Neil D. Steinberg

You’ve got to love a guy who declares he will come up with $10 million to restore and support a beautiful old dowager of a city park, now turning a bit shabby around the edges.

The guy in question is Neil D. Steinberg, and the money will be raised through a community grant program headed up by the Rhode Island Foundation, which Steinberg has served as president and CEO since 2008.

Creating a big grant project to fix and freshen up a communal jewel seems such a Rhode Island Foundation-like thing to do, especially when you consider that the park restoration fundraiser is how the foundation has chosen to celebrate its 100th anniversary.

Both the foundation and the park came about as acts of public service. The foundation was created in 1916 with a $10,000 gift from leading R.I. industrialist and U.S. Sen. Jesse H. Metcalf. The park is on land given to the city by a descendant of the state’s idealist founder, Roger Williams.

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The foundation is the largest funder of nonprofit organizations in Rhode Island, receiving and awarding grants to improve the state’s health, economy, environment, culture and families. In 2015, it raised $43 million and awarded a record $41.5 million to 1,600 nonprofits.

Steinberg is called upon often when people need counsel on raising and spending money for the betterment of Rhode Island. In fact, one of the foundation’s signature programs under his leadership is the Initiative for Nonprofit Excellence, through which the state’s many nonprofits are made stronger, smarter and more effective. •

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