Foundation to Award Grants to 29 DuPage Not-For-Profits on June 27

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 18, 2007

Contact: Mike Sitrick, Manager of Development

(630) 665-5556 or msitrick@dcfdn.org

Wheaton, IL—The DuPage Community Foundation is pleased to announce it will award $193,500 in grants to 29 DuPage County not-for-profit organizations working in the areas of Health and Human Services. The grants, which range in value from $3,000 to $15,000, will be awarded during a special distribution breakfast on Wednesday, June 27, 2007, from 7:30 – 9:00 a.m., at Glen Oak Country Club in Glen Ellyn, Illinois. Representatives from the grant recipient organizations, area community leaders, Foundation trustees, benefactors and other stakeholders have been invited to attend. (Click here for a detailed list of the spring grant recipients.)

“The Foundation is pleased with the results of its spring discretionary grant cycle,” said Bonnie Heydorn, director of grants. “A total of 65 applications were received and reviewed by the Grant Committee: 21 in the category of Health and 44 in the category of Human Services. Of these requests, 29 were funded with total support for these two categories increasing by 11% overall from Foundation grants made during 2006.”

Foundation Vice Chair Dave Aldridge (who also serves as chair of the Grant Committee) shares Heydorn’s enthusiasm but notes that he is mindful a significant funding gap still exists between the number of grant requests received by the Foundation and the number it is able to fund.

“The Foundation has been fortunate to experience a phenomenal increase of more than 300% in its assets over the past five years thanks to the generosity of numerous area residents,” said Aldridge. “Despite their support, however, our ability to effectively meet the needs of our community remains limited. For example, during this most recent cycle, the Grant Committee was forced to turn away approximately one applicant for each that it funded. With this in mind, increased support for the Foundation’s General Endowment and other unrestricted funds remains critical if we are to continue increasing the amount of funding available through our discretionary grant programs.”

This past December the Foundation awarded nearly $140,000 in grants to 20 DuPage not-for-profits working in the areas of Arts and Culture, Civic Affairs and Historic Preservation, Education, and Environmental Affairs as part of its 2006 fall discretionary cycle. In addition to its discretionary grant programs, the Foundation awards grants from donor-advised and other restricted funds throughout the year. Since its inception in 1986, The DuPage Community Foundation has awarded more than $5 million in grants to more than 400 not-for-profit agencies serving the residents of DuPage County and beyond. Total grants for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2006, amounted to approximately $820,000.

Established in 1986, The DuPage Community Foundation is a publicly-supported 501 (c) (3) organization to which contributions are tax deductible. The Foundation was created to benefit the people of DuPage County and receives contributions and bequests into a permanent endowment from individuals, corporations, organizations, and foundations wishing to make lasting contributions to the people of DuPage. The earnings on these funds are then used, in accordance with donor wishes, for the Foundation’s grantmaking and community leadership activities.

The DuPage Community Foundation seeks to raise the quality of life throughout DuPage County by developing and channeling philanthropy to meet the needs of its residents. Based on the American virtues of volunteerism and philanthropy, the Foundation fosters a legacy of support for the people of DuPage County by making grants to not-for-profit organizations working in the arts and culture, education, environmental affairs, health, and human services.

For further information about the Foundation or to arrange future media opportunities, please contact Michael Sitrick, manager of development, at (630) 665-5556 or msitrick@dcfdn.org.

# # #