On May 24, the Community Foundation of Northern Illinois and HomeStart hosted a reception for recipients of the 2018 Neighborhood Grants Program. The Neighborhood Grants Program has been in existence since 1995 and has distributed more than $650,000 to neighborhood groups and organizations that have proposed projects to improve the quality of life of their communities through beautification, crime prevention, celebrations, communication, and education.

The Club Blue Grants Program supports organizations that supply the basic goods and services that promote the safety, health, and well-being of children in our community. Established in 2012, the group has raised nearly $1.5 million. This year, the application will be open from June 27 to July 31 at 5 p.m. Applications are submitted through CFNIL’s application portal and an independent Grant Committee formed by Club Blue reviews all applications.

If you’ve ever considered building an endowment for your nonprofit organization then join the Community Foundation of Northern Illinois at Klehm Arboretum on Wednesday, May 30 at 3:00 p.m. to learn more about the Carroll H. Starr Endowment Challenge. Staff will explain why building a permanent endowment at CFNIL may be right for your organization, what the Carroll H. Starr Endowment Challenge is, and how it works. You can RSVP for the kickoff event here.

The Rockford Symphony Orchestra will celebrate the beloved musician and composer/conductor Leonard Bernstein with a community-wide collaboration of events and performances.

Three Rockford University professors have received a $14,000 grant to study the spread of Lyme disease in northern Illinois from the Community Grants Program of the Community Foundation of Northern Illinois (CFNIL).

Discovery Center Museum will expand its STEM program for students in nine Rockford schools who are active in the After-School Achievement Program (ASAP). Discovery Center will: – Develop STEM-related hands-on activities for students in the ASAPs. Staff will visit each school twice a month and engage students in small group activities that build STEM skills.

Set within the Corpus Christi Monastery in Rockford, Illinois, Chosen (Custody of the Eyes) is an intimate portrait of Heather*, a former blogger and painter confronting what she believes is her calling: becoming a cloistered contemplative nun in one of the strictest religious orders, the Poor Clare Colettine nuns. Chosen is a coming-of-age story by first-time filmmaker Abbie Reese in collaboration with Heather, the film’s primary subject, and cinematographer. It is a truly intimate, one-of-a-kind look at monastic life from the inside.

Charles G. Uram was a friend and mentor to many and demonstrated the true value that is derived from volunteering and donating to our community. Chuck will always be remembered by the community and the Rockford Cosmopolitan Club as the person called upon to lead fund drives for many local nonprofits. Chuck’s spirit lives on through this annual award created to recognize community leaders with Chuck’s style and record of lifetime achievement.

The Community Foundation of Northern Illinois (CFNIL) and NW HomeStart are accepting applications for the Neighborhood Grants Program until 5 p.m. on Monday, April 2. The Neighborhood Grants Program is available to neighborhood-based groups and nonprofit organizations operating in Boone, Ogle, Stephenson, and Winnebago Counties.

In December, the Community Foundation of Northern Illinois announced the recipients of its Community Grants program from Fall 2017. Here’s a round-up of some of the media coverage that these organizations have received for their projects, programs, and events in recent weeks.

The YMCA of Rock River Valley recently received three grants from the Community Foundation of Northern Illinois to support YMCA programs that develop our region’s youth: • $15,500 for the YMCA Achievers program — Supported by the Dr. Louis & Violet Rubin Fund • $5,000 for the YMCA Intern Challenge program — Supported by the Glenn E. Thiel Memorial Fund • $3,546 toward YMCA Physical Education for Lydia Urban Academy — Supported by Dr. Louis & Violet Rubin Fund

Our City, Our Story: Live is bringing back live storytelling to the city. Similar to The Moth, residents are invited to tell true stories pertaining to a certain theme. The first installment of Our City, Our Story: Live will feature live storytelling based on the theme of “That One Time” and will screen episodes of the Our City, Our Story’s video series. This season’s videos have been watched more than 2.6 million times.

The Rockford Art Museum’s new exhibition, The Laura and John Fraser Collection, opens tonight and surveys one of the most recent major gifts to the RAM Permanent Collection in its entirety. The Fraser Collection is a stellar compilation of 122 contemporary paintings, prints, drawings, mixed media, sculptures, and ephemera by an international roster of 57 artists, including several local and regional artists. Concurrent exhibitions at the museum include the 77th Young Artist Show and additional selections from the RAM Collection.

The Rockford New Play Festival provides an opportunity for aspiring and established playwrights from the Rockford area to have their work evaluated, selected, and presented professionally to the public alongside national and international playwrights. Members of the public have the opportunity to experience brand new theatrical ideas and participate in vital discourse with playwrights and other theater practitioners in attendance.

Final preparations are being done to get ready for the 32nd Annual Illinois Snow Sculpting Competition. The free, family-friendly winter event hosted by the Rockford Park District is scheduled to be held in Sinnissippi Park, 1401 N. Second St., Rockford, IL, January 17-20, 2018. Teams will come from all over the state to Rockford to compete for the right to represent Illinois in the U.S. Nationals Snow Sculpting Competition; there is also a high school division. The massive works of art also bring roughly 30,000 visitors to Sinnissippi Park every year.

The Community Foundation of Northern Illinois’ (CFNIL) scholarship application deadline is a little over two weeks away. While the deadline is closing in, there’s still time for students to complete the application. Yes, even if you haven’t started yet.

The University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) College of Pharmacy at Rockford is proud to announce it has received a $38,870 grant for its project entitled “Investing in the Recruitment and Retention of Top Talent to the Profession of Pharmacy” from the Community Grants Program of the Community Foundation of Northern Illinois (CFNIL) with support from the Dr. Louis and Violet Rubin Foundation. “The Community Foundation is honored to support UIC’s project,” said CFNIL President Jon Bates.

The Community Foundation of Northern Illinois (CFNIL) is proud to announce the recipients of Community Grants for the fall 2017 cycle. In total, CFNIL committed up to $1.9 million over the next three years to 79 projects, programs, and events operated by nonprofit organizations in Boone, Ogle, Stephenson, and Winnebago Counties.

The Community Foundation of Northern Illinois will accept applications for the In Youth We Trust grant program until 5 p.m. on February 8, 2018.

The Community Foundation of Northern Illinois has awarded a three-year, $675,000 grant to Rock Valley College for its Linking Talent with Opportunity project. It is the single largest grant in the history of CFNIL’s Community Grants Program.

The Community Foundation of Northern Illinois (CFNIL) will open its scholarship application on Friday, December 1. CFNIL has 84 unique scholarships that will award more than $225,000 to local students this year. The application period will close at 5 p.m. on February 1, 2018. All of CFNIL’s scholarship endowments were created by individuals or organizations that recognize the importance of helping students achieve their educational goals, now and in perpetuity. The endowments’ creators selected the criteria for each scholarship, based on their interests and the community’s need.