CHARLOTTE, N.C., June 15 /PRNewswire/ -- The trustees of The Duke Endowment have approved 427 grants totaling more than $39.5 million for organizations in North Carolina and South Carolina. The action came at the trustees' June meeting in the foundation's Charlotte office.
The grants include $20.4 million for not-for-profit hospitals and other health care organizations, and $11.1 million for private institutions of higher education. The grants also provide almost $4.3 million for not-for- profit children's homes and other programs that support adoption or the prevention of child abuse and neglect, and $3.1 million for building and operating rural United Methodist churches.
"We are pleased that this year we are able to provide more funds than we typically award in our June grant cycle," said Eugene W. Cochrane Jr., president of the Endowment. "But what is more important and more impressive is the large number of high-quality projects that involve community outreach. To us, that is a powerful indicator of the willingness of our schools, hospitals, children's homes and churches to play significant roles in the life of their home communities across the Carolinas."
Health Care -- $20.4 million
The trustees awarded 165 grants totaling $2,879,261 as part of the Endowment's Free Days of Care program. "This unrestricted operating support is intended to help hospitals in the Carolinas make up shortfalls caused by people who cannot pay for their care -- mainly indigent and uninsured patients -- and each hospital can use its grant in whatever way will best serve the institution's needs," said Mary L. Piepenbring, director of the Endowment's Health Care Division.
Another 50 grants totaling $9,566,951 were awarded for programs to strengthen and improve hospitals in the Carolinas. Among them was $195,363 to the University of South Carolina School of Medicine in Columbia for a project to increase the number of BSN graduates.
An additional 42 grants totaling $5,606,920 were awarded for programs intended to prevent disease and improve access to health care. Included was $67,000 to Rutherford Hospital in Rutherfordton, NC, to help establish a free clinic in Rutherford County.
Another 23 grants totaling $2,347,566 were awarded for programs to fight chronic and long-term illness, including $144,000 to Newberry County Memorial Hospital in Newberry, SC, for a program to address the growing number of psychiatric patients seeking treatment in emergency rooms.
Higher Education -- $11.1 million
The trustees awarded eight grants totaling $11,150,000 to the four educational institutions eligible for Endowment support.
"We were especially pleased by the creativity of the projects proposed for funding in this cycle," said J. Porter Durham Jr., director of the Endowment's Education Division. "Grant funds are supposed to give institutions the flexibility to try new ideas and to test new approaches to familiar issues, and we are convinced that these grants include some innovative projects that will attract significant attention if they develop as expected."
Included among the grants are $4 million to Davidson College to renovate the James B. Duke Hall to accommodate Davidson's acclaimed Dean Rusk International Program; $2 million to Furman University to endow a freshman seminar program; $1.5 million to Johnson C. Smith University to fund a new program of academic, financial, and social support and structure for freshmen; and $300,000 to Duke University to support teacher mentoring in the Durham Public Schools.
Child Care -- $4.3 million
Forty-three grants totaling $1,875,000 were awarded as unrestricted operating support for residential children's homes. "These grants, which we make only to licensed and accredited facilities, give them flexible funds that can be used to support any of their programs," said Rhett N. Mabry, director of the Endowment's Child Care Division.
Another 18 grants totaling $1,259,761 were awarded for programs improving organizational effectiveness, including $105,000 to Carolina Youth Development Center in North Charleston, SC, to enhance assessment capabilities at two emergency shelters and $250,000 to Nazareth Children's Home in Rockwell, NC, to establish short-term assessment and stabilization services for children needing therapeutic intervention.
Eleven additional grants totaling $982,191 were awarded for programs designed to strengthen families and prevent child abuse and neglect, including grants to extend and expand home-visiting services for families with young children in Surry and Burke counties, NC, and Greenwood, Richland, Aiken and Beaufort counties, SC.
Two grants totaling $121,430 were awarded to support training and education of child welfare workers and residents of children's homes, and one grant of $17,200 went to Foothills Alliance in Anderson, SC, to support a network of church-based parent support groups in Anderson County.
Churches -- $3.1 million
Eighty-five grants totaling $1,999,000 were awarded for programs to maintain and operate rural churches. Among them are $658,000 for child-care programs at United Methodist churches, $445,000 for leadership programs, $351,000 for ethnic minority ministries, $289,000 for community services, $125,500 for spirituality and health programs and $15,000 to help Page Memorial United Methodist Church in Biscoe, NC, expand a food pantry ministry for the hungry.
"We are pleased that child care programs continue to be a significant ministry for rural United Methodist churches," said W. Joseph Mann, director of the Endowment's Rural Church Division. "But it is also encouraging that so many churches are paying increased attention to the issue of leadership development, within individual churches as well as in the larger communities of which they are part."
Thirty grants totaling $1,111,326 were awarded to churches and other organizations of the United Methodist Church for building construction or renovation. Included are $40,000 to Faith Harbor United Methodist Church in Surf City, NC, to build a new church and $40,000 to Zoar United Methodist Church near Charlotte to build a family life center.
Other -- $607,330
Another $607,330 in grants was awarded as collaborative efforts of two or more of the Endowment's grantmaking divisions. These included grants of $537,030 to Duke University Divinity School for its Caring Communities Program, intended to help health care institutions, rural churches and allied organizations understand and explore the relationship between spirituality and good health; $54,300 to Rockingham District Cooperative Ministry support a parish nurse program in Robeson County, NC; and $16,000 to help the Duke Divinity School Office of Field Education place a summer intern in the Methodist Home for Children in Raleigh.
The Duke EndowmentCONTACT: David H. Roberson, Director of Communications of The DukeEndowment, +1-704-376-0291, or droberson@tde.org