Press Release
$1.4 million new grants awarded to 26 Indiana nonprofit organizations
July 28, 2009
2009 grants awarded in Indiana total $4.43 million through June 30, including emergency funding initiatives and Summer Youth Program Fund grants
(Indianapolis) — The Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust announced $1,427,000 in grants to 26 Indiana nonprofit organizations Tuesday, July 28. The presentation was held at The Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art, 500 West Washington Street. Recipients arrived at 3 p.m. for the hour-long reception with the Trust’s Trustees, staff and representatives from other grantee organizations.
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 Indianapolis. Since the Trust began its grantmaking in 1998, it has awarded more than $81 million to 408 Indiana nonprofit organizations, said Trustee Chairman Frank E. Russell.
The new grants we are distributing today represent all areas of the Trust’s funding interests, but they especially build upon the $700,000 emergency relief grants to 14 Indianapolis community centers the Trust announced in March to assist families and individuals whose livelihoods have been most affected by the economic recession. Harriet Ivey, Trust president and CEO reported. Ivey further stated, Indiana has been highly reliant on manufacturing jobs, and we all know that the national recession has hit the state very hard. Indiana’s unemployment rate of 10.7 percent for June is more than double what it was a year ago (10.7 percent versus 5.2 percent) and is 12.5 percent higher than the national average. Another indicator of community distress is that as of January, 2,932 Marion County school-aged children (K-12) were documented as receiving services through the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act and 50 percent of them were attending an IPS school. Their families were either living doubled-up with friends or relatives or living in a shelter or some type of housing other than their own apartment or home. (Indianapolis Homeless Count 2009, Indiana University Center for Health Policy, www.policyinstitute.iu.edu/health.)
Overall, the Trust has intensified its efforts to be responsive to many basic needs organizations during this difficult time, stated Michael R. Twyman, Ph.D., director of the Trust’s Indiana grants programs. While the majority of the Trust’s funding has shifted to agencies that provide shelter, food, clothing, employment and training, child care, and transportation, the Trust remains committed to support initiatives such as the Indianapolis Summer Youth Program fund, which is reaching more than 40,000 Marion County youth through 176 different programs, Twyman 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 IUPUI and Ivy Tech Community College, continues to bring the dream of a college education to student populations traditional scholarship programs overlook. The Trust recently welcomed its ninth cohort of 19 new Scholars, who will begin classes in August. They will join 69 ongoing Nina Scholars at both schools. Through May 2009, 56 Indiana Nina Scholars have graduated since the Trust launched the program in 2001. Through December 2008, the Trust has provided almost $4 million in grants to Ivy Tech and IUPUI for the Nina Scholars program.
The Trust also makes grants in Arizona and at the end of June 30, 2009, had assets of approximately $300 million. Visit www.ninapulliamtrust.org for more information about the Trust and its programs.