Posts by: Meredith Fennema

• Posted on March 01, 2016 – Posted by: Meredith Fennema

  Grand Rapids Community Foundation Awards $213,000 Grant to Engage Citizens in Reaching 40 Percent Tree Canopy Goal

  February 24, 2016, Grand Rapids, Mich.  – In her State of the City address, Mayor Bliss called attention to a citywide goal of achieving 40 percent tree canopy as core to our city’s environmental sustainability [...]

• Posted on January 21, 2016 – Posted by: Meredith Fennema

  Grand Rapids Community Foundation Awards $500,000 to Habitat Kent for Equitable Development on West Side

  January 20, 2016—Grand Rapids Community Foundation today announced a $500,000 grant to Habitat for Humanity of Kent County. The grant will support Habitat Kent’s Building Blocks strategy that focuses on neighborhood revitalization in Grand Rapids’ [...]

• Posted on September 24, 2015 – Posted by: Meredith Fennema

  The Road to Success: Supporting First Generation College Students through High School and Beyond

  As part of the Challenge Scholars initiative, Tracy Benjamin serves as College and Career Coordinator at Union High School. We recently caught up with Tracy to learn more about how she helps high schoolers who [...]

• Posted on September 16, 2015 – Posted by: Meredith Fennema

  Scholarships for Success

  Since 1945, thanks to hundreds of donors and community members who believe in making college a reality for Kent County students, we've awarded more than $12.9 million in scholarships. In 2015, 56% of scholarship recipients [...]

• Posted on July 27, 2015 – Posted by: Meredith Fennema

  How Will You Be a Changemaker?

  The Grand Rapids community is doing amazing things when it comes to reentry, and we need your help spreading the word and getting involved to make sure this good work continues. When someone is away in [...]

• Posted on July 20, 2015 – Posted by: Meredith Fennema

  Five Facts, Five Friends - Spread the Word about Reentry

  Too often, people who have a criminal record are dismissed and shunned by the community from where they once lived. Returning citizens might be the most marginalized group in our society. But we know our [...]

• Posted on July 08, 2015 – Posted by: Meredith Fennema

  $52,000 Grant To Support Mentoring and Employment Program for Incarcerated Women

  Grand Rapids Community Foundation today announced a $52,000 grant to the Women’s Resource Center (WRC).  The grant will support WRC’s New Beginnings program; a service that provides incarcerated women at Kent County Jail with gender-responsive [...]

• Posted on November 17, 2014 – Posted by: Meredith Fennema

  The future of the IRA Charitable Rollover

  People 70 ½ and older are probably aware of the IRA Charitable Rollover that has been in play since 2006. In short, the rollover allows individuals aged 70½ and older to donate up to $100,000 from [...]

• Posted on November 14, 2014 – Posted by: Meredith Fennema

  Our ideas for giving in response to Ebola

  The Ebola epidemic in West Africa is the largest and longest Ebola outbreak in history. It has killed more people than all other Ebola outbreaks combined. The majority of cases are in three countries: Guinea, Liberia [...]

• Posted on July 17, 2014 – Posted by: Meredith Fennema

  ArtPrize Expands Outreach to Diverse Audiences with Grand Rapids Community Foundation Grant

  Here at Grand Rapids Community Foundation, we talk a lot about diversity and inclusion. As a staff, we participate in several trainings every year around cultural competency. And we recently rolled out our grantee inclusion [...]

• Posted on June 03, 2014 – Posted by: Meredith Fennema

  Meet Our Grantmakers: Marcia Rapp

  Everyone, meet Marcia Rapp. She's been with Grand Rapids Community Foundation since 1988, and while she would never admit it, she knows the Grand Rapids community incredibly well to say the least. As Vice President, Marcia administers [...]