R.I. Foundation awarded $34.8M in grants in ’14

RHODE ISLAND Foundation President and CEO Neil Steinberg visits with two Pawtucket third-graders after announcing nearly $160,000 in grants for classroom innovation. The Spark Grants were just one more than 1,000 awards the foundation made last year. / COURTESY RHODE ISLAND FOUNDATION
RHODE ISLAND Foundation President and CEO Neil Steinberg visits with two Pawtucket third-graders after announcing nearly $160,000 in grants for classroom innovation. The Spark Grants were just one more than 1,000 awards the foundation made last year. / COURTESY RHODE ISLAND FOUNDATION

PROVIDENCE – In what amounts to a third record-breaking year, the Rhode Island Foundation awarded more than $34.8 million in grants in 2014 to more than 1,400 nonprofits.
The record beats 2013, a year in which the foundation awarded $31.1 million in grants, and 2012, in which the nonprofit awarded $30.4 million in grants. Both of those years were also record-breakers, said spokesman Chris Barnett. Before that, the foundation recorded $28 million in 2011 and $29.2 million in 2010, he said.
The year 2014 also proved to be one of the best ever for fundraising, the foundation announced on its blog, in its newsletter and in a press release, raising $33.7 million in new gifts from individual, organizational and corporate donors. By the end of 2014, total assets stood at more than $800 million.
“We are grateful to our dedicated donors for joining with us to take on the state’s challenges and opportunities,” said Neil Steinberg, the foundation’s president and CEO. “Their inspiring generosity enabled us to invest in Rhode Island as never before.”
The foundation is the largest and most comprehensive funder of nonprofits in the state, partnering with donors and organizations to meet the needs of people in Rhode Island.
Striving for long-term solutions, many of the awards were made under the foundation’s competitive Strategy Grant Program, which targets arts and culture, children and families, education, economic security, environment, health and housing.
For example, Hope and Main of Warren received $85,000 to provide technical assistance to tenants of its culinary business incubator. The grant will fund consultants and program-related expenses to provide technical assistance on issues such as recipe adaptation, packaging design, food safety and product marketing.
Other key areas of award distribution included nearly $440,000 for animal welfare, $375,000 for capacity-building grants to such groups as the Center for Southeast Asians and Westerly Land Trust, and $348,000 to food banks, homeless shelters and free clinics.
In 2014, the foundation also raised a record $308,843 in the third year of its annual Civic Leadership Fund, which enables the foundation to go beyond traditional grant-making to provide leadership and a forum for dialogue on critical community issues. The “Make It Happen” economic development initiative and the “It’s All In Our Backyard” campaign are two examples.

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