California

The Silicon Valley Community Foundation has appointed Samuel Johnson, Jr. as its new board chair and added Rebecca Guerra and Daniel Perez to the board.

Connecticut

The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven has announced a partnership with Yale Law School, the United Church of Christ, the New Haven Free Public Library, and other organizations to bring a replica of a solitary confinement cell to the Ives Main Branch. The project, Inside the Box, will include community discussions around the problem of solitary confinement in the U.S. prison system. 

Delaware

The Delaware Community Foundation in Wilmington has appointed Joan Hoge-North as its vice president for philanthropy.

Illinois

The Community Foundation of the Fox River Valley in Aurora has announced a $25,000 grant to the Waterford Place Cancer Resource Center to underwrite a wireless interpretation system that provides simultaneous interpretation for community education presenters. The system enables any interpreter to hear a presenter and speak quietly into a microphone, with the translations being transmitted to headphones worn by Spanish-speaking attendees.

Kentucky

The Community Foundation of Louisville, in partnership with the Lift a Life Foundation, the James Graham Brown Foundation, and William O. Alden Jr., has awarded more than $350,000 in capacity-building grants to twenty-two local nonprofits. The grants were awarded through CFL's Fund for Louisville, which works to leverage the foundation’s connections and community knowledge to make grants that respond to emerging needs in the community or address unsupported efforts like capacity building. Recipients of the grants include the Beacon House Aftercare Program, Educational Justice, Paws With Purpose, the World Affairs Council of Kentucky, and So. Indiana.

Louisiana

The Greater New Orleans Foundation has announced that the nonprofit winners of the 2016 Freeman Challenge — the Coliseum Square Association, the Lens, Lighthouse Louisiana, and the YMCA of Greater New Orleans — have achieved their fundraising goals. Thanks to the generosity of the Freeman Family, which established the challenge to help nonprofits in the region start or grow their endowments or build a “rainy day” fund, every dollar raised by the organization in 2016 will be matched on 1:2 basis up to $150,000.

Michigan

The Kalamazoo Community Foundation has announced twenty-three grants totaling $1.2 million. Recipients include Community Healing Centers, Friendship House, Girls on the Run, and SLD Read.

Ohio

The Greater Cincinnati Foundation has announced that Lauren Jones will serve as its first community engagement specialist, a new position, while continuing to lead the "Conversation" series for the foundation's Women's Fund. The foundation also announced that Robert Killins, Jr. has been promoted to the position of director of giving services. Killins previously worked in the foundation’s arts and culture and environmental stewardship program areas.

Pennsylvania

The Pittsburgh Foundation has announced that, for the second consecutive year, it is awarding grants to nonprofit organizations and projects from a special fund created to foster artistic development and achievement at the August Wilson Center. Recipients of the grants, which range from $15,000 to $100,000, include Guardians of Sound, PearlArts Studios, Arts Pulse, VIA, the Artists Image Resource, and Hill Dance Academy Theatre.

Utah

The Community Foundation of Utah has announced that its Utah Women's Giving Circle, a donor group formed in 2011 to benefit women and girls in the state, awarded its sixth round of grants following the post-inauguration Women's March at the state capitol. Recipients of the grants include Girls on the Run – Utah, the Utah Women's Coalition, Spy Hop, and the Salty Cricket Composers Collective.

Vermont

The Middlebury-based Vermont Community Foundation, in partnership with some of its fund holders, has announced grants totaling more than $62,600 to thirty organizations during the second half of 2016. One of a number of competitive grant programs offered by the foundation, the Small and Inspiring program funds efforts designed to connect people to their neighbors, their history, and the land. Nearly half of the amount awarded was made possible by Giving Together, a program at the foundation that shares grant proposals with fund holders and donors, giving them the opportunity to co-fund projects. Recipients include Missionary Alliance Church, the John Graham Shelter, the North Country Animal League, and Historic New England.