Piper Trust Awards Over $5,000,000 to 16 Local Nonprofits

SCOTTSDALE, ARIZ. (June 19, 2007)   Responding to pressures local nonprofits face due to exploding community growth, The Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust announced today 16 grants totaling more than $5 million.  Among the major grants, the Boys and Girls Clubs of Metropolitan Phoenix and UMOM New Day Centers were each awarded $1,300,000 to support new facilities and expanded services.

“Buildings that serve children, families and the elderly cannot be built fast enough to meet the extraordinary growth in this community,” said Judy Jolley Mohraz, president and CEO of the Trust. “Nonprofits are mounting capital campaigns with goals previously unknown in order to meet the unrelenting need for services and space,” she said.

Other organizations receiving grants to expand facilities include Sun Health Foundation which will use a $200,000 grant to support the campaign to expand Sun Health Boswell Hospital and Del E. Webb Hospital.  The Centers for Habilitation was awarded $300,000 to increase facilities for disabled children and adults, and Valle del Sol, Inc. will direct a $350,000 grant toward new facilities for behavioral health services for children and older adults.

Grants for programs to recruit and train volunteers in overstretched organizations included a $196,000 award to the National Council on Aging, Inc. to assist 10 local nonprofits engage Baby Boomer volunteers in professional and leadership roles. Devereux Arizona was awarded $54,000 to support a program for volunteers to address unmet needs of children with behavioral health issues.

Several innovative programs to assist older adults maintain health and independence will be supported through Piper grants.  National Farm Workers Service Center, Inc. was awarded $137,000 for the Spirit, Mind, and Body Program, a healthy aging program for low-income older adults at Glendale Hacienda in the West Valley.  Rebuilding Together Valley of the Sun will use a $204,000 grant to create a Senior Fall Prevention Services program for low-income older adult homeowners in the Phoenix metro area.

In the areas of early childhood development and education, a $200,000 grant to Phoenix Children’s Hospital will launch a Healthy Steps pilot program in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Friends of the Scottsdale Public Library, awarded $50,000, will develop an Early Learning Interactive Center at the Arabian Branch of the Scottsdale Public Library.

In the field of arts and culture The Phoenix Symphony will create a cash operating reserve with a grant of $400,000.

Other grants include $250,000 to Be A Leader Foundation for renovation and technology upgrades at the Roosevelt Community Technology Center in South Phoenix; $52,000 to Interfaith Cooperative Ministries to remodel the client services building; $72,000 to Kids At Hope to support a program serving youth in the West Valley; and $50,000 to Lions Camp Tatiyee, Inc. to refurbish buildings that serve children and adults with special needs.

The Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust is committed to honoring Virginia Piper’s legacy of making grants to organizations whose work enhances the lives of people in Maricopa County.  Since it began awarding grants in 2000, the Trust has invested more than $166,000,000 in local nonprofits and programs.  The Trust focuses its grantmaking on healthcare and medical research, children, older adults, arts and culture, education and religious organizations.