Here are notable new grant awards compiled by the Chronicle:
Richard King Mellon Foundation
$150 million to Carnegie Mellon University. Half the grant will help build its new science building on the university’s campus in Pittsburgh’s Oakland neighborhood. The remaining $75 million will pay for a new robotics innovation center and an institute on advanced materials and manufacturing at Hazelwood Green, a former steel mill that will become the technology hub of the university’s economic-development efforts in Pittsburgh.
Cisco
$50 million commitment to the Student Freedom Initiative to endow a scholarship fund for students at historically Black colleges and universities, with a focus on students in science, technology, engineering, and math.
The tech company is also providing $100 million in hardware, software, and services through Computex Technology Solutions to upgrade technology at historically Black colleges and universities.
Los Angeles Arts Recovery Fund
$36 million to 90 nonprofit cultural organizations as they recover financially from the Covid-19 crisis.
Each of the recipients, which work in the visual arts, theater, music, dance, literary arts, and arts education throughout Los Angeles County, has received between $5,000 and $2 million in operating support grants over two to three years.
Annenberg Foundation
$25 million challenge grant to the National Wildlife Federation for its #SaveLACougars campaign, which is raising money to build a wildlife crossing at Liberty Canyon over the 101 Freeway in Los Angeles.
McKnight Foundation, Ford Foundation, Bush Foundation, and Jerome Foundation
$12.6 million through America’s Cultural Treasures, which will support arts organizations with Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and Asian American leaders. In the first round of funding, 10 groups in Minnesota have received unrestricted grants worth at least $500,000 each.
BMO Financial Group
$10 million to the Rush University System for Health to create the Rush BMO Institute for Health Equity, which will aim to eliminate racial health inequities through improved patient care, research, and education, as well as community partnerships in the Chicago area.
Silicon Valley Community Foundation and Castellano Family Foundation
$10 million to create the LatinXCEL Fund, which will make grants to support Latinx leaders and organizations in California’s San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties. Other donors to the fund include the Applied Materials Foundation, the Chavez Family Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and Sunlight Giving.
Windgate Foundation
$8 million to the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith. Half the grant will be used to create a scholarship for students who qualify for Pell grants but receive no other form of financial aid. Another $2.8 million will back an endowment for the maintenance of the Windgate Art and Design Building. The remainder will cover academic program development, an artist-in-residence program, and paid internships for emerging student artists and designers.
Comcast NBCUniversal Foundation and NBCUniversal Local
$3.5 million to 100 nonprofit groups through its Project Innovation grant-making program to foster equity and inclusion, youth empowerment, and community development through storytelling.
Daniels Fund
$3 million to the Smithsonian Institution to support the new Jay I. Kislak World War II in the Air gallery at the National Air and Space Museum.
Kislak was a naval aviator in World War II who later founded the Kislak Organization, a real-estate investment company in Miami. He died in 2018.
Foot Locker Foundation
$3 million to the Local Initiatives Support Corporation for a new program to empower youths in 12 cities and make grants to nonprofit group with leaders who are predominantly Black, Indigenous, and people of color.
The program will primarily operate in Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Oakland, Philadelphia, and San Francisco.
Eastern Bank Foundation
$2 million in Covid-19 recovery support to ensure equitable access to vaccines and culturally inclusive outreach to communities of color.
American Express
$1 million to the National Trust for Historic Preservation to make grants to 25 historic and culturally significant restaurants in the United States that are owned by restaurateurs of color. Each restaurant has received a cash grant of $40,000 as well as technical assistance to help them recover from the financial impacts of the pandemic.
New Grant Opportunity
The RRF Foundation for Aging is accepting proposals for projects working to improve quality of life for older Americans through direct-service, advocacy, education, and training programs for professionals working with elders. Its program areas are caregiving, economic security in later life, housing, and social and intergenerational connectedness. Proposals for direct-service projects are considered from organizations based in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, Wisconsin, and Florida. Projects of national relevance are considered from organizations across the United States. Letters of intent are due June 15, and the deadline for full proposals is August 15.
Send grant announcements to grants.editor@philanthropy.com.
Chronicle of Philanthropy subscribers also have full access to GrantStation’s searchable database of grant opportunities. For more information, visit our grants page.