As the Pioneer Valley continues to pick up the pieces after the June 1 tornados, the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts has also been busy raising funds and working with other major funders in the region to coordinate relief and rebuilding efforts.

The Community Foundation established the Tornado Relief Fund for Western Mass within 48 hours of the storm, working with our distribution committee to designate $50,000 to start the fund.  In the three weeks since then we have seen that investment more than double, thanks to a partnership with People’s United Bank who contributed $30,000 and many generous individuals in the Pioneer Valley and beyond.

Additionally, the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts has partnered with PeoplesBank and New England Public Radio, WFCR and WNNZ to raise funds through the radio stations’ pledge drive.  Between June 17 and June 25, PeoplesBank will match every pledge to WFCR and WNNZ with a $10 donation to the tornado relief fund, up to $25,000.

Martin Miller, CEO and General Manager of New England Public Radio spoke highly of the partnership with the Community Foundation and PeoplesBank,“This partnership allows New England Public Radio to offer our listeners another way to lend support to this major relief effort in Hampden County and greater Springfield."

To ensure strategic use of all funds raised, the Community Foundation invited 25 organizations that provide grants in western Massachusetts to a meeting on June 16 to coordinate funding to best fulfill unmet needs.  The group shared their plans for distributing funds and identified a number of potential areas for ongoing collaboration.  Among those in attendance were representatives from Bank of America, PeoplesBank, the United Way (Pioneer Valley and Hampshire County), Berkshire Bank, the Jewish Federation, the Beveridge Family Foundation, and United Bank, Jewish Endowment Foundation, and MassMutual Financial Group.

The Reading Success by Fourth Grade (RS4G) initiative calls on the community of Springfield to work together strategically to support a reading proficiency goal: by 2016, 80% of Springfield’s children will score at the proficiency level or above on the third grade Reading MCAS.  The advisory committee for the Springfield Institute for Savings (SIS) Fund at the Community Foundation, with leadership from the Irene E. and George A. Davis Foundation, initiated a funding collaborative that will commit resources to address this urgent community need.

Mary Walachy, Executive Director of the Davis Foundation, said of the partnership, "We are excited to work in collaboration with the Community Foundation to establish this exciting opportunity for local funders to work together on this critical issue of Reading Proficiency by Fourth Grade."

The recommended strategies for RS4G include

• Implement a public awareness campaign
• Support research-based, developmentally appropriate parenting education
• Improve the quality of Springfield early childhood education programs
• Support the city’s library system to expand family literacy programming
• Work with the faith-based community to outreach to families

The RS4G Funding Collaborative is a pooled fund at the Community Foundation.  Along with the SIS Fund and the Davis Foundation, the Community Foundation approved a three-year $100,000 grant to support this initiative.  In addition, six other funders in the region have made grants to the fund bringing the total to approximately half of the $1.5 million goal.  We welcome other funders and donors who wish to join this effort.  Please contact Ron Ancrum, president, Community Foundation for more information.

We are pleased to welcome two new staff members to the organization, both of whom started in May.  Our new director of communications, Caroline Deltoro, previously worked as communications director for Commonwealth Corporation in Boston.  William Andrews, our new director of finance and administration, formerly worked at Syracuse University and Cornell University with a background in investment, finance, and development.

Annual Meeting: Save the Date

The Community Foundation will be holding its annual meeting at the Log Cabin in Holyoke on Wednesday, October 19, 2011.  We will again hold an evening event and this year’s theme will be to honor our many indispensible volunteers.  Hope to see you there.

Grant Application Deadline

We are currently accepting applications for the next cycle of competitive grants. The deadline is Thursday, August 4, 2011.  Applications must be received by 5 p.m.