Featured Grants

The George Gund Foundation has made a $3 million grant to Playhouse Square’s Advancing the Legacy capital campaign that will be used to restore the lobby of the historic Ohio Theatre.

The lobby, which will be renamed The George Gund Foundation Lobby, was badly damaged by a fire in 1963. During its early 1980s renovation, the lobby was not restored to its former grandeur due to lack of funding and time, and a simple, contemporary design was created.

Work on the lobby, which will include re-creation of murals and fireplaces, hand-carved ceiling panels and ornamentation, painting and new carpeting, is scheduled to begin in July.

“Playhouse Square is one of Cleveland’s greatest success stories,” said David Abbott, Foundation executive director. “The Foundation has been a key supporter of the Playhouse Square Foundation since 1978. This gift builds on our past investments and will help ensure that Clevelanders continue to enjoy the arts and cultural programs that take place in its beautifully restored theaters for years to come.”

Cuyahoga County is launching the nation’s first county-level Pay for Success (PFS) project in partnership with FrontLine Service, a comprehensive continuum of care service provider for homeless individuals in Ohio.

The Partnering for Family Success Program will deliver intensive 12-15 month treatment to more than 400 parents, caregivers and children over five years to reduce the length of stay in out-of-home foster care placement for children whose families are homeless.

Pay for Success is an innovative funding model that drives government resources toward social programs that prove effective at providing results to the people who need them most. PFS expands available, upfront funding for nonprofit service providers and tracks the effectiveness of programs over time to ensure funding is directed to programs that succeed in measurably improving the lives of those most in need. PFS enables governments to draw in greater resources to tackle social problems by tapping private investments for the up-front costs of the programs.

The George Gund Foundation has joined The Reinvestment Fund, The Nonprofit Finance Fund, the Cleveland Foundation and the Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland in jointly providing $4 million in upfront funding for the Cuyahoga County model with the ultimate goal of receiving both a financial and social return. Funds will be repaid if project goals are reached, and a small return on the investments will be paid if the program exceeds the target outcomes.

“Pay for Success represents a new way of doing business for government, social service providers and philanthropy,” said Marcia Egbert, Gund senior program officer who was instrumental in creating the partnership. “Ultimately, we believe this model harnesses the power of “big data” to improve government effectiveness but, most importantly, to improve the lives of some of our most fragile families in Cuyahoga County.”

Additional information is available at http://www.thirdsectorcap.org/our-work/cuyahoga-county-pfs/

The George Gund Foundation, a longtime advocate for improving urban design and amenities, has made a $5 million contribution towards the $30 million transformation of Cleveland’s Public Square into a park, plaza and multi-use gathering space.

Plans developed by the project’s landscape architect, James Corner Field Operations, build on recommendations by the Group Plan Commission which studied ways to reconfigure and enliven Public Square’s four quadrants.

“We are enthusiastic about the design and the impact that implementation of these plans will have on Cleveland,” said David Abbott, Foundation executive director. “Green space is becoming more important in making cities livable and competitive. This will give us an active, welcoming green space in the heart of downtown.”

The Public Square renovation is part of a larger Group Plan Commission effort that also includes enhancements to Cleveland’s Mall and a pedestrian and bicycle bridge linking downtown to the lakefront.

The Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD), Cuyahoga County and more than 30 area organizations, including the George Gund Foundation, have formed a partnership to more than double the number of Cleveland children attending a quality preschool within the next two years.

Foundation Senior Program Officer Marcia Egbert and CMSD Chief Executive Officer Eric Gordon co-chaired the taskforce which developed the PRE4CLE plan that includes a mix of CMSD pre-schools, Head Start programs, private preschool centers and home-based providers.

“We know that providing quality pre-school education for children will make a significant difference in helping them succeed in school,” Egbert said. “Your child matters, and your community feels your child deserves the best early learning experience. It is also an investment in our future.”

The plan calls for creation of a Cleveland Early Childhood Compact that will guide the work and help meet the goal of placing 2,000 more four-year-olds in quality preschools for the 2015-16 school year.

Details of the plan are available on a new PRE4CLE page on the CMSD website.

George Gund Foundation Trustees approved program-related investments (PRIs) to the Manufacturing Advocacy and Growth Network (MAGNET) and the Cleveland International Film Festival (CIFF) at their November meeting.

CIFF, faced with a shift in the film industry from 35mm print projection to digital cinema projection, will receive a $500,000 loan to purchase new digital projection equipment for use in the Festival’s home at Tower City Cinemas.

MAGNET will receive a loan of up to $350,000 to expand its fee-for-service PRISM (Partnership for Regional Innovation Services to Manufacturers) program that offers technical assistance to local companies on everything from supply chain management to product pricing. Several other foundations participating in the Fund for Our Economic Future are also expected to provide loans for the project which will allow MAGNET to hire staff and consultants to ramp up its successful pilot program.

PRIs are investments made by foundations to support charitable activities that involve the potential return of capital within an established timeframe. MAGNET will use fees paid by companies for consulting services to repay its PRI. The Film Festival’s loan will be repaid with savings from equipment rental as well as fees Tower City Cinemas will pay CIFF to use the equipment at other times of the year.

The George Gund Foundation made several grants at its winter meeting honoring the memory of George Gund III, a longtime Foundation trustee and son of the Foundation’s founder, who passed away in January.

Grants were awarded to the Cleveland Orchestra, the Cleveland International Film Festival (CIFF) and the Cleveland Cinematheque, all organizations Mr. Gund served as a trustee and cared about deeply.

A $3 million grant was made to the Cleveland Orchestra, where Mr. Gund served for many years as a non-resident trustee, for its Sound for the Centennial Campaign. It will be used to create the George Gund III Fund for Artistic Excellence.

Film was a passion of Mr. Gund’s, and he played a key role in the founding of both CIFF and the Cinematheque, a year-round film program housed at the Cleveland Institute of Art. He continued to serve as a CIFF trustee and was honored by the organization with its Legacy Award at the 2012 festival.

The Foundation made grants totaling $305,000 to the Cleveland International Film Festival to support the opening night of this year’s festival in memory of Mr. Gund and to endow an annual George Gund III  Memorial Central and Eastern European Film Competition. The Cleveland Institute of Art received a $100,000 award to endow the Cinematheque.

Greater Cleveland is alive with creativity and you can help identify the next big idea. Several of the George Gund Foundation’s grantees are competing in the Cuyahoga Arts & Culture’s Creative Culture Grants program. Cuyahoga County residents can vote to decide which two arts projects will be funded through Cuyahoga Arts & Culture’s new Creative Culture Grants program. The top two vote getting organizations will receive up to $300,000 ($150,000 each) of funding over the next 18 months. An independent panel of experts from outside Northeast Ohio selected the six finalists.

Cuyahoga Arts & Culture’s board of trustees is expected to approve and announce the winners on Monday, February 25, and the projects will take place between March 2013 and August 2014.

Vote online at www.cacgrants.org/vote through February 20. County residents may also vote by mail by downloading the Creative Culture Grants paper ballot and returning it to Cuyahoga Arts & Culture or by requesting it from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture by calling 216.515.8303.

Paper ballots must be delivered in person or by U.S. mail to Cuyahoga Arts & Culture’s offices (1501 Euclid Avenue, Suite 407, Cleveland, Ohio 44115) by February 15 at 4:30 p.m. EST to be counted. Ballots received after the deadline and incomplete or illegible ballots will not be counted. Individuals of at least 13 years of age and residing in Cuyahoga County, Ohio at the time of the voting period are eligible to vote. Each voter may vote only once.

Please share the voting page with your friends on Facebook, Twitter and other social media networks.

The George Gund Foundation awarded a $700,000 grant to support the bold strategy to reinvent public education in Cleveland proposed by Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson and Cleveland Metropolitan School District CEO Eric Gordon.

“The Foundation has been investing in a portfolio of new, innovative and excellent schools in Cleveland for many years in partnership with the Cleveland Foundation, and we enthusiastically support the expansion of this investment as outlined in Cleveland’s Plan for Transforming Schools,” said David Abbott, Foundation executive director, who noted that the plan also has the support of the Greater Cleveland Partnership.

“This plan calls for a transition from a single-source school district to a new system of district and charter schools that work in partnership to create achievement gains for every student,” he added. “The plan is built upon growing the number of excellent schools in Cleveland, regardless of provider, and giving these schools autonomy over staff and budgets in exchange for high accountability for performance.”

Grant funds will be used to support many aspects of the plan including new schools planning and development, a new per pupil funding model, marketing and recruitment.

The grant was among 75 totaling $3,645,349 approved by the Foundation’s board at its first meeting of 2012.

Grants were also given to Community Re-Entry ($50,000) to provide comprehensive services to individuals returning to the community from jails and prisons and their families and to Towards Employment ($60,000) for a public policy initiative related to community re-entry issues.

Other grants of interest included:

• $175,000 over two years to the Cleveland Foodbank for expanded advocacy and public policy initiatives so that it can better meet increased demands for its services
• Up to $250,000 to the Downtown Cleveland Alliance for continued effort to revitalize downtown Cleveland
• $60,000 to The Refugee Response to hire an operations director for the Refugee Empowerment Agricultural Program’s Ohio City Farms
• $75,000 to The Nature Conservancy for its Ohio office
• $85,000 to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History for GreenCityBlueLake operating support
• $38,000 to Case Western Reserve University for the Schubert Center for Child Development’s work on policy related to juvenile justice reform
•  $50,000 to the Kent State University Foundation for the Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative
• $40,000 to the Cleveland Music School Settlement for marketing of the organization’s centennial celebration

The George Gund Foundation was established in 1952 by George Gund, former chairman of the Cleveland Trust Company. The Foundation funds programs that enhance our understanding of the physical and social environment in which we live and increase our ability to cope with its changing requirements. Grants are made three times a year in the areas of education, human services, economic and community development, environment and arts. Foundation commitments to date have totaled more than $584 million.

CLEVELAND OH — The George Gund Foundation strongly endorsed the Cleveland Municipal School District’s (CMSD) transformation plan with a $2.5 million grant to transform CMSD management and operations and to help create more new and innovative schools. The Foundation anticipates providing an additional $4 million in the second and third years of the plan.

“Our grant is contingent on the Board of Education’s formal adoption of the plan at their March 9 meeting and on satisfactory progress toward the goals of the plan,” said David Abbott, Foundation executive director. “We urge the Board of Education to pass the proposed plan, complete with the difficult decision to close schools in order to concentrate investments in what works. The challenge is great, but this break with the past is absolutely necessary. Incremental change will not enable our students to make the kind of breakthroughs in performance required to compete in, and contribute to, the 21st century global economy.”

Abbott said the Foundation will closely track the plans progress, particularly changes in district policies, procedures and operations needed to meet transformation goals.

“Nowhere is this more important than in the alignment of the district’s management, operations and employee contracts-in particular the teachers’ contract-to the transformational goals,” he added. “Teachers are absolutely and irrefutably essential to the plan’s success. They must be inspired to deliver on the district’s promises, supported in their pursuit of academic excellence, and expected to accept accountability for performance, because ultimately they will be responsible for the day-to-day implementation of the plan.”

Foundation dollars are targeted for new school development and start-up in 2010, planning and development for future new schools, central office restructuring and management of the transformation effort. The Foundation, which has had a longstanding commitment to early childhood education, also has allocated some of the grant funds towards the district’s plan to increase investment in high quality preschool education.

The George Gund Foundation and the Cleveland Foundation have closely collaborated in a multi-year partnership to create new, innovative and excellent schools in Cleveland. Both have invested significant resources in the planning and start-up of new schools in the district, establishment of a CMSD Office of New and Innovative Schools and research that led to the transformation plan. The Cleveland Foundation has indicated that it will consider an investment in the plan at the March board meeting.

Contacts: Deena Epstein
David Abbott
(216) 241–3114