DuPage Community Foundation Awards $255,000 in Grants

The DuPage Community Foundation announced that it will award more than $255,000 in grants to 33 DuPage County not-for-profit organizations working in the areas of health and human services. The foundation announced the grants during a special breakfast Wednesday in Glen Ellyn. The grants awarded in these categories range in value from $2,500 - $15,000 according to a press release from the foundation.   

The Foundation awarded a $50,000 grant to Positive Parenting DuPage and the YWCA's Child Care Resource & Referral (CCR&R) from its Communityworks Endowment Fund.  

The Foundation's Communityworks initiative is aimed to invest in quality early child care and education that prepares children to succeed in school and the workforce as adults.   has partnered with Positive Parenting and the CCR&R since 2007 to build systemic change to address local needs in this area.

As of Wednesday Foundation will have awarded nearly $12 million in support of local not-for-profits since its inception in 1986. The Foundation reached $1 million in distributions in June 1998, twelve years into its existence.  During the past thirteen years, the Foundation has awarded nearly $12 million to local not-for-profits working in the areas of arts and culture, education, environment, health and human services.

Foundation Director of Grants, Barb Szczepaniak shares her pleasure with the Foundation's support of local organizations, "There are so many wonderful not-for-profits providing critical health and human service projects to DuPage residents and we are pleased to support the work they do.  The recipient organizations are providing extremely valuable services to the community, and we're proud to be a partner in helping them expand their overall efforts in improving the quality of life in DuPage County."

This past December the Foundation awarded more than $173,000 in grants to 29 DuPage not-for-profits working in the areas of arts and culture, education, and environment as part of its 2010 fall discretionary grant cycle.  In addition to its discretionary grant programs, the Foundation awards grants from donor-advised and other restricted funds throughout the year.  Total grants for the fiscal year to date ending June 30 amount to nearly $1.5 million.   

The DuPage Community Foundation is a publicly-supported 501 (c)(3) organization to which contributions are tax deductible.  It was created to benefit the people of DuPage County and receives contributions and bequests into a permanent endowment from individuals, corporations, organizations and foundations wishing to make lasting contributions to the people of DuPage.  The earnings on these funds are then used, in accordance with donor wishes, for the Foundation's grantmaking and community leadership activities.