The Greater Good: News from the Greater New Orleans Foundation – Edition 60
The Greater New Orleans Foundation’s women’s giving circle, Impact 100, invites you to its June Social at a new building of the 2019 Impact 100 Winner, unCommon Construction, on Thursday, June 12. Come meet current and prospective members and learn more about Impact 100 and unCommon Construction, a nonprofit that provides opportunities for New Orleans’ youth to learn how to build a house while receiving school credit or an hourly wage. Impact 100 is a group of over 100 local women who commit to giving $1,100 each and together making a single transformative grant to a local nonprofit.
Last year’s $100,000 grant was awarded to Health and Education Alliance of Louisiana (HEAL). Watch the HEAL team learn about their win! In addition to the $100,000 grant, Impact 100 also made $9,000 grants to last year’s other three finalists—18th Ward Sports Club, Center for Employment Opportunities, and Grace at the Green Light. Since its inaugural year 13 years ago, Impact 100 has granted more than $1.4 million to nonprofits across our region.
Interested in learning more about Impact 100? Please RSVP for our June Social here no later than June 6. Members are welcome to pay their dues in installments. For more information about Impact 100 and other funds at the Foundation, connect with Vice President for Philanthropy, Meg Miles, at meg@gnof.org or (504) 598-1291. Thank you to Impact 100’s incredible presenting sponsor, Villere & Co., for their generous financial support.
Foundation, City of New Orleans, and Bloomberg Philanthropies Announce Youth-Led Climate Solutions Grants
Photo courtesy of City of New Orleans
On April 25, the Greater New Orleans Foundation, Mayor LaToya Cantrell and the Mayor’s Offices of Youth and Families (OYF) and Resilience & Sustainability (ORS) announced the 18 winning projects, led by 70 young people, selected for the second round of the Bloomberg Philanthropies Youth Climate Action Fund (BYCAF) micro-grants. BYCAF will provide technical assistance and funding to activate tens of thousands of young people ages of 15 – 24 years to design, produce and govern urgent climate solutions in 99 cities representing 38 countries around the world through community education, waste reduction, sustainable fashion, green infrastructure, and more.
Through this initiative, New Orleans has received a total of $150,000 to support 27 youth-led climate projects across two rounds of funding. Click here to learn more about the announcement and program.
Greater New Orleans Foundation President & CEO Selected as a Finalist for the Global Institute on Innovation Districts’ Award
In April, BioDistrict Board Chair and President and CEO of the Greater New Orleans Foundation, Andy Kopplin, was selected as a finalist for the District Champion Award given by the Global Institute on Innovation Districts for his work building a dynamic, job creating and equitable BioDistrict for our region. The Global Institute on Innovation Districts is a global-reaching not-for-profit organization that conducts independent, practice-oriented research on innovation districts and provides them with hands-on support. They work with 45 innovation districts in 16 countries.
In the News: Ares Charitable Foundation President Highlights Foundation for Providing Robust Civic Leadership Training
In an article published in Fast Company on May 7, Michelle Armstrong, President of the Ares Charitable Foundation, highlighted the Greater New Orleans Foundation for providing Nonprofit Leadership and Effectiveness trainings and workshops that build capacity and resilience for organizational leaders at a time when traditional funding sources for workforce development organizations are becoming less reliable.
Last November, Jobs for the Future (JFF) and the Ares Charitable Foundation announced that the Greater New Orleans Foundation had been awarded a $750,000 grant through its Quality Green Jobs Regional Challenge. The funding will support the Foundation’s efforts to build a larger middle class for our region by creating scalable and replicable models of success in workforce development, which other regions facing similar challenges can adapt. The initiative promises not only to help support the local job market and help mitigate water-related risks due to climate change, but also to serve as a blueprint for integrating sustainability and equity in economic development strategies across the country.
In the News: Foundation Grantees, Next 100 Years Challenge Winner Highlighted in New York Times
Photo courtesy of the New York Times
On Monday, April 21, multiple Foundation Environmental Fund grantees, including Water Wise Gulf South, Healthy Community Services, Greater Treme Consortium, and others, were featured in a New York Times series highlighting local solutions to environmental problems across the country. Water Wise was selected as one of the 5 runners-up of the Foundation’s $1.2-million resilience competition, the Next 100 Years Challenge, in October 2023. Water Wise has been facilitating the installation of rain gardens, vegetated ditches/bioswales, French drains, and rain gardens to absorb and catch rain as it falls around New Orleans. To date, Water Wise has completed 150 projects in public and private spaces across low-lying neighborhoods like Treme and the Seventh Ward. Altogether, these projects can retain 190,000 gallons of water per storm, mitigating local flooding.
Cheryl Austin, the Executive Director of The Greater Treme Consortium, and Dr. Angela Chalk, Founder and Executive Director of Healthy Community Services, are also highlighted in the article. They describe the work residents are doing on their property and in the community to reduce their flood risk. “Every drop of water that is stored somewhere that is not in our drainage system counts toward a benefit,” said Meagan Williams, the urban water program manager for the City of New Orleans. “If we can’t take away all the flooding, but we can reduce how much it’s flooding, then we’re moving the needle in the right direction.”
Though Water Wise had hoped to implement more than 100 larger scale projects this year, cuts in their federal funding are making that unlikely, according to Jeff Supak, Executive Director and Co-Founder. However, they are still working on dozens of smaller green infrastructure projects.
To read the full article, click here.>>
Foundation Hosts Workshop to Help Leaders Avoid Burnout
On Tuesday, April 15, the Foundation’s Nonprofit Leadership and Effectiveness team brought nonprofit professionals from across the region together for a workshop called Purpose and Balance: Mastering Effectiveness without Burnout. Nonprofit professionals are constantly balancing competing priorities, which can lead to burnout if not managed well. When they align their work with their purpose and organizational mission and vision, nonprofit leaders can truly optimize how they use their time.
In this interactive workshop, Rayne Martin, Founder and Chief Leadership Coach of It’s the Impact, shared practical strategies nonprofit professionals can use to manage their time effectively, reduce stress, and accomplish what matters most. Participants left with actionable tools to prioritize, delegate, and create better focus in their work.
Grant Spotlight: Parks & Parkways Tree Planting Grant
In partnership with the City of New Orleans’ Department of Parks and Parkways and with funds allocated by the City Council, the Greater New Orleans Foundation is accepting grant applications from nonprofit partners in Orleans Parish to plant trees on public property across the city. The Tree Planting Grants will help the City reach its goal of restoring and expanding New Orleans’ urban forest with 40,000 new trees planted by 2030.
$207,000 is available for this round of funding. The average grant size will be $20,000; grants may be larger or smaller. Applicants should submit their completed proposal (including supporting material) via the Foundation’s online portal by May 30. Selected grantees will be announced in July 2025.
To learn more about this grant, click here.
The Foundation’s Nonprofit Leadership & Effectiveness (NLE) team is hosting some upcoming workshops including the following offerings:
- June 12 – Nonprofit Preparedness: Planning for Continued Operations during Extreme Weather Events (In-Person)
For a full listing of NLE events open for registration, click here >>
Thanks for joining us for this edition of The Greater Good.
The Greater New Orleans Foundation Team