BankNewport 2021 Philanthropic Efforts Resulted in Over $1.2 Million Awarded to Over 350 RI Nonprofits

by Posted in Arts & Culture, Basic Need, Children & Youth, Climate/Environment, Employee Engagement, Health and Wellness, Member Highlights, Member News, Philanthropy, Uncategorized

BankNewport announced that its 2021 philanthropic efforts resulted in over $1.2 million awarded to over 350 nonprofits in Rhode Island. The donations include all grants, sponsorships, community contributions from local branches, and year-end proactive and holiday support totaling $74,000 to nonprofits that meet basic needs for the underserved throughout Rhode Island.

Organizations in every county of Rhode Island benefitted from the giving effort, with areas of impact focused on basic human needs, children & families, education, economic security, healthy living, arts and culture and the environment. Over the past 11 years, BankNewport has awarded $7 million in grants, sponsorships, and donations to a wide range of nonprofits to help strengthen and enrich lives and communities throughout the state.

Financial education and community involvement by Bank employees in 2021 totaled over 7,300 hours. Through BNWise, BankNewport’s financial education program, over 2,500 students and community members were engaged in interactive financial education presentations on a variety of topics, from saving and budgeting to credit and entrepreneurship, which were made available in-person and virtually.

BankNewport also presented two high profile campaigns generating statewide awareness of food insecurity and for those organizations serving Rhode Island’s homeless population: Kind Souls Full Bowls benefitted the with a $50,000 Bank gift and over $7,500 raised from the community, and Kind Heart Fresh Start collected over 4,700 personal care items impacting more than 1,000 individuals in need with a $50,000 Bank gift and over $7,500 raised from the community, and Kind Heart Fresh Start collected over 4,700 personal care items impacting more than 1,000 individuals in need.

 

$450K in American Rescue Plan Funds for RI Arts Organizations

by Posted in Arts & Culture, Disaster Philanthropy, Member Highlights, Member News, Policy

Representative David Cicilline announced that six Rhode Island arts organizations have been awarded a total of $450,000 in competitive grant funding from the American Rescue Plan. These grants, awarded through the National Endowment for the Arts, will support payroll costs and pandemic-related expenses. The grants were awarded as follows:

  • Alliance of Artists Communities, Providence – $100,000
  • Dirt Palace Public Projects, Providence – $50,000
  • DownCity Design, Providence – $100,000
  • Spectrum Theatre Ensemble, Providence – $100,000
  • Everett Arts Incubator, Providence – $50,000
  •  Riverzedge Arts, Woonsocket – $50,000

The pandemic and safety measures have hit arts organizations here in Rhode Island and around the country hard. These American Rescue Plan grants will help Rhode Island’s cultural institutions weather this storm and continue to enrich Rhode Island communities.

State Arts Council Awards 74 Grants to RI Artists, Arts Organizations and Nonprofits

by Posted in Arts & Culture, Member Highlights, Member News, Policy

Arts and culture organizations, arts education and healthcare programs, individual and teaching artists, culture workers, and related community projects benefited from $215,011 in funding announced by the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts (RISCA). The 74 grants, of which 34 went to individual artists, were approved by the Arts Council’s Board on Dec. 13, and will assist RI’s arts and culture community throughout the 2022 fiscal year.

The next cycle of arts and culture grants will open on Feb. 1 with a deadline of April 1. Several grant programs have been updated to align with the agency’s ongoing work to ensure that arts and culture continue to be an essential part of Rhode Island life and thrive in our communities. For more information, visit RISCA’s grants webpage.

RI State Council on the Arts Awards 156 Grants Totaling Over $800,000

by Posted in Arts & Culture, Creative Placemaking, Education, Member Highlights, Member News, Philanthropy

Over 150 arts organizations in Rhode Island received grants from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts (RISCA) totaling $878,942 in funding.

Funding for the grants came from the General Assembly and federal funds through the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).  Most required a match of contributions from businesses, individuals, and from ticket sales.

Fifty two of the grants went to individual artists, and the rest went to arts and cultural organizations, arts education programs, teaching artists in healthcare and education, culture workers, and other community projects.

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Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island Announces Blue Angel Community Partners

by Posted in Aging, Arts & Culture, Basic Need, Children & Youth, Community Development, Corporate Citizenship, Education, Employee Engagement, Health and Wellness, Housing and Homelessness, Member Highlights, Member News, Philanthropy

Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island (BCBSRI) announced the 13 community partners for its tenth annual day of service this fall to support the health and well-being of Rhode Islanders.

Since the day’s inception, BCBSRI employees have signed up to provide support for tasks at 118 service day projects, including curating outdoor spaces, packaging footwear for children impacted by homelessness, building affordable and safe homes, creating meal kits for distribution by local food banks and conducting impactful projects virtually.

In addition to volunteer support, project sites will receive a financial contribution of $5,000 from BCBSRI to support their work. Since the inaugural Blue across Rhode Island in 2012, employees have provided more than 30,000 volunteer hours and the company has donated more than $605,000 in funding to nearly 70 agencies around the state.

Recognized nationally as a “Best in Class” volunteer initiative, Blue across Rhode Island has become not only a signature event for BCBSRI employees, but also an invaluable resource for the organizations and those involved – making a lasting impact on the lives of more than 133,000 people throughout the state.

The local organizations selected for Blue across Rhode Island 2021 and the projects BCBSRI employees will work on include 134 Collaborative, Amenity Aid, Boys & Girls Club of Northern Rhode Island, Children’s Friend, Gotta Have Sole Foundation, Habitat for Humanity of Greater Providence, South County Habitat for Humanity, Happy Hope Foundation, Hope Alzheimer’s Center, NeighborWorks Blackstone River Valley, Partnership for Providence Parks, Recs & Streetscapes, Playworks New England, Riverzedge Arts. 

RI Council for the Humanities Awards $150,000 to 15 Public Projects and Documentary Films

by Posted in Arts & Culture, Member Highlights, Member News, Philanthropy

The Rhode Island Council for the Humanities announced major grant awards to 15 public projects and documentary films that showcase the power of the humanities to connect communities and strengthen civil society.

Through video messages, Senator Jack Reed, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Congressman David Cicilline, and Congressman James Langevin, shared the role of the humanities to bring people together, especially in times of crisis, and congratulate this year’s grant recipients. In 2020, the delegation’s support resulted in $840,000 in federal relief funds from the National Endowments for the Humanities and Arts to Rhode Island. Additional relief funding for humanities and arts is expected through the American Rescue Plan, and details about those opportunities will be available later in May.

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RISCA Distributes COVID-19 Relief Grants to Arts Community

by Posted in Arts & Culture, Children & Youth, Creative Placemaking, Disaster Philanthropy, Health and Wellness, Member Highlights, Member News, Philanthropy

The RI State Council on the Arts (RISCA) has awarded close to $1 million in Covid Relief Funds (CRF) to artists, professional arts education associations, and arts and culture organizations. These grants announced today provide badly needed assistance to organizations, artists and arts educators who continue to experience economic hardship as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

or artists, the CRF assistance is being distributed through the Rhode Island Artist Relief Fund, a charitable fund set up by RISCA to help artists who have lost income due to the pandemic. A total of $321,200 was divided up into grants and distributed to 390 artists.

For arts and culture organizations, and arts education associations, the funds are being dispersed directly through RISCA.

In addition to artists, and arts and culture organizations, grant recipients include 11 organizations associated with the Rhode Island Expansion Arts Program (RIEAP) and seven culturally specific nonprofits. RIEAP is a partnership among RISCA, RI Council for the Humanities (RICH) and Rhode Island Foundation to support community-based, culturally diverse arts and cultural organizations.

The grants were specifically designed to save jobs, help cover revenue losses and additional COVID-19 costs incurred in 2020.

State Arts Council Awards $750,000 in Grants to Artists, Arts Organizations

by Posted in Arts & Culture, Children & Youth, Creative Placemaking, Member Highlights, Member News, Philanthropy, Policy

Arts and culture organizations, arts education programs, teaching artists in healthcare, folk artists and related community projects received $750,192 in grants distributed by the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts (RISCA). These 120 grants, approved by the Arts Council’s Board in December, will support arts and cultural activities throughout the state during this fiscal year.

These grants depend on support from the Rhode Island General Assembly and federally funded National Endowment for the Arts, in addition to matching dollars raised through contributions from businesses, individuals and earned income from ticket sales and admissions.

More information

State Arts Council awards nearly $1 million in grants to RI artists, art educators, arts and culture organizations

by Posted in Arts & Culture, Disaster Philanthropy, Member Highlights, Member News, Philanthropy

GCRI member Rhode Island State Council on the Arts (RISCA) has awarded close to $1 million in Covid Relief Funds (CRF) to artists, professional arts education associations, and arts and culture organizations. These grants announced today provide badly needed assistance to organizations, artists and arts educators who continue to experience economic hardship as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

For artists, the CRF assistance is being distributed through the Rhode Island Artist Relief Fund, a charitable fund set up by RISCA to help artists who have lost income due to the pandemic. A total of $321,200 was divided up into grants and distributed to 390 artists.  For arts and culture organizations, and arts education associations, the funds are being dispersed directly through RISCA.

In addition to artists, and arts and culture organizations, grant recipients include 11 organizations associated with the Rhode Island Expansion Arts Program (RIEAP) and seven culturally specific nonprofits. RIEAP is a partnership among RISCA, RI Council for the Humanities (RICH) and Rhode Island Foundation to support community-based, culturally diverse arts and cultural organizations.

The grants were specifically designed to save jobs, help cover revenue losses and additional COVID-19 costs incurred between March 1, 2020, and December 30, 2020. The recipient categories for this latest round of CRF for the arts and cultural organizations were as follows:

Over $840,000 in Federal Funds to Rhode Island for Arts & Humanities COVID-19 Relief

by Posted in Arts & Culture, Member Highlights, Member News, Philanthropy, Resources for Community Organizations

Rhode Island’s statewide arts and humanities agencies will receive $840,600 in federal funds designated for relief to arts and cultural organizations affected by the COVID-19 health crisis, according to a joint statement by the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts (RISCA) and the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities (Humanities Council).

The funds come from the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, established in part to preserve jobs and help support organizations forced to close operations due to the spread of COVID-19.

RISCA will receive $424,300 from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), and the Humanities Council will receive $416,300 from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). Rhode Island’s share is part of the $150 million allocated to the federal cultural organizations through the CARES Act.

Randall Rosenbaum, Executive Director of the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, expressed thanks for the increased federal support. “Rhode Island’s arts and cultural organizations have been deeply affected by the current crisis,” said Rosenbaum. “The economic loss to arts organizations is estimated at over $4.5 billion nationwide. Here in Rhode Island the livelihood of a sector that contributes over $1 billion annually to our economy is being threatened.”

Elizabeth Francis, Executive Director of the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities noted that “This is a daunting and uncertain time, and humanities organizations have experienced unprecedented losses. The Humanities Council and RISCA were chosen to distribute these funds because of our well-established relationships with museums, historical societies, libraries, theaters, arts organizations, and cultural institutions that are anchors of our communities. One thing I am certain about is that these organizations will help Rhode Islanders understand and weather this crisis.”

Both Rosenbaum and Francis expressed gratitude to the state’s Congressional delegation. “This support from the NEH and NEA as part of the CARES act is thanks in large part to the sustained commitment by Senators Reed and Whitehouse and Representatives Langevin and Cicilline to the arts and humanities in Rhode Island.”