skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Thursday, March 13, 2025

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

EPA head says he'll roll back dozens of environmental regulations, including rules on climate change; Environmental groups sue over permit for West Virginia valley fills; Doubling down on care: Ohio's push for caregiver tax relief; Uncertain future of Y-12 complex under Trump administration threatens jobs, economy.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Senate Democrats refuse to support GOP budget bill. The EU and Canada respond to steel and aluminum tariffs and some groups work to counter Christian Nationalism, which they call a threat to democracy.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Farmers worry promised federal reimbursements aren't coming while fears mount that the Trump administration's efforts to raise cash means the sale of public lands, and rural America's shortage of doctors has many physicians skipping retirement.

100 Years of Giving, 31 and Counting in Maine

play audio
Play

Monday, December 22, 2014   

ELLSWORTH, Maine - America is commemorating the 100th anniversary of the first community foundation, begun in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1914. Locally, the Maine Community Foundation will be 32 next year. Meredith Jones, president and CEO of the Foundation, says it dates back to a summer resident, Bob Blum, who had been involved with the New York Community Trust in his home state.

"In 1983, he said to a few of his friends who were also summer residents here in Maine, 'Hey, let's see if we can replicate what's going on in New York, right here in Maine,'" she says.

Today, on average, Jones says the foundation takes in about $25 million to $30 million a year in new gifts and gives away about $20 million a year, funding probably 85 percent of the state's nonprofit organizations.

Jones says with $400 million in assets, the foundation has about 1,500 different funds, and about 45 percent of them are donor-advised.

"We have the luxury and benefit of having many part-time residents who look at Maine and say, 'Hey, a little bit goes a long way here in Maine," says Jones. "We want to make investments to ensure that when our grandchildren come to 'summer' here in the state of Maine, they are able to appreciate it as much as we have.'"

Jones, who will be stepping down at the end of next year after seven years at the helm, met earlier this month with President Obama at a White House commemoration of 100 years of community foundations.

Will Heaton, vice president of Network Council on Foundations, says part of the value of such entities lies in their role as conveners, who can identify place-based solutions that meet specific needs within communities.

"Whether that's homelessness, education, health care, the environment, the arts, or early childhood education," he says. "A lot of it is their ability just to kind of recognize what the needs in that particular community are, and find ways to address it."

There are over 750 community foundations in the U.S. The first was born in 1914 when Frederick Goff created The Cleveland Foundation.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
"In Utah, we've been consistently told that transitioning away from coal would devastate our rural communities, but this report reveals a different reality," said Luis Miranda, Utah-based Campaign Organizer for the Sierra Club. (Adobe Stock)

Environment

play sound

The Sierra Club's Utah chapter said electric utility PacifiCorp's long-term plan to embrace renewable energy has changed and is now placing more relia…


Social Issues

play sound

New data show fewer than half of rural Gen Z'ers believe they can find a good job in their community, compared to nearly 70% of their urban peers…

Environment

play sound

As federal funding for climate initiatives faces steep cuts, nonprofits and philanthropic organizations are stepping into the breach, calling out the …


The U.S. solar industry employs more than 263,000 workers, with jobs in installation, manufacturing, and research continuing to grow. (rh2010/Adobe Stock)

Environment

play sound

Michigan ranks 26th in the U.S. for total installed solar capacity, while global capacity rose 21% from 2023. However, there are industry concerns …

Social Issues

play sound

School employees are expressing outrage at the mass layoffs of half the U.S. Department of Education workforce. Secretary of Education Linda …

Social Issues

play sound

Republicans in Washington, D.C. remain focused on greatly reducing federal spending. However, a backlash is mounting in Congressional districts…

Social Issues

play sound

Maryland ranks second in the nation for charging children who have committed crimes as adults. But one expert says a more trauma-informed response in …

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021