The St. Paul-based Bush Foundation has announced grants totaling more than $8.8 million to fifty-six nonprofit organizations in Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota.

The grants, approved at the foundation's November 9 board meeting, focused on programs in secondary and college education, youth, and the homeless. In the area of education, the foundation awarded $990,000 to the University of Minnesota for faculty development to improve teaching and student learning at its four campuses; a grant of $300,000 to Hamline University in Saint Paul for faculty development for international learning; $500,000 to Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, and $90,000 to Turtle Mountain Community College, a tribal college in Belcourt, North Dakota. The foundation also awarded over $800,000 to the Minneapolis Public Schools as part of a foundation pilot program to test methods to improve high school graduation rates in selected districts in Minnesota and South Dakota.

For a complete list of the foundation's 2004 grants, see: http://bushfoundation.org/programs/2004Grants_to_Org.htm.