Cleveland Area Nonprofit Organizations Receive Over $17 Million in Grants, Loans from The Cleveland Foundation.

Business Editors

CLEVELAND--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 26, 2001

Dedicates $5.75 million to Neighborhoods,

Makes Largest Grant Ever to Medical Research

Cleveland-area non-profit organizations serving a variety of causes such as neighborhoods, the arts, education, healthcare, and the environment will receive more than $17 million in grants and low-cost loans through The Cleveland Foundation.

The Foundation's Board of Trustees at its quarterly meeting on March 26, 2001 approved the funding.

The largest commitment, totaling more than $5.75 million, was made to Neighborhood Progress, Inc. (NPI). This organization was established in 1989 by The Cleveland Foundation, along with other foundations and private sector funding partners, to support carefully selected community development corporations (CDCs) and raise their levels of production. The goal was to produce housing, reshape retail areas, stimulate home improvements and make communities more attractive places to live. The results include:

-- More than 3,000 housing units for low, moderate and middle-income families
were produced in targeted neighborhoods.

-- Approximately 900,000 sq. ft. of new or rehabilitated retail spaces were
created.

-- An estimated $187 million in public and private sector investments were
leveraged.

-- Every home produced by CDCs offered for sale, new or rehabilitated, is sold.


-- Housing values in neighborhoods targeted by NPI in most cases have greater
home appreciation than the citywide average, already an impressive number.

The continued support of the Cleveland Foundation is a vote of confidence in NPI's work and its recommitment to neighborhood development issues for the next decade.

A significant grant was made to the Cleveland Center for Structural Biology (CCSB), a joint effort of the Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. The Center will benefit from a $3 million gift, the largest grant ever awarded by the Foundation for medical research, to support Phase Two of the CCSB project.

The grant will assist the Center in acquiring an ultra-high field 900 MHz Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectrometer, the most powerful instrument for visualizing the three-dimensional structure of proteins. It will be accessible to biomedical researchers at local institutions and biotech companies.

The Foundation continues to support the CCSB because:

-- The joint creation of CCSB by Case Western Reserve University

and The Cleveland Clinic established a formal relationship

between the city's most prominent research institutions.

-- The CCSB's accomplishment over the last five years has

increased Cleveland's prominence in the field of structural

biology.

-- The presence of high-caliber researchers has increased the

flow of research funding into the city.

Other notable grants include:

The Foundation awarded the Cleveland Municipal School District $350,00 to continue developing a data warehouse -- a computer and web-based mechanism for collecting and managing data used by decisions-makers at all levels of the organization (including teachers, principals, administrators and board members). Additional funding for the initiative comes from the district and the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation.

The Catholic Diocese of Cleveland was granted $630,000 to develop systems for strengthening enrollment and financial aid in with the Diocesan schools. These initiatives are among five recommendations made in a McKinsey & Company study of how the Diocese could continue to provide quality education in urban and inner city areas despite rising costs.

The Cleveland Museum of Natural History will receive a grant of $201,000 to purchase and install new planetarium equipment and to cover costs associated with staff training. In October 2001, the museum will open an 80-seat planetarium with state-of-the-art equipment. The new facility will allow the museum to expand public and school programs.

The Cleveland Foundation, a public charity dedicated to improving the quality of life in Greater Cleveland, is the oldest and second-largest community foundation in the nation. Its establishment in 1914 is cited as one of 10 events that most heavily influenced the development of the nonprofit sector in the 20th Century and it continues to be a leader in its field. The Foundation has assets of approximately $1.6 billion and last year awarded more than $72 million in grants and low-cost loans to Cleveland area nonprofit organizations.

The Cleveland Foundation is made up of more than 800 funds created by individuals, families, organizations and corporations. It offers donors of all means the opportunity to have a lasting impact on their community while maximizing income, gift and estate tax benefits.

For more information about the organization, visit www.clevelandfoundation.org.