California

The Escondido Charitable Foundation, an affiliate of the San Diego Foundation, has announced that it has broken ground on a "Giving Arch" over Grand Avenue at Centre City Parkway. Recognizing the generosity and community spirit of residents and funded by a donor who prefers to remain anonymous,  the project is expected to be completed by spring 2020.

The San Francisco Foundation has announced that its Rapid Response Fund provided a grant to filmmaker Rucha Chitnis to broaden distribution of her film about Ann Marie Sayers, who has been telling the story of the Native American experience for decades. Sayers, who is Ohlone, was born and raised in Indian Canyon, near Hollister, and in 1980, as the tribal leader in Indian Canyon, used the Indian Allotment Act of 1887 to reclaim adjacent public domain land, an effort that took eight years. Today, Indian Canyon consists of about a thousand acres and is the only federally recognized Indian territory from Sonoma to the coast of Santa Barbara, a distance of more than three hundred miles. Sayers' story is the subject of Chitnis' short documentary, In the Land of My Ancestors.

Iowa

The Pottawattamie County Community Foundation in Council Bluffs has received its largest gift ever, a $5 million bequest earmarked for scholarships for students in the Underwood and Treynor Community school districts, the Daily Nonpareil reports. The gift from farmer Rick Wenninghoff wiil establish a fund at the foundation through which scholarships will be awarded, in partnership with the Southwest Iowa Educational Foundation, starting with the class of 2021.

Massachusetts

The Cambridge Community Foundation has announced that former board chair Betty Bardige passed away in November. Bardige spent six of her eighteen years on the board as chair, led several other committees during her tenure, and also chaired the A.L. Mailman Family Foundation.

New Mexico

The Santa Fe Community Foundation has announced that its Las Campanas Community Funds program awarded grants totaling $100,000 to local organizations, a one-year record for the program. Grant recipients include R&R for Vets, Breakthrough Santa Fe, Reading Quest, and Food Depot. Established in 2002, the fund has awarded more than $665,000 in grants.

North Carolina

The Triangle Community Foundation in Research Triangle Park has announced grants totaling $400,000 to fifteen organizations working to address poverty. Awarded through the foundation's Giving Together program, the grants were funded at either $20,000 or $40,000 over two years. Grant recipients include Chatham Outreach Alliance, El Futuro, the LGBTQ Center of Durham, and Wheels4Hope.

Ohio

The Akron Community Foundation has announced grants totaling more than $2.1 million in support of local organizations, including $549,838 in health and human services grants awarded by the foundation's Community Investment Committee. The quarterly awards include grants to Birthing Beautiful Communities, A Kid Again Northern Ohio, the Autism Society of Greater Akron, and Freedom House for Women.

The Columbus Foundation has announced the appointment of Clark Kellogg to its governing committee and the election of Dwight E. Smith to a one-year term as board chair.

Pennsylvania

The Pittsburgh Foundation has announced grants totaling $100,000 from its Mac Miller Fund in support of music programs for teens and young adults at the Homewood-Brushton YMCA. Established in 2018 by Miller's family after the rapper's death at the age of 26, the fund will provide operating funds for the YMCA Lighthouse Project and for apprenticeships at Tuff Sound, a Y program that teaches young adults the rudiments of sound engineering.

Tennessee

The Nashville-based Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee has announced grants totaling nearly $2.4 million in support of more than three hundred and fifty local nonprofits. In 2019, the three categories receiving the largest share of grants were arts and humanities (18 percent), human services/children (15 percent), and education (14 percent).

Texas

The Permian Basin Area Foundation in Midland has announced grants totaling nearly $1.5 million in support of organizations serving West Texas. Grant recipients include the Marfa Education Foundation, Odessa Arts, Presbyterian Children's Homes and Services, and Teen Challenge Adult Centers of Texas.

Vermont

The Vermont Community Foundation has announced that its Northeast Kingdom (NEK) Fund awarded grants totaling $110,243 to twenty-nine organizations in Orleans, Essex, and Caledonia counties. Grant recipients include Scrag Mountain Music, the Vermont Journalism Trust (VTDigger.org), the Northern Forest Center, and Green Mountain Farm to School. This year, the fund invited a small group of NEK partners to apply for multiyear  programmatic and operational support, with the committee awarding three such grants.