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Piper Trust awards $4.3 million in grants

Published on September 16, 2009

The Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust awarded $4.3 million to Maricopa County nonprofits aimed at helping improve the community and those who live in it.

The trust awarded a $2.5 million grant to the Center for Sustainable Health at Arizona State University’s Biodesign Institute. Dr. Lee Hartwell, a Nobel Prize winner, will establish and co-direct the center, an effort of the Partnership for Personalized Medicine. The partnership was launched in 2007 with a $35 million Piper grant. This current grant will be distributed over five years and, according to Piper officials, was key in helping attract the top-tier researcher.

Piper Trust also awarded a three-year grant of $300,000 to the Summer Youth Program Fund, a collaborative effort of more than a dozen local foundations to support structured summer programs.

“These grants underscore the trust’s commitment to small nonprofits and their future, as well as to a multi-million dollar investment to recruit a Nobel laureate,” said Judy Jolley Mohraz, president and CEO of Piper Trust.

Other recipients include:

• Actors Theatre of Phoenix for a new marketing strategy focused on increasing the organization’s public awareness, $20,000/12 months.

• East Valley Children’s Theatre for patron-base expansion to identify future direction for effective development, $12,500/12 months.

• Friends of Public Radio Arizona for the Public Radio Partnership for an Arts Matching Gifts Program to give nonprofit arts and cultural organizations an opportunity to promote programs on KJZZ and KBAQ, $64,000/12 months.

• Phoenix Art Museum to support of museum’s strategic planning initiative, $20,000/12 months.

• Phoenix Boys Choir for professional Web site redesign to incorporate social media tools and expand the number of participants, $19,180/ 12 months.

• Phoenix Revitalization Corp. for Advocates for Latino Arts & Culture Consortium to develop an organizational and strategic plan for a new Latino cultural center, $10,000/12 months.

• Sonoran Desert Chorale Inc. for a marketing plan with logo redesign, Web site development and promotional materials, $8,830/12 months.

• Crossroads Inc. for a capital project to provide meeting space for women in recovery and their children, $50,000/12 months.

• Summer Youth Program Fund for funding collaborative to invest in summer programs for youth, $300,000/36 months.

• Valley of the Sun United Way for continued support of the Adopt-A-Pool-Fence Program, $625,000/36 months.

• VisionQuest 20/20 for Web site enhancements to make child vision screening tools more accessible to schools, $60,000/12 months.

• About Care Inc. for community outreach to frail older adults and other homebound individuals, $44,000/24 months.

• East Valley Adult Resources for Web site, promotional and marketing materials to support a new direction to attract younger participants, $60,000/12 months.

• Experience Matters Consortium for a community-based multi-agency effort linking older adults with purposeful activities in the nonprofit sector, $75,000/24 months.

• Mesa United Way for a program to place older adult volunteers in East Valley nonprofit agencies, $50,000/12 months.

• Sun Cities Area Transit System Inc. for technology upgrades to improve transportation systems to allow older adults to maintain independence, $12,000/12 months.

• Alliance of Arizona Nonprofits for identification of stimulus funds appropriate for nonprofits, $45,000/12 months.

• A New Leaf to acquire software to identify major donors and increase donor support, $10,000/12 months.

• Ballet Arizona to support consulting services to assess the Ballet’s patron and donor databases to identify and retain donors, $10,000/12 months.