California

The Placer Community Foundation in Auburn has received the High 5 Luminary Award in recognition of its advocacy work in securing affordable housing in Placer County and its Placer Housing Matters initiative, which educates the public about the need for affordable housing in the county. Presented by First 5 Placer, a local nonprofit working to help children, the award recognizes individuals and organizations who make a difference in the lives of children, families, and the community.

Indiana

The Central Indiana Community Foundation has announced that its Legacy Fund affiliate has changed its name to the Hamilton County Community Foundation. Established in 1991, the foundation also unveiled a new strategic vision that includes a focus on mental health, family and youth empowerment, and inclusive economic growth.

Michigan

The Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan has announced that the New Economy Initiative, a project of the foundation, has awarded grants totaling $260,000 to small businesses in the greater Detroit area. As part of the NEIdeas Small Business Challenge, which is designed to share knowledge from small businesses, NEI awarded twenty-six grants of $10,000 each to small businesses that have been around at least three years. This year, 77 percent of the recipients were minority-owned, while 65 percent were women-owned. NEIdeas has awarded grants totaling $2.16 million to a hundred and forty-four businesses since it was launched in 2014.

New Jersey

The Princeton Area Community Foundation in Lawrenceville has announced that its Fund for Women and Girls has awarded grants totaling $187,000 to fourteen organizations, the largest grant allocation in the fund's twenty-year history. Recipients include the Latin American Legal Defense and Education Fund, Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) of Mercer and Burlington Counties, the Henry J. Austin Health Center, and Mercer Street Friends.

Ohio

The Greater Cincinnati Foundation has announced grants totaling $159,199 in support of nine organizations working to strengthen the community. Recipients include the Children's Law Center, the Cincinnati Union Cooperative Initiative, the Ohio Justice and Policy Center, and Working in Neighborhoods.

Oklahoma

The Oklahoma City Community Foundation has announced that it hosted a group of foundations from the Midwest to share information about creating resilient communities that are equipped to more effectively respond to natural disasters. Facilitated by the Funders Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities and the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, the Philanthropic Preparedness, Resiliency, and Emergency Partnership (PPREP) program was aimed at providing community foundations and other grantmakers from a ten-state region with the knowledge, skills, tools, and capacity they need to improve how their communities prepare for and respond to natural disasters. During the three-day meeting, the group also explored the impact of public policy on the health and resiliency of communities and considered the role that community foundations can play in disaster readiness and recovery.

Pennsylvania

The Pittsburgh Foundation has announced the selection of ten artists from across the country as finalists for the $50,000 Bennett Prize, the largest art award offered to women painters working in the figurative realist style. The winner of the prize, which was endowed by art collectors Steven Alan Bennett and Elaine Melotti Schmidt, will receive $25,000 annually for two years to allow her to devote the time needed to mount a solo exhibition of figurative realist paintings at the Muskegon Museum of Art in 2021, followed by a national tour. A four-member jury, which includes realist painters Maria Tomasula and Andrea Kowch, selected the finalists, who will each receive $1,000 to participate in the exhibition.

Rhode Island

The Rhode Island Foundation has announced Joe Garlick, executive director of NeighborWorks Blackstone River Valley in Woonsocket, as the winner of the 2018 Murray Family Prize for Community Enrichment. Garlick will receive a $50,000 prize in recognition of his decades-long commitment to revitalizing urban neighborhoods and providing opportunities to improve lives.

Washington, D.C.

The Greater Washington Community Foundation has announced that its Resilience Fund has awarded grants totaling $200,000 to seven nonprofits working in communities experiencing hardship as a result of shifting federal policies and growing "anti-other" sentiment. The grants will support the organizations' efforts to provide legal or medical services, conduct advocacy, and help protect the civil rights of immigrants, refugees, Muslims, and other vulnerable communities in the region. Recipients include DC Law Students in Court; Identity, Inc.; Jews United for Justice; and the Justice for Muslims Collective.