Category: Grants Making a Difference

In the midst of the Mile of Music you will find at least several blocks of learning. A $7,500 grant from the Bright Idea Fund within the Community Foundation will support more than 60 free, interactive music education activities during the music festival in downtown Appleton Aug. 2-5. This is the sixth Mile and sixth […]

Mission of Hope House of Wisconsin in New London has received several grants to help families during the economic and health crisis. A $3,000 grant from Clintonville Area Foundation supported operations. Two grants totaling $40,000 from the Basic Needs Giving Partnership allow them to work collaboratively with Forward Services, CAP Services and the Salvation Army […]

Many of our donors are passionate about history and supporting museums and historical societies in their communities and beyond, and we manage the donors’ funds at the Community Foundation to help preserve these historical gems. You may want to visit a few and learn about our treasures of the past. You might be familiar with […]

When the Fox Valley Symphony Orchestra and the newVoices choir take to the stage at Lawrence University Chapel April 28, some of the audience members most informed about the John Rutter compositions “Requiem” and “The Gift of Life” they’ll be performing may also be among the youngest people there. They will have had the benefit […]

What inspires art can be expressed in many different ways depending on the artist and the art form. The inspiration that 50 Appleton third- and fourth-graders drew from a piece of music and then expressed through visual art is on display at the Building for Kids Children’s Museum through this weekend. Seventeen schools took part. The […]

Music is for everyone! Thanks to three-year, $30,000 Bright Idea Fund grant from the Community Foundation, Fox Valley Symphony has been able to expand its music outreach program, In Harmony, to eight different sites throughout the Fox Valley. In Harmony partners a Fox Valley Symphony orchestra string quartet with a licensed music therapist, volunteers and […]

If you want to know how to remain resilient in the face of climate change, ask native people. That was the advice of Robin Wall Kimmerer, distinguished teaching professor at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry and director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment in Syracuse, NY.  She was a member […]

From the Neenah Joint School District   Elementary school students in the Neenah Joint School District will benefit from a school-based mental health program with a $300,000 grant through the Basic Needs Giving Partnership of the Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region. Neenah students in kindergarten through fifth grade will have access to mental […]

Children in Neenah who have no way to get to a park recreation program can now have playground activities come to them. The Neenah Park Kart, purchased and stocked with grants of $2,250 each from the William and Helen Burger Memorial Fund and the Schmerein Family Fund, will carry loads of toys to schools, apartment complexes and other […]

If you enjoy seeing stories and images from the past come to life, check out the Neenah Historical Society‘s award-winning exhibit, “Making a Hometown – Life in Neenah’s Progressive Era.” The exhibit has been awarded the Wisconsin Historical Society’s Museum Exhibit Award for 2018, and tells the story of life in Neenah in the early […]

An idea that started out as leftover bread for chickens has evolved into Neighbor to Neighbor, a food donation program in Manawa that has provided 1,900 meals since March to thankful residents. By Brenda Vander Zanden, Co-Director, Neighbor to Neighbor Meals of Manawa Neighbor to Neighbor Meals of Manawa began as a “serendipitous happenstance,” but […]

Julie Filapek is convinced that, on any block, behind the closed doors there is a huge pool of strange and wonderful talents just waiting to be set free to improve the entire neighborhood. She put that belief to the test with the help of a grant of $68,500 over three years from the Basic Needs […]