Arizona

The Arizona Community Foundation has announced that it awarded more than $16 million in grants and scholarships during the second quarter of its fiscal year. Between September 30 and December 31, 2015, the foundation made grants in support of quality education, health innovation, community improvement and development, the environment and sustainability, and arts and culture. The grants included $5.2 million in education funding and $1.3 million in scholarships, and nearly $5.3 million to five hundred and thirty organizations in the area of health, including $1 million to the TGen Foundation for ALS research. In addition, the foundation awarded $1.9 million support of the environment and sustainability, nearly $1 million in support of community development efforts, and $406,204 to arts and cultural groups.

California

The Silicon Valley Community Foundation has named Carol Bartz and Katie Mitchell to its board of directors. The foundation also has appointed Erik Dryburgh as its outside counsel.

Georgia

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation has announced grants totaling $3 million to the Community Foundation of Central Georgia in support of the community foundation’s Downtown Challenge, a three-year program aimed at generating ideas to transform downtown Macon. Funded by grants of $1.5 million each from the Knight and Peyton Anderson foundations, the challenge will fund the best ideas — small and large — from individuals and organizations, as determined by CFCG.

Indiana

Brad Ward has resigned from the Dubois County Community Foundation in Jasper to become director of community philanthropy at the Council on Foundations, the Dubois County Herald reports. Although the council is based in Washington, D.C., Ward will remain in Jasper.

New Jersey

The Summit Area Public Foundation has announced more than $300,000 during its winter 2015 grant cycle. For the calendar year, SAPF awarded grants totaling $585,614. Grant recipients include the Summit Volunteer First Aid Squad, Connection for Women and Families, Bridges Outreach, and the Community Foodbank of New Jersey.

New York

The Westchester Community Foundation in Hartsdale has appointed Tara Seeley as a program officer. From 2004 to 2013, Seeley served on the grants team at the Central Indiana Community Foundation in Indianapolis.

Oklahoma

The Oklahoma City Community Foundation has announced that its Kirschner Trusts Endowment has awarded grants totaling $332,905 to sixty-seven nonprofits in Muskogee, Tulsa, and Oklahoma City. Recipients include the Free Civilized Tribes Museum, the Oklahoma Foundation for the Disabled, Tulsa Day Center for the Homeless, and the Muskogee Public Library.

Pennsylvania

The Pittsburgh Foundation has announced the commissioning of nine local poets to create new works for Psalms for Mother Emanuel: An Elegy from Pittsburgh to Charleston, a chapbook focused on racial issues and last year's shootings at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. The poets participating in the project include Tameka Cage-Conley, Yona Harvey, Cameron Barnett, Vanessa German, Terrance Hayes, Sheila Carter-Jones, Kelli Stevens Kane, Joy KMT, and Alexis Payne. The directors of the project will host a memorial event on June 17, the one-year anniversary of the shootings. The public is invited to follow the project, read the poets’ biographies, and submit their own poems reflecting on race at psalmsformotheremanuel.tumblr.com.