Rochester Area Community Foundation Awards $242,987 in Grants for Local Projects
Thirty-seven local organizations and programs in the areas of arts, environment, health, historical preservation and the needs of women and girls have recently benefited from the generosity of Community Foundation philanthropists.

Among these are grants for health care and last-resort emergency assistance, mentoring and after-school programs for pre-teen and teenage girls, and employment assistance for women.

“One indication of the great need in our community is the record number of grant applications we received,” says Jennifer Leonard, president and executive director of the Community Foundation. Eighty-two applications requested a total of $865,000. “With state and local funding drying up, we are fortunate that endowment funds established by generous and passionate local philanthropists can assist so many community programs and projects.”


Community Foundation and Partners Launch Boomer Mentors Project
Rochester Area Community Foundation, Lifespan and Rochester Mentors on February 4 launched a three-year initiative to recruit at least 200 boomer mentors for Rochester City School District Students. The goal of the Boomer Mentors project is to tap the knowledge and experience of this generation to help improve the district’s graduation rate, which is among the lowest in New York state. Research shows that mentoring improves academic performance because mentors become influential role models in the lives of youth.

The project was inspired by the 2005 Call to Arms report by a blue-ribbon task force, led by former Rochester Institute of Technology President Al Simone. That report called for 10,000 volunteer mentors to work with City School District students. To fund the initiative, the Community Foundation qualified for a $500,000 challenge grant from Atlantic Philanthropies, a multi-national foundation that is focused on unleashing the potential of the boomer generation to solve social issues. The challenge grant requires a dollar-for-dollar match. To date, $224,000 has been raised, and additional funders are being sought.


Community Foundation Joins Coalition to Promote After-School Funding
Rochester Area Community Foundation is a member of the Rochester Community Coalition, which unveiled its "2010 Top Priorities for State Investment" at a January 14 press conference.

The Coalition announced five community initiatives that it will lobby for in Albany. One is a $5 million, four-year funding investment in the Rochester After-School Plan, developed jointly by the Community Foundation, the city of Rochester, the Rochester City School District and United Way of Greater Rochester. Community Foundation President and Executive Director Jennifer Leonard spoke about the importance of after-school programs in curbing violence and improving graduation rates.


It’s A Match: Community Foundation Challenge Grant Quadrupled Donations for Emergency Needs
Rochester Area Community Foundation’s $100,000 challenge grant to the United Way of Greater Rochester’s 2009 Campaign was a huge success — thanks to you and other generous contributors. The challenge grant was unprecedented. It matched dollar-for-dollar every new or increased individual gift to the United Way’s “Supporting People in Crisis” impact area up to $100,000. The result of this match yielded $404,744 in additional contributions to help local agencies and organizations responding to emergency needs.

Act Rochester Establishes Steering Committee to Support Community Indicators Program
Rochester Area Community Foundation and the United Way of Greater Rochester have appointed a steering committee to guide and oversee the ACT Rochester community indicators program. This program, which is designed to help our region respond to its most critical issues, debuted in June with the launch of www.ACTRochester.org. The 170-page website provides up-to-date data on 12 quality-of-life categories and on Genesee, Livingston, Monroe, Ontario, Orleans, Wayne and Wyoming counties. The Steering Committee is chaired by Dev Garg, who was a member of the task force that developed and launched the program.


Lobbying Helps Get More Child-Care Funding
The hard work and lobbying by a coalition of community groups, nonprofits and local governments to restore child-care subsidy funding has paid off.

New York state increased Monroe County’s share of Child Care Block Grant funding. That $4.8 million, plus $2.9 million in federal stimulus money, will allow the county to restore the subsidized child-care eligibility threshold to 165 percent of the poverty level. Making this change will make it possible for almost 1,000 families to qualify for funds to help with child-care expenses.