Awards were made to organizations in 26 states, the District of Columbia and South Africa.

TROY, Mich., Oct. 12 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Feeding the hungry, assisting those least able to pursue a college degree, and advancing energy efficiency in low-income communities exemplify The Kresge Foundation's desire to improve the long-term life circumstances of the poor and, in response to the nation's severe economic contraction, bring some immediate relief to those in greatest need.

At their September board meeting the Trustees of the foundation approved 208 awards totaling $43,698,088 for nonprofit organizations in 26 states, the District of Columbia and South Africa in the areas of human services, education, environment, arts and culture, health and community development.

"We are trying to lead by example," says Elaine D. Rosen, chair of the Kresge board of Trustees. "We are supporting exemplary nonprofit organizations in this time of financial hardship so they, in turn, may better serve and sustain those suffering in their communities."

Feeding the hungry

The 85-year-old foundation awarded Feeding America, the nation's largest domestic hunger-relief agency, a $2.5 million program-related investment to finance the purchase of 20 to 25 refrigerated trucks. The trucks will be used by organizations in their 63,000-member network of food banks and mobile pantries to acquire and distribute donated food.

"Program-related investments are below-market loans or equity investments made by private foundations for charitable purposes in nonprofit organizations that are advancing their strategic priorities," explains Rip Rapson, president of The Kresge Foundation. "Feeding America clearly is doing a remarkable job of scaling its services to meet the accelerating need for food in this country. They will redistribute this money at no interest to member organizations for the purchase of refrigerated delivery trucks."

With the expansion of its delivery fleet, Feeding America estimates the amount of donated food it will be able to retrieve from grocery stores and redistribute will nearly double. To facilitate this significant expansion of its operations, Kresge also awarded the Chicago-based organization a $2.5 million grant to help defray the costs associated with operating the new trucks, including driver salaries and benefits, fuel, vehicle maintenance, and insurance.

"Through our program-related investment and our operating support grant, we are helping to facilitate the delivery of greater amounts of safe, nutritious food to urban and underserved rural areas," Rapson adds.

Increasing access and success in higher education

Kresge has been shifting its grantmaking in the education arena from its traditional support of facilities to the advancement of accessible, graduation-oriented two and four-year higher-education programs for students who are low-income and/or the first in their families to pursue a college degree. Three grants illustrate ways organizations are either helping low-income students navigate their way into college or continue their studies even when sidetracked by an unexpected financial challenge.

The National Advising Corps at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill received a $1 million award to expand its program of placing recent college graduates in underserved high schools and community colleges to work as college-access counselors, complementing the school's guidance counselors by helping students plan for and complete the often-daunting college and financial aid application process.

Unite L.A, which received a $900,000 award, assists Los Angeles senior high-school students who often unknowingly qualify for federal and state financial aid with the application process. The grant funds will be used to train and manage an additional 500 volunteer financial aid counselors, hold an annual college and career convention for some 13,000 participants, and create and broadcast a bilingual public awareness campaign for these support services.

"We seek to support organizations with broad reach that already can demonstrate success at helping low-income students achieve post-secondary educational success," Rapson explains. "Currently only half of all U.S. college students graduate within six years of beginning their studies."

For low-income college students, a major impediment to completing a two or four-year degree is an unexpected and often temporary financial challenge -- a vehicle breakdown, or, for example, an unexpectedly high utility bill. Scholarship America's Dreamkeepers program provides small, emergency loans to low-income community college students. The loans become grants, and therefore do not require repayment, if the student continues on in school in good standing. With a $1.5 million award from Kresge, a national network will be created to share Dreamkeepers best practices for replication around the country.

Affordable and healthy energy efficient housing

With buildings and the activities within them accounting for more than 40 percent of the nation's greenhouse gas emissions, the Environment Program continues Kresge's longstanding efforts to advance energy efficiency in building design and operation. Enterprise Community Partners, a Maryland-based national nonprofit dedicated to creating affordable housing communities for low- and moderate-income individuals and families, received a $1 million award to expand its Green Communities program.

Enterprise has demonstrated it is possible to build and retrofit low-income housing to conserve energy and water and provide environmentally healthy living conditions for residents without compromising affordability. It offers grants, financing, tax-credit equity, and technical assistance to real estate developers for creating new or retrofitting existing low-income homes to meet the Green Communities Criteria, a recognized national standard for affordable, healthy environmentally sustainable housing.

"Enterprise believes that green buildings should, by definition, promote both environmental and human health," Rapson says. "Through the expansion of its Green Communities program, it will not only increase the quantity of affordable, healthy, energy efficient housing stock, but also show the residential real estate market that it is possible to bring cost-effective construction and renovation to scale."

Awards also were made in the arts and culture, health and community development fields.

Here is a list of the awards approved in the third quarter of 2009:

(This list includes current and future planned grants.)

    ARIZONA
    Sojourner Center                               Phoenix           $100,000

    CALIFORNIA
    Alameda County Medical Center                  Oakland           $200,000
    Consultative Group on Biological Diversity     San Francisco      $30,000
    Foundation for California Community Colleges   Sacramento        $250,000
    Oakland Public Library                         Oakland           $325,000
    Occidental College                             Los Angeles       $163,306
    Pacific Forest Trust, Inc.                     San Francisco     $200,000
    Pesticide Action Network North America         San Francisco     $340,000
    San Francisco Museum and Historical Society    San Francisco      $50,000
    Unite-LA, Inc.                                 Los Angeles       $900,000

    COLORADO
    St. Francis Center                             Denver            $100,000
    Gathering Place                                Denver            $100,000
    Women's Crisis and Family Outreach Center      Castle Rock       $125,000

    CONNECTICUT
    Chrysalis Center, Inc.                         Hartford          $100,000

    DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
    Brookings Institution                          Washington        $150,000
    Center for Climate Strategies                  Washington         $74,640
    Center for Science in the Public Interest      Washington         $83,000
    George Washington University                   Washington        $900,000
    Grantmakers In Health                          Washington         $15,000
    Independent Sector                             Washington         $10,000

    FLORIDA
    Archbold Expeditions                           Venus             $100,000

    GEORGIA
    CHRIS Kids, Inc.                               Atlanta           $800,000
    Fernbank Museum of Natural History             Atlanta         $1,350,000
    Georgia Tech Research Corporation              Atlanta           $157,000

    HAWAII
    Domestic Violence Action Center                Honolulu          $100,000

    IOWA
    Western Iowa Tech Community College            Sioux City        $800,000

    ILLINOIS
    Active Transportation Alliance                 Chicago           $300,000
    Alliance for Water Efficiency                  Chicago           $200,000
    Animal Protective Association                  Chicago            $50,000
    Feeding America                                Chicago         $2,500,000
    Feeding America                                Chicago         $2,500,000
    Global Philanthropy Partnership                Chicago           $160,000

    INDIANA
    Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana          Indianapolis    $1,000,000
    Middle Way House, Inc.                         Bloomington       $125,000

    KANSAS
    Bethany College                                Lindsborg          $50,000
    Labette Community College                      Parsons         $1,000,000

    KENTUCKY
    Family Scholar House, Inc.                     Louisville         $50,000

    MASSACHUSETTS
    Alliance Foundation for Community Health, Inc. Cambridge         $180,000
    Castle Square Tenants Organization, Inc.       Boston             $50,000
    Dorchester Bay Economic Development            Dorchester
     Corporation                                                      $50,000
    Health Resources in Action                     Boston            $500,000
    Union of Concerned Scientists, Inc.            Cambridge         $750,000
    Urban Edge Housing Corp.                       Roxbury            $75,000

    MARYLAND
    Baltimore Community Foundation                 Baltimore         $200,000
    Baltimore Medical System, Inc.                 Baltimore         $380,000
    Development Training Institute                 Ellicott City     $125,000
    Enterprise Community Partners, Inc.            Columbia        $1,000,000
    Enterprise Community Partners, Inc.            Columbia          $500,000
    National Center for Healthy Housing, Inc.      Columbia          $143,000
    St. Vincent de Paul of Baltimore               Baltimore         $350,000

    MICHIGAN
    ARISE Detroit                                  Detroit           $125,000
    ArtServe Michigan, Inc.                        Wixom              $12,000
    City Connect Detroit                           Detroit           $600,000
    Ecology Center, Inc.                           Ann Arbor          $75,000
    Eduguide                                       Lansing           $300,000
    Focus: HOPE                                    Detroit           $250,000
    Harriet Tubman Center - Detroit                Detroit           $450,000
    Kalamazoo Cultural Center                      Kalamazoo         $200,000
    Matrix Human Services                          Detroit           $300,000
    Michigan Legal Services                        Detroit           $100,000
    Michigan Nonprofit Association                 Lansing            $50,000
    Michigan Nonprofit Association                 Lansing         $1,000,000
    Michigan Nonprofit Association                 Lansing         $1,015,000
    Michigan Roundtable for Diversity and          Detroit
     Inclusion                                                       $200,000
    Newaygo County Community Services              Fremont           $150,000
    Vista Maria                                    Dearborn Heights  $500,000
    Volunteers in Prevention, Probation & Prisons, Detroit
     Inc.                                                             $75,000

    MINNESOTA
    Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota           St. Paul          $100,000
    Scholarship America, Inc. - Minneapolis        Minneapolis     $1,500,000
    Wind on the Wires                              St. Paul          $100,000

    NORTH CAROLINA
    The University of North Carolina at Chapel     Chapel Hill
     Hill                                                          $1,000,000

    NEW HAMPSHIRE
    Boys & Girls Club of Greater Nashua, Inc.      Nashua            $100,000

    NEW YORK
    Coalition for the Homeless, Inc.               New York          $100,000
    Common Ground                                  New York           $75,000
    Creative Capital Foundation                    New York        $1,500,000
    Family & Children's Service of Niagara, Inc.   Niagara Falls     $300,000
    MDRC                                           New York          $650,000
    Nonprofit Finance Fund                         New York        $4,000,000
    Lower Eastside Girls Club of NY                New York        $1,500,000

    OHIO
    ABLE, Inc. & Legal Aid of Western Ohio         Toledo            $100,000
    Cleveland Zoological Society                   Cleveland         $725,000

    PENNYSYLVANIA
    East End Cooperative Ministry                  Pittsburgh         $50,000
    La Comunidad Hispana, Inc.                     Kennett Square    $175,000
    Meals on Wheels and More                       Austin            $500,000
    Opportunity House                              Reading           $250,000
    YWCA of York                                   York              $100,000

    TENNESEE
    Appalachian Resource Conservation and          Jonesborough
     Development Council                                              $50,000
    Southern Alliance for Clean Energy             Knoxville         $500,000

    TEXAS
    Austin Children's Shelter                      Austin            $100,000
    Corpus Christi Metro Ministries                Corpus Christi    $150,000
    Daughters of Charity Services of San Antonio   San Antonio       $100,000
    Sports And Outdoor Recreation                  San Antonio       $400,000
    Women's Home                                   Houston           $150,000

    VIRGINIA
    Center for Health, Environment and Justice     Falls Church      $400,000
    Project HOPE                                   Millwood           $26,156
    United Negro College Fund, Inc.                Fairfax         $1,800,000

    VERMONT
    The Upper Valley Haven, Inc.                   White River
                                                    Junction         $250,000

    WASHINGTON
    Boys & Girls Club of King County               Seattle            $75,000
    Catholic Charities of Spokane                  Spokane            $75,000
    Grantmakers in the Arts                        Seattle           $165,000
    KCTS Television - The Public Network           Seattle           $100,000
    YWCA of Spokane                                Spokane           $100,000

    SOUTH AFRICA
    Cape Peninsula University of Technology        Bellville          $48,266
    Children's Hospital Trust                      Rondebosch, Cape
                                                    Town             $128,750
    South African Institute for Advancement        Woodstock         $638,343
    University of Pretoria                         Pretoria          $255,234
    University of the Western Cape                 Bellville         $123,996
    University of the Witwatersrand                Johannesburg       $74,397

    For more information, contact Cynthia Shaw, cbshaw@kresge.org
    or call 248-643-9630.

SOURCE The Kresge Foundation

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