The George Gund Foundation in Cleveland has announced sixty-four grants totaling $8.7 million to Ohio nonprofits.

Grants awarded by the foundation include $2 million to the Trust for Public Land in support of the Connecting Cleveland initiative, a coordinated effort to increase the number of urban trails and greenway spaces in the Flats neighborhood and reconnect downtown and adjoining neighborhoods with the Cuyahoga River and Lake Erie. The $30 million initiative, a public-private partnership involving more than a dozen organizations, includes projects such as the Lake Link Trail & Greenway, an extension of the Towpath Trail; the Wendy Park Bridge Connector; and several trailhead parks and Cuyahoga River water taxi stations.

The foundation also awarded $800,000 to the Gordon Square Arts District for construction of a new facility for the Near West Theatre, which is scheduled to open in the fall of 2014, and to make the Cleveland Public Theatre more accessible to people with handicaps, provide additional rehearsal space, and upgrade facility infrastructure. To date, the foundation has awarded $2.5 million in support of the arts-related development project.

In addition, the foundation awarded a two-year, $400,000 grant to the YMCA of Cleveland to convert a portion of the Galleria shopping mall into a fitness facility; $175,000 to the Cleveland Development Foundation for the Cleveland Transformation Alliance, a public-private partnership responsible for ensuring accountability on the part of public schools in the city; a two-year, $166,486 grant to Ohio State University to link local farmers and school lunch programs; and $75,000 to the Universal Health Care Action Network of Ohio for efforts related to implementation of the Affordable Care Act in Ohio.