Grants

At a time when many news organizations are cutting back, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is continuing its efforts to bolster in-depth journalism in public media. The corporation said on Tuesday that it was giving “Frontline” a $6 million, two-year grant that would allow it to expand its investigative programming to a year-round schedule on PBS stations.

The money, plus an additional $1.6 million that is still being raised, will pay for seven to eight new programs each year, so the 28-year-old show will no longer have to take a summer hiatus. The expansion was announced in Austin, Tex., at PBS’s annual meeting.

May 3, 2010, Chronicle of Philanthropy — The Department of Education officially started the Promise Neighborhoods program, inviting applications for $10 million in grants to plan comprehensive antipoverty projects in urban neighborhoods, rural areas, or tribal communities.

The department said it would award up to 20 one-year grants of between $400,000 and $500,000 for projects modeled after Harlem Children's Zone, a charity program that offers educational and social services to help poor children from birth to college in a nearly 100-block area in New York.

The application deadline is June 25, and grants will be awarded by September.

April 30, 2010, Chronicle of Philanthropy — Twelve foundations announced today they plan to spend $506-million this year on grants designed to bolster a new $650-million federal grant program to expand innovative school-improvement projects.

"We see this as a real moment of opportunity for the country," said Michelle Cahill, a vice president at Carnegie Corporation of New York, which is coordinating the effort along with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The grant makers said in a statement they have also created an online registry to make it easier for groups to apply for, and share information about, the new federal program, known as the Investing in Innovation, or "i3," program.

April 22, 2010, News Journal (Delaware) — AstraZeneca has pledged $25 million to be parceled out in grants to U.S.-based nonprofits that exhibit innovative ways to improve heart health, the pharmaceutical giant said Tuesday.

The company donated the money in December to the AstraZeneca HealthCare Foundation, a nonprofit it created, to fund the multiyear Connections for Cardiovascular Health program.

Grants will be at least $150,000, and applications for this year's awards are due by July 31. Grant winners will be notified in November. The foundation expects to hand out at least $1 million this year to nonprofits with creative ways to address unmet needs in heart health, said Dr. James W. Blasetto, chairman of the AstraZeneca HealthCare Foundation.

The $25 million pledge is the largest corporate contribution in AstraZeneca's history, the company said.