June 2015        
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A monthly e-newsletter for people interested in Florida philanthropy
    
FPN News
 
Rethink Homelessness   Florida Philanthropy Comes Together to End Homelessness
Philanthropic organizations of various types from across Florida came together in Orlando in June for the kick-off of Funders Together Florida, a new member affinity group of FPN in partnership with Funders Together to End Homelessness. The group will serve as a catalyzer, connector and convener to help maximize the effectiveness of philanthropy's role in ending homelessness in our state.
     
  To Enhance Oversight of Charities, Let's Build on the Good Work Already Being Done
In a recent post for FPN's blog, FPN President & CEO David Biemesderfer responded to an op-ed in The New York Times claiming that the charitable sector is like the "Wild West" when it comes to oversight. He emphasized that if we want to further enhance oversight of charities, a good start would be to provide adequate funding for the regulatory system that's in place and to ensure any reforms target the small number of scammers out there.
   
> FPN Seeks Communications Coordinator to Join Our Team
Do you have a passion for using words, images, video and other tools to communicate as effectively as possible to achieve your desired outcomes? Do you want to work for an organization that's making a positive difference in Florida? If so, you might be the right candidate to be our new Communications Coordinator.
 
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Headlines
 
  Downtown Jacksonville Welcomes Jessie Ball duPont Center
The Jessie Ball duPont Center, a gathering place for philanthropy and nonprofits in the heart of downtown Jacksonville, formally opens to the community on June 26. Already, nine nonprofits have moved into offices in the building, bringing almost 200 new workers to downtown. The Center is owned by the Jessie Ball duPont Fund, which invested $25 million in renovating the former Haydon Burns Library into an energy-efficient, state-of-the-art shared office space for local nonprofits. The Fund has relocated its offices to the third floor of the Center.
     
  Edyth Bush Charitable Foundation Invests in New Hope for Kids
The Edyth Bush Charitable Foundation awarded $200,000 to help New Hope for Kids purchase and renovate a new building. The investment will allow the organization to expand its services to meet the growing need for grief support and counseling for children and families after the death of a loved one.
     
  Reinhold Foundation Celebrates Nonprofits Serving Clay County
At its annual Celebrate Clay community service awards breakfast, the Paul E. & Klare N. Reinhold Foundation distributed $75,000 and 48 community service awards to nonprofits providing services to Clay County residents. The Food Pantry of Green Cove Springs captured the top honor this year, earning the $10,000 Paul E. Reinhold Community Service Award.
    
>  Community Foundation of Tampa Bay Awards First "Big Idea" Grants
Community Foundation of Tampa Bay this spring called on nonprofits to think big and propose collaborative projects that could make a real difference in the lives of those who struggle for food and housing. The Big Idea proposals were so strong that, with the help of its donors, the foundation tripled its original commitment and will award three grants of $50,000 each to Directions for Living (the No. 1 proposal), MORE Health Inc. and Feeding America Tampa Bay.
     
> Knight Foundation Support Helps Propel Diversity in Miami's Innovation & Tech Community
Digital Grass, a social impact group and diversity accelerator, will expand its programs and services to help close the diversity gap across South Florida's tech and innovation community with $75,000 from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
     
> Women's Giving Alliance Funds Study of Women Veterans' Needs in Duval County
The nonprofit Northeast Florida Women Veterans has launched an online research study, called RestorHer, to assess what services are most needed now and in the future by women veterans and how easy it is for women veterans to find and use these services. Funded by the Women's Giving Alliance of the Community Foundation for Northeast Florida, the study targets Duval County because it has the highest number of women veterans in the state.
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Health Philanthropy News
 
  Doctor on a Chip: Breakthrough Technology Got Start With Wallace H. Coulter Foundation Support
"Doctor on a Chip" is a new mobile, medical diagnostic technology that has been tested for over four years in Rwanda. The chip uses a microfluidic credit-card sized device that moves blood across tiny channels, while introducing chemical reagents for analysis. Unlike traditional diagnostic testing, Doctor on a Chip requires just a finger prick of blood and provides results in less than 15 minutes. The technology was originally funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation. Today, it is being commercialized by a small biotechnology firm in Miami.
> Edyth Bush Charitable Foundation Invests in Florida's First Human Milk Bank
The Edyth Bush Charitable Foundation has committed $50,000 to assist Mothers' Milk Bank of Florida, Inc. to set up its statewide headquarters and processing laboratory for a human milk bank, the first of its kind in Florida. The mission of Mothers' Milk Bank is to promote health and healing by collecting, processing and distributing donor human milk by physician prescription to premature and ill, hospitalized infants whose mothers aren't able to meet their needs.
   
> Winter Park Health Foundation Helps Boost Nutritious Food at Pantries
Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida has received a $200,000, three-year grant from the Winter Park Health Foundation to increase the amount of nutritious food reaching food-insecure people using food pantries in the Winter Park, Maitland and Eatonville area. Called the Partner Agency Benefit Program, the grant-supported program is multi-faceted and will first provide refrigerators, freezers and other equipment to up to 44 food pantries in the area to enable them to distribute fresh produce, fresh protein and dairy products.
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Education Philanthropy News
> Foundation Support Helps Turn Grim Statistic to Education Success
Yajaida Vasquez was a young woman without a future. But she was motivated and determined to improve her life. Backed by a strong support system of mentors, family, professors and even strangers, plus scholarships she received from the Southwest Florida Community Foundation, Vasquez attended nursing school and realized a dream of becoming a nurse practitioner and serving the underserved.
   
> Bank of America Supports Workforce Development & Education in Northeast Florida
The Bank of America Charitable Foundation awarded $83,250 in workforce development and education grants to seven Northeast Florida nonprofits. The grants will support job-skills training, employment placement and education programs. The largest grant went to Jacksonville Chamber Foundation, which received $30,000 for its Entrepreneurial Growth Division.
   
> Tackling Summer Learning Loss in Manatee and Sarasota Counties
What can be done in Sarasota and Manatee counties to prevent summer learning loss? That's a question being addressed by the Suncoast Campaign for Grade-Level Reading and being tackled nationally by the Campaign's network of more than 168 communities. The school systems of Sarasota and Manatee counties and a myriad of concerned community organizations and citizens are all part of the effort, and there are many answers emerging.
   
> Community Foundation of Sarasota County Awards More Than $1,600,000 in Traditional and Adult Learner Scholarships
 
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FPN Member Spotlight: Boeing
   
  Through purposeful investments, employee engagement and thoughtful advocacy efforts, Boeing and its employees support innovative partnerships and programs that align with its strategic objectives, create value and help build better communities worldwide. In Florida, Boeing's contributions and efforts are focused on K-12 education, environment, health and human services, and arts and culture. The company focuses on the needs of its Titusville (Brevard County), Fort Walton Beach (Okaloosa County) and Jacksonville/Cecil Field (Duval County) sites.
    
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Focus On: Inequality & Human Rights
 
>   Ford Foundation Shifts Focus to Address Inequality
Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation, announced in June that the new focus of the foundation's work would be on addressing global inequality. "We are talking about inequality in all its forms - in influence, access, agency, resources, and respect," Walker wrote on the foundation's blog. "We would argue that inequality, in one form or another, is coded into just about every one of our social ills. Research demonstrates that extreme inequality weakens economic growth and undermines the social cohesion of societies."
  
>  Advancing Human Rights: The State of Global Foundation Grantmaking
Every year foundations around the world are funding efforts to ensure that the rights of all people are honored and protected. This report, prepared by the Foundation Center and the International Human Rights Funders Group, identifies foundations in 29 countries funding human rights work in every region of the world. Their support totaled $1.2 billion in 2010, reached more than 6,800 organizations, and funded activities such as ensuring the right to peaceful assembly and education.
     
>  Special Collection: Immigration Strategies
Every day, organizations worldwide are engaged in a collective two steps forward, one step back march toward improved immigration services and policies. What hard-earned lessons are these nonprofits, and the foundations that support them, learning from their persistent efforts? This Foundation Center collection of evaluations, case studies, and lessons learned exposes and explores the nuances of effective collaboration, the value of coordinated messaging, the bedrock of ongoing advocacy efforts, and the vital importance of long-term and flexible funding.
 
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Giving Trends
   
  Philanthropy Surges to New Record High, Topping Pre-Recession Levels, Says "Giving USA"
Charitable giving rose 7.1% last year in current dollars to a record $358.4 billion, according to estimates in the latest "Giving USA" report. The figures show that donations from individuals, corporations and foundations last year topped the previous record giving achieved in 2007. Giving increased 13.7% from corporations, 8.2% from foundations and 5.7% from individuals. Arts, culture and humanities groups saw the biggest annual increase in contributions, followed by environment and animal causes. You can purchase the report or download a free summary at givingusa.org
    
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Jobs
Recent job postings on FPN's Jobs Board:
 
> Development Assistant, Archbold Biological Station, Venus
   
> Development Database Coordinator, Palm Healthcare Foundation, West Palm Beach
   
> Director of Finance, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Miami 
   
> Digital Communications Professional, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Miami 
> Executive Assistant, Journalism, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Miami 
      
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People  
      
> George Abounader, Blake Gable and Jerry Tostrud have joined the board of directors of the Community Foundation of Collier County. Abounader is CEO/principal of the Marco Island Charter Middle School. Gable is president of real estate development and mineral management for the Barron Collier Companies. Tostrud is a retired executive vice president of the West Publishing Company of St. Paul. Former board members Alan Horton and John Sorey will become trustees emeriti.
   
> Anais Aurora Badia, MD has joined the board of directors of the Southwest Florida Community Foundation. A board certified dermatologist, Dr. Badia opened Florida Skin Center in July 2001.
   
> Sydney England and Marco Hoilett have been selected to receive Jessie Ball duPont Fund Fellowships, providing a two-year period of work and study in philanthropy and charitable work in the American South. England is a 2014 graduate of Emory & Henry College in Emory, Virginia, currently working as a social media analyst for Accenture Strategy. Hoilett graduated in May from Rollins College in Winter Park with a Bachelor of Science in Political Science.
   
> Elizabeth P. Fowler, director and treasurer for the Triad Foundation Inc., has joined the board of directors of Raymond James Bank, which is the largest bank headquartered in Tampa Bay.
   
> Rick Gomez and Felice Schulaner have joined the board of directors of the Community Foundation of Sarasota County. Gomez is senior vice president and managing director of Northern Trust's Wealth Management group in Sarasota. Schulaner is executive director of the Coach Foundation.
   
> Abigail "Abby" Goodwin is the new vice president of grants and community investments for Palm Healthcare Foundation, where she will lead the foundation's grantmaking work and build effective health-related programs in Palm Beach County. Most recently, Goodwin served as executive director for the Achievement Centers for Children and Families Foundation.
   
> Ingrid Piedrahita has been appointed Boeing's new global corporate citizenship representative for the state of Florida. She was previously special assistant to the Mayor of Orlando. Piedrahita has an extensive background in community development and nonprofit leadership, having served as a case manager for the Children's Home Society (of Florida) and through current service with the Girl Scouts and Multicultural Education Alliance (of Florida).
 
   
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Funding Opportunities  
   
>   Barbara Bush Foundation Adult Literacy XPRIZE
The $7 million Barbara Bush Foundation Adult Literacy XPRIZE, presented by Dollar General Literacy Foundation, is a competition challenging teams of developers (software, game and app), educators, engineers and innovators to create mobile literacy learning applications for the adult learner. The finalists teams' solutions must demonstrate that they can substantially improve the literacy proficiency of adults reading at or below a third grade level within a 12-month period. Team registration closes in Dec. 2015.
  
>  Knight Foundation Donor Advised Fund - Community Foundation of North Florida
The Knight Fund will invest $140,000 to support local projects that (a) attract, retain and harness talent, (b) expand opportunity by increasing entrepreneurship and economic mobility or (c) support civic infrastructure to accelerate the growth of ideas and bring people from diverse social and economic backgrounds together. Stage 1 submission deadline: July 8.
     
>  The Women's Legacy Fund of the Southwest Florida Community Foundation
This year, the Fund will be awarding $20,000 to an organization that increases access to goods and services for women and/or girls in a neighborhood in Southwest Florida. Letter of Ideas are being accepted June 29-July 31.
 
 
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