The George Gund Foundation

07/05/2005 in Grantmaking

Foundation Awards $2.9 Million in June

Projects to stop the “brain drain” in Northeast Ohio, stage events on Cleveland’s lakefront and coordinate efforts to improve early childhood education in Ohio received funding from the George Gund Foundation at its June meeting.

The Northeast Ohio Council on Higher Education received $100,000 for College 360°, a four-year, $5 million effort to increase the region’s supply of college-educated workers by defining and marketing the region as a “premier destination for learning, living, and working.“ The initiative is a partnership involving higher education, business and the travel and tourism and hospitality sectors.

A $35,000 grant was made to Parkworks, Inc. for summer arts and entertainment events at Northcoast Harbor, and a $15,000 grant was made to EcoCity Cleveland for environmental education activities that are part of the Burning River Fest 2005 to be held at Voinovich Park.

The Action for Children of Franklin County will use a $40,000 grant to coordinate and facilitate three statewide initiatives working to improve early childhood programming and education in Ohio, the Build Ohio Alliance, School Readiness Solutions Group and Ohio Early Care and Education Campaign.

These grants were among 73 totaling $2,972,452 approved by Foundation Trustees at the second quarterly meeting of 2005.

Other grants of interest included:

  • $500,000 over two years to ideastream for television and radio public affairs programming.
  • $320,000 over two years to the Community Renewal Society for continued publication of “CATALYST,” a newsmagazine focused on the Cleveland Municipal School District.
  • $225,000 over two years to the Health Policy Institute of Ohio for operating support.
  • $100,000 to Kent State University for the Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative.
  • $50,000 to the Chagrin River Land Conservancy for the merger of eight land trusts in Northeast Ohio into the new Western Reserve Land Conservancy.
  • Up to $50,000 to the Cleveland Botanical Garden (CBG) for a study of how CBG and its University Circle neighbors, the Western Reserve Historical Society and the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, can work together more collaboratively.

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 quarterly in the areas of education, human services, economic and community development, environment and arts. Foundation commitments to date have totaled more than $443 million.