Press Release
$1.2 million new grants awarded to 22 Arizona nonprofit organizations
November 19, 2009
(Phoenix) — The Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust announced $1,190,886 in grants to 22 Arizona nonprofit organizations (Grant list) Thursday, November 19. Grant recipients arrived at the Desert Mission Health Center, 9201 N. 5th Street at 3 p.m. for the hour-long reception with the Trust’s Trustees, staff and representatives from grantee organizations.
Programs serving children in crisis, uninsured children, blind and handicapped infants, teens reaching out for help, youth aging out of foster care, children in foster care, and educational support for low-income children, as well as statewide kindergarten through 12th grade environmental education received $689,886 or 58 percent of Trust funding this round.
With shrinking federal and state budgets, programs for children in crisis and kindergarten through 12th grade education losing funding, the Trust remains focused on Helping People in Need, particularly programs for women and children, said Ed Portnoy, Ph.D., Arizona grants programs director for the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust.
In addition, $313,000 in grants goes to organizations serving families in crisis. Translating to support for families in need of transitional housing, home retention services, predatory lending protection and affordable housing energy credits, to enhanced food bank distribution and facility enhancements, to serving women in domestic violence and substance abuse programs, Portnoy stated.
Grants focusing on environmental and wildlife protection and companion animal rescue and care rounded out the third and final round of grant distribution for the Trust with a total of $188,000 committed to three organizations.
The grants we are distributing today represent all areas or the Trust’s funding interests, said Harriet Ivey, Trust president and CEO. Helping People in Need has always been the largest funding segment for the Trust. In response to the difficult economic times over the past two years, this area of funding has grown to represent 85 percent of all Trust grantmaking, Ivey added.
These are challenging times. And, our grantees are doing an exceptional job of bringing relief to those in the greatest need, furthering Nina Pulliam’s legacy in her hometown through their daily work and ongoing commitments to their life-changing missions, stated Trust Chairman Frank Russell.
Russell added that Nina Mason Pulliam Legacy Scholars, the Trust’s signature scholarship program at ASU and Maricopa Community Colleges, continues to bring the dream of a college education to student populations traditional scholarship programs overlook. The Trus’s ninth cohort of Scholars began classes in August. There are 84 new and returning Nina Scholars enrolled for the fall semester at both colleges.
The Trust furthers the causes Nina Pulliam supported during her life, continuing her legacy of helping people in need, protecting animals and nature, and enriching community life in metropolitan Phoenix. Since the Trust began its grantmaking in 1998, it has awarded more than $84 million to 379 Arizona nonprofit organizations, said Trustee Chairman Frank E. Russell.
The Trust also makes grants in Indiana and at the end of September 30, 2009, had assets of approximately $320 million. Visit www.ninapulliamtrust.org for more information about the Trust and its programs.