Foundation Blog

Cleveland Foundation Blog

Home Grown Food

Lately I have been reflecting on the following points related to the topic of the locally grown foods: As a region we spend $7,000,000,000 a year on food. Yes! 7 BILLION dollars yet less than 1% of that goes to local farmers and producers Local food...

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The disease of nostalgia

On Feb. 24 at the Idea Center, Mohsin Hamid, a Pakistani writer and 2008 winner of an Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, came back to Cleveland to speak on "Literature, Pakistan and 'The West.'" The lecture was part of the annual series co-sponsored by the Cleveland...

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Our grantees make us proud

The documentary PolyCultures: Food Where We Live  is set to screen March 25 and 26 at the Cleveland International Film Festival. One of our grantees, the New Agrarian Center, partnered with LESS Productions, to produce the film. The...

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Ohio City – but not the one you think

This past Monday, I spent a very stimulating 90 minutes with the folks at Glazen Creative Studios brainstorming ways to engage the local population’s pride and confidence in the city and the region. These were sincere, smart, and committed folks who cannot...

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Revisiting the ImagiNation

In December 2007, the Cleveland Foundation hosted a meeting of the Arts Education Partnership (AEP), a non-political think thank and consortium of organizations supporting the arts in learning. At that meeting, AEP rolled out a major frame-changing concept: to...

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Managing through the Downturn

Times are tough, and as nonprofit executives you don’t need me reminding you.  Every day my colleagues and I hear from more and more organizations that are stretching their dollars and reevaluating their programs. Everyone is searching for new funding...

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What former gang members can teach us

I heard a great story at a conference a few months back. In my mind this story represents how responsive and innovative nonprofits can and must be. I was on a site visit in East Los Angeles at a nonprofit called Homeboy Industries.  A staff member recounted...

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Angry at the arts: It’s the American way

“An artist with an instrument is every bit as 'shovel-ready' as a potential new highway. In fact, without some help maintaining jobs in culture in, say, struggling downtown Cleveland, there is one fewer reason to build another way to get there.” So says...

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Lead on, (Next Gen) leaders!

by Jill Paulsen, program officer Cleveland is a town where you can make a real difference. Where you can lead. Just ask our 30 newly minted Ladder to Leadership fellows, participants in a joint initiative of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and the...

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