May 2011           A monthly e-newsletter for people interested in Florida philanthropy      Headlines      New Initiative Aims to Revitalize Jacksonville Neighborhoods The Jessie Ball duPont Fund and The Community Foundation in Jacksonville have come together to invest $900,000 in LISC Jacksonville to support a new broad-based effort to revitalize communities in Duval County.  The foundations are challenging the community to raise an additional $2 million to fully fund LISC's EPIC (Empower People and Inspire Change) Communities initiative, which will take a holistic approach in addressing everything from education and healthy recreation to financial literacy and business development, starting in two pilot communities.           Southeast Florida Nonprofits Win Awards for Going Green The Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties announced five local nonprofits as winners of its Fourth Annual Nonprofits Going Green Contest.  The top award, the Barbara Groves Eco-Impact Award for $7,500, went to Faith Farm Ministries (Boynton Beach) for showing the greatest commitment to greening efforts.     > Gainesville Community Foundation Gives Inaugural Legacy Awards With $10 million in assets raised to support the arts, education and other community needs, the Gainesville Community Foundation celebrated its success in its first decade by giving the first Gainesville Legacy Awards to honor a donor, a professional advisor and a nonprofit.      > Walt Disney World Rewards Nonprofits for Improving Children's Lives In honor of its 40th anniversary, Walt Disney World Resort kicked off a 40-day celebration across Central Florida to surprise, recognize and reward organizations that improve the lives of local children, and will award more than $1.2 million in Disney Helping Kids Shine Grants.     > Chartrand Foundation Helps Create "Brighter Beginnings" for Families The Chartrand Foundation provided new support to help St. Vincent's Seton Center for Women and Infants in Jacksonville expand its community outreach and education efforts to highlight healthy pregnancy strategies, life choices, and infant care with women and their partners.      > JPMorgan Chase Funds Orlando Charities in Pine Hills Area     > Nonprofits Get Help  From Gulf Coast Community Foundation of Venice to Improve Their Operations     > Mobilize.org to Expand to Miami, Other Cities With New Knight Foundation Grant     Voices From Florida Philanthropy Leaders   > Community Foundation's Plans for New Knowledge Center, 2-1-1 Information and Referral Service By Colleen Murphy, President and CEO, Community Foundation of Collier County (Naples Daily News, April 30, 2011)     > How Philanthropy Can Help Create Informed and Engaged Communities By Eric Newton, Senior Adviser to the President, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation & Feather Houstoun, President, William Penn Foundation (HuffPost Impact, April 12, 2011)     > Helios Education Foundation's 2010 Annual Report, A Celebration of Milestones Leaders of the Helios Education Foundation reflect on its 2010 work in the community in a new online annual report.      Focus On: Social Networking       Social Networking Tools Will Continue to Drive Change, Report Suggests By 2015, technology and social networks will change the way people organize, a new report from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and Monitor Institute finds. The report, Connected Citizens: The Power, Peril and Potential of Networks, draws on more than 70 examples to illustrate how networks are being used to drive transparency in government, better care for the elderly, and more effective emergency assistance in the wake of disasters.  Written to help funders consider how to use networks to foster change, the report includes five examples of how people are using networks for social action.     > The Patterson Foundation, Arthritis Foundation Leverage Facebook to Build Capacity  The Patterson Foundation and the Arthritis Foundation Florida Chapter recently leveraged Facebook to raise almost $50,000 for the Arthritis Foundation and ultimately helped to inspire additional philanthropy through the creation of a new online community.      Health Funding News        New Report Offers High-Impact Strategies for Health Grantmaking A new report by the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy offers two high-impact strategies for grantmakers to more effectively achieve their missions and help address disparate health outcomes resulting from unequal opportunities.  The report, Towards Transformative Change in Health Care, recommends focusing on the unique needs and circumstances of all communities, especially those that remain underserved, and funding advocacy, community organizing and civic engagement.  The Quantum Foundation in West Palm Beach is among the funders listed in the report as meeting NCRP’s benchmarks for supporting marginalized communities and social justice.    > UF Professor Receives Gates Foundation Grant to Pursue Global Health Research  James B. Flanegan, a University of Florida biomedical researcher, was named a Grand Challenges Explorations winner by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.  He will receive a $100,000 grant to develop a safer polio vaccine that can be used in parts of the world where polio is a threat, as well as in countries such as the United States where polio has been eradicated.      FPN News     > FPN Resource Page: Southeast Region Tornadoes Response, Relief & Recovery  FPN has a new page on its website to provide resources and information on how funders and individual donors can support relief and recovery efforts for the tornadoes and severe storms that devastated the Southeast region in April, and how Florida grantmakers are responding to the disaster. FPN members that have responded to the disaster include AT&T, Bank of America, Darden, Publix Super Markets and Wells Fargo.      New Resource       Jessie Ball duPont Fund Releases Latest Round of Research on Florida Medicaid Reform In 2006, Florida launched an experimental five-year Medicaid program in Duval and Broward counties that replaced traditional Medicaid with a managed-care model, with the goal of improving efficiency and reducing costs.  New research by Georgetown University, commissioned by the Jessie Ball duPont Fund, concludes that the five-year Medicaid pilot has yielded little in the way of concrete evidence of either efficiencies or cost reductions.  In fact, the pilot has raised significant questions about the ability of its managed-care model to effectively meet the needs of beneficiaries, particularly in a turbulent market.      People        David R. Ekey        Maria Sastre   > Kiara Boone and Virginia Hodges awarded Jessie Ball duPont Fund Fellowships, which provide a two-year period of work and study in philanthropy and charitable work in the American South.        > David R. Ekey named chief financial officer at The Miami Foundation.  Previously he was controller for The Pittsburgh Foundation, and has more than 20 years of accounting expertise.     > Deborah Gauvreau named manager of nonprofit resources for the Charlotte Community Foundation.  > Sherry Magill, Jessie Ball duPont Fund president and member of FPN's board of directors, re-elected to the Council on Foundations board of directors.     > Brian Presley, senior partner of Presley Beane in Punta Gorda, elected for a second term as chairman of the board of directors of the Charlotte Community Foundation. In addition, Robin Bayne and Hasan Hammami were re-elected to the board.     > Maria Sastre elected to the Helios Education Foundation's board of directors. Based in Orlando, Sastre is chief operating officer for global operations at Signature Flight Support Corporation, and previously served as president and CEO of Take Stock in Children.     > In Memoriam: Mary Gretchen Belloff, vice chair of the Edyth Bush Charitable Foundation and grand-niece of Edyth Bush, passed away in April.  She was the last Bush family member serving on the foundation's board of directors, and will be particularly remembered at the foundation for her advocacy for social services, health care and animal welfare.      Jobs Recent job postings on FPN's Jobs Board:      > Administrative Assistant, Funders' Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities.     > Director, Community Programs, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.     > Executive Art Assistant, The Kislak Foundation.      Call for Nominations       > American Express NGen Leadership Award The award honors a nonprofit professional age 40 or under who has demonstrated a transformative impact in addressing society's critical needs.  The recipient will receive a $3,000 leadership scholarship in addition to complementary registration to the Independent Sector Annual Conference, including NGen programming.  Deadline: May 14.      Funding Opportunities       > Bank of America's Neighborhood Builders and Local Heroes Awards In Florida, the Neighborhood Builders awards will provide two outstanding nonprofits in each of Bank of America's seven Florida markets (Broward County, Jacksonville, Miami, Orlando, Palm Beach County, Pinellas County and Tampa) with $200,000 in general operating support and rigorous leadership training over two years.  The Local Heroes Awards will recognize five community heroes in each of the seven Florida markets, who can direct a $5,000 contribution to an eligible nonprofit of their choice.  Deadline: June 1.      Honors       > Gulf Coast Community Foundation of Venice was named the sixth-best nonprofit organization to work for in the country by The NonProfit Times.     > ProPublica.org, a grantee of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, has been awarded a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting - its second Pulitzer Prize in as many years.          Follow FPN on Twitter @flphilanthropy      Florida Philanthropic Network is a statewide association of grantmakers working to strengthen philanthropy through research, education and public policy.     Join Florida Philanthropic Network.   Not a Grantmaker?  Become a Friend of the Network.