthy Neighborhoods program. This grant supports the Alliance’s community outreach programs.

Downtown Baltimore Family Alliance $35,000
DBFA was created in 2008 by a network of young families seeking to support family life in downtown Baltimore by working for excellent schools, safe streets and housing, parks, and retail to serve families. This grant is for program and operating expenses.

Mount Vernon Place Conservancy, Inc. $15,000
Through a public-private partnership with the city of Baltimore, the Conservancy manages Mount Vernon Place, the home of Baltimore’s historic Washington Monument and the four squares that surround it. This grant provides partial support for the creation of a master plan for the design elements, infrastructure conditions and standards, and financial operations of the park.

Parks and People Foundation $5,000
This grant to the Parks and People Foundation provides partial support for the work of a Recreation Task Force to assist the Baltimore City Department of Recreation and Parks in creating a vision for the city’s recreation centers.

Station North Arts & Entertainment, Inc. $50,000
By promoting and supporting artists and cultural organizations in the district just north of Penn Station, an area that encompasses the neighborhoods of Charles North, Greenmount West, and Barclay, the Station North Arts & Entertainment District plays an important role in the Central Baltimore Partnership’s ongoing efforts to create a vibrant neighborhood where artists and entertainment venues flourish in the midst of an economically diverse community with healthy residential, retail, and commercial offerings. This grant is for operating support.

Village at Home $5,000
Village at Home is a national model that has had success in many cities building a supportive community for all ages, with a special focus on providing activities and services to older adults and people with disabilities so they may have the practical means and the confidence to live full lives in their homes and neighborhoods. This grant is in support of start-up costs to bring the Village at Home program to Baltimore.

Education

Baltimore Montessori Public Charter School $40,000
The Baltimore Montessori Public Charter School serves 270 students in grades PreK-6, providing families with a high-quality choice in public education located in Central Baltimore’s Greenmount West neighborhood. In 2010, the school worked in partnership with the New Greenmount West Community Association, Central Baltimore Partnership, and Jubilee Baltimore on a plan to develop a middle school and community center in a vacant building adjacent to the current school. This grant provides funding for the school’s community engagement projects.

Cristo Rey Jesuit High School $75,000
One of a national network of 25 private high schools providing an academically rigorous Jesuit education to low-income urban students, Baltimore’s Cristo Rey school serves 320 students, with an average family income of around $27,000 annually. Though every family is required to contribute to the cost of the student’s education, according to ability to pay, students also work part time to cover tuition costs, and the school raises scholarship support. This grant is for scholarships.

Downtown Baltimore Family Alliance $48,500
Recognizing the great value that DBFA members can add by their active participation in the parent-teacher organizations and school communities of the public schools in downtown Baltimore, this one-time grant to DBFA matches funds, up to $10,000, raised by their parent members for the parent-teacher organizations at six Baltimore City Public Schools:

Johns Hopkins University $200,000
This grant, applied at the discretion of the University’s president, supports the Baltimore Scholars Program, which last year provided financial aid to 48 undergraduates at Johns Hopkins University, all of whom were graduates of Baltimore City Public Schools.

Morgan State University $200,000
At the discretion of the University’s president, this grant supports the Goldseker Fellows Program, which provided graduate fellowships to 75 students from the Baltimore metropolitan area to attend Morgan State University in the 2009-2010 academic year.

University of Maryland – School of Social Work $50,000
The Neighborhood Fellows Program at the University of Maryland’s School of Social Work Community Outreach Service (SWCOS) places graduate-level social work students in internships at community development organizations, to increase the capacity of the organizations and to introduce the next generation of nonprofit talent to the community development field. This grant supports stipends for students as well as the field director’s salary and related operating costs.

Neighborhood-School Partnerships

Comprehensive Housing Assistance Inc. in partnership with Cross Country Elementary/ Middle School - $70,000
Cross Country Elementary/Middle is a traditional neighborhood public school serving families in the Glen and Cheswolde neighborhoods of Northwest Baltimore. The school is using its grant award to implement a technology integration plan to support its STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) curriculum. CHAI supports the Glen Neighborhood Improvement Association’s and Cross Country Elementary/Middle School’s marketing efforts, which aim to create greater identification between the strong school and the neighborhood.

Garwyn Oaks Northwest Housing Resource Center in partnership with Calvin M. Rodwell Elementary School - $70,000
Calvin Rodwell Elementary is a traditional neighborhood public school serving families in the Howard Park neighborhood of West Baltimore. In 2009-2010, the school used the grant award to implement the WeatherBug Science Curriculum, an award-winning program that develops skills in science, geography, math, and technology. In 2010-2011, it will use the second-year funding to develop a culinary arts program that will allow for greater parent and community participation in the school. Garwyn Oaks Northwest Housing Resource Center supports the Howard Park Civic Association and Calvin Rodwell Elementary School to co-market these programs and create greater identification between the strong school and the neighborhood.

Greater Mondawmin Coordinating Council in partnership with Gwynns Falls Elementary School - $70,000
Gwynns Falls Elementary School is a traditional neighborhood public school serving families in the Mondawmin and Panway neighborhoods of West Baltimore. The school used its first year grant to implement an after-school program focused on academic and cultural enrichment. The school was successful in attracting additional funding to sustain the program in the 2010-2011 academic year, and will use the Foundation’s second-year grant to expand the number of students served by the after-school program. The Greater Mondawmin Coordinating Council is co-marketing the school and the Healthy Neighborhoods program in the community.

Greater Homewood Community Corporation in partnership with Barclay Elementary/Middle and Margaret Brent Elementary/Middle schools - $110,000
The Greater Homewood Community Corporation has helped school leaders at Barclay and Margaret Brent Elementary/Middle schools gather input from neighborhood parents about what they want in their neighborhood public schools. In response to their feedback, the partners used their first-year grant to begin an ambitious effort to develop and implement a thematic, project-based curriculum at the two schools, with strong input from the community about project content. Loyola University has been providing in-kind professional development and technical assistance in school improvement and curriculum enhancement. GHCC has developed marketing postcards that are distributed through local businesses in Charles Village, inviting more community residents to become involved in the project and to learn about the schools through open house tours and a Great Schools Charles Village website. The second-year grant will be used to continue the development and implementation of the project-based curriculum.

Neighborhoods of Greater Lauraville in partnership with Hamilton Elementary/Middle, City Neighbors Charter, and St. Francis of Assisi schools - $140,000
The Neighborhoods of Greater Lauraville, Inc., serves a collection of family-friendly neighborhoods boasting a portfolio of strong public and private schools in Northeast Baltimore. NOGLI worked with a team consisting of a traditional neighborhood public school, a citywide public charter school, and a parochial school to develop a plan to invest both in the individual schools and in collective activities to serve all families in Greater Lauraville, such as the first Kidstock Festival in 2010.

Hamilton Elementary/Middle School has focused on integrating arts and environmental science into its programs, and used its first-year grant award to develop a community garden on what had been an asphalt lot behind the school. The gardening program has paid dividends for the school, providing hands-on learning opportunities to students at all grade levels and attracting new parents in the neighborhood to volunteer at the school. The second-year grant award will continue to support the gardening program and enhance the science learning opportunities.

City Neighbors Charter School is an arts-integrated school that follows the Reggio Emilia approach, an internationally recognized educational philosophy that gives children some control over the direction of their learning. City Neighbors used its first-year grant award to expand its arts integration programming and will do the same in the second year, bringing in artists-in-residence to work with the children in choral and dramatic arts.

St. Francis of Assisi School has been a community anchor in Northeast Baltimore for half a century, where it has served a mix of Catholic and non-Catholic children in an academically rigorous neighborhood PreK-8 school. St. Francis used its first-year grant award to expand the physical education program for its K-8 students, in direct response to parent demand. The school will use the second-year grant funding to develop a plan for renovation of the school’s aging facility while continuing the added physical education time.

Human Services

Advocates for Children & Youth $25,000
Advocates for Children & Youth’s mission is to identify problems, promote policies and programs that improve results for Maryland children in measurable and meaningful ways, and evaluate the effectiveness of programs and policies for the state’s children and youth. Its goals in 2010 include high-quality, accessible health care and education opportunities for all children. This grant provides core operating support.

THE ASSOCIATED: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore $200,000
The ASSOCIATED addresses charitable, educational, religious, humanitarian, health, cultural, and social service concerns. This grant supports case management services and neighborhood-based activity programs for older adults, coordination of community service activities, and an emergency assistance program for families having difficulty meeting basic needs.

Maryland Food Bank $10,000
The Maryland Food Bank coordinates the procurement and distribution of food donations from manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers, and government agencies to organizations providing free food to the state’s hungry, distributing nearly 14 million pounds of food annually to 1,000 partners—including food pantries, soup kitchens, emergency shelters, low-income day care centers, after-school programs, senior centers, rehabilitation centers, and other feeding programs. This unsolicited grant was made from the President’s Discretionary Fund.