Feeding the hungry, assisting those least able to pursue a college degree, and advancing energy efficiency in low-income communities exemplify The Kresge Foundation's desire to improve the long-term life circumstances of the poor and, in response to the nation's severe economic contraction, bring some immediate relief to those in greatest need.


At their September board meeting the Trustees of the foundation approved 208 awards totaling $43,698,088 for nonprofit organizations in 26 states, the District of Columbia and South Africa in the areas of human services, education, environment, arts and culture, health and community development.

"We are trying to lead by example," says Elaine D. Rosen, chair of the Kresge board of Trustees. "We are supporting exemplary nonprofit organizations in this time of financial hardship so they, in turn, may better serve and sustain those suffering in their communities."

Feeding the hungry

The 85-year-old foundation awarded Feeding America, the nation's largest domestic hunger-relief agency, a $2.5 million program-related investment to finance the purchase of 20 to 25 refrigerated trucks. The trucks will be used by organizations in their 63,000-member network of food banks and mobile pantries to acquire and distribute donated food.

"Program-related investments are below-market loans or equity investments made by private foundations for charitable purposes in nonprofit organizations that are advancing their strategic priorities," explains Rip Rapson, president of The Kresge Foundation. "Feeding America clearly is doing a remarkable job of scaling its services to meet the accelerating need for food in this country. They will redistribute this money at no interest to member organizations for the purchase of refrigerated delivery trucks."

With the expansion of its delivery fleet, Feeding America estimates the amount of donated food it will be able to retrieve from grocery stores and redistribute will nearly double. To facilitate this significant expansion of its operations, Kresge also awarded the Chicago-based organization a $2.5 million grant to help defray the costs associated with operating the new trucks, including driver salaries and benefits, fuel, vehicle maintenance, and insurance.

"Through our program-related investment and our operating support grant, we are helping to facilitate the delivery of greater amounts of safe, nutritious food to urban and underserved rural areas," Rapson adds.

Increasing access and success in higher education

Kresge has been shifting its grantmaking in the education arena from its traditional support of facilities to the advancement of accessible, graduation-oriented two and four-year higher-education programs for students who are low-income and/or the first in their families to pursue a college degree. Three grants illustrate ways organizations are either helping low-income students navigate their way into college or continue their studies even when sidetracked by an unexpected financial challenge.

The National Advising Corps at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill received a $1 million award to expand its program of placing recent college graduates in underserved high schools and community colleges to work as college-access counselors, complementing the school's guidance counselors by helping students plan for and complete the often-daunting college and financial aid application process.

Unite L.A, which received a $900,000 award, assists Los Angeles senior high-school students who often unknowingly qualify for federal and state financial aid with the application process. The grant funds will be used to train and manage an additional 500 volunteer financial aid counselors, hold an annual college and career convention for some 13,000 participants, and create and broadcast a bilingual public awareness campaign for these support services.

"We seek to support organizations with broad reach that already can demonstrate success at helping low-income students achieve post-secondary educational success," Rapson explains. "Currently only half of all U.S. college students graduate within six years of beginning their studies."

For low-income college students, a major impediment to completing a two or four-year degree is an unexpected and often temporary financial challenge -- a vehicle breakdown, or, for example, an unexpectedly high utility bill. Scholarship America's Dreamkeepers program provides small, emergency loans to low-income community college students. The loans become grants, and therefore do not require repayment, if the student continues on in school in good standing. With a $1.5 million award from Kresge, a national network will be created to share Dreamkeepers best practices for replication around the country.

Affordable and healthy energy efficient housing

With buildings and the activities within them accounting for more than 40 percent of the nation's greenhouse gas emissions, the Environment Program continues Kresge's longstanding efforts to advance energy efficiency in building design and operation. Enterprise Community Partners, a Maryland-based national nonprofit dedicated to creating affordable housing communities for low- and moderate-income individuals and families, received a $1 million award to expand its Green Communities program.

Enterprise has demonstrated it is possible to build and retrofit low-income housing to conserve energy and water and provide environmentally healthy living conditions for residents without compromising affordability. It offers grants, financing, tax-credit equity, and technical assistance to real estate developers for creating new or retrofitting existing low-income homes to meet the Green Communities Criteria, a recognized national standard for affordable, healthy environmentally sustainable housing.

"Enterprise believes that green buildings should, by definition, promote both environmental and human health," Rapson says. "Through the expansion of its Green Communities program, it will not only increase the quantity of affordable, healthy, energy efficient housing stock, but also show the residential real estate market that it is possible to bring cost-effective construction and renovation to scale."

Awards also were made in the arts and culture, health and community development fields.