Van Beuren Foundation details 2015 grants worth $4.5M

(Updated 10:57 a.m.)
NEWPORT – The van Beuren Charitable Foundation awarded 72 grants totaling $4.5 million in 2015 to improve the quality of life and place in Newport County.
“When my husband and I started this foundation 30 years ago, we were investing in the community’s future. That remains the nature of our family’s philanthropy today,” said Hope “Happy” van Beuren, chairperson, in a prepared statement.
She and husband John A. van Beuren founded the foundation in 1986 and, through it, have granted more than $66 million to Rhode Island organizations.
Elizabeth R. Lynn, the foundation’s executive director, said partnerships among community organizations working for progress have been key.
“Especially gratifying in this year’s portfolio is that an overwhelming majority of the grants are genuine community partnerships; organizations coming together to create positive change and opportunity,” she said.
Among the collaborations under way (with the sponsoring organization in parentheses) are:

  • $102,775 for planning and equipment at Newport Area Career Technical Center (Newport Public Schools)
  • $197,000 to bury utilities along Second Beach and Sachuest Point (Aquidneck Land Trust)
  • $500,000 for O’Hare Academic Center renovations and expansion (Salve Regina University
  • $147,000 to implement financial system enhancements (Newport County Community Mental Health Center)
  • $400,00 for support of a new CT scanner (Newport Hospital)
  • $150,000 toward the Rhode Island Economic Development Strategy (Brookings Institution)
  • $100,000 to support the Newport Parks and Open Space Master Plan (Newport Tree Society)
  • $210,000 toward The Breakers landscape rehabilitation (Preservation Society of Newport County)
  • $179,390 for the Catalyzing Culture, Culture as Catalyst project (Rhode Island Council for the Humanities)
  • $110,000 for operating support and building capacity of the Bike Newport program (Social Venture Partners Rhode Island)
  • $400,000 for the acquisition, renovation and relocation of the Lucy’s Hearth facility (Lucy’s Hearth).

A full list of grant recipients can be found HERE.

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