Cooper Foundation Awards Second Quarter Grants
Lincoln, Neb. —Rabble Mill is a merger of two nonprofits, Hear Nebraska and The Bay, to create and execute innovative and impactful programming locally and statewide. The Cooper Foundation awarded a grant of $20,000 for general operating support. Rabble Mill’s mission is to end generational poverty, one young person at a time, by enabling kids to discover their passion and build valuable life and professional skills. Outreach, mentoring, and community connections are built into all their programming. The All-Access Pass program provides access to the indoor skate park; all-ages concert venue, educational programming, and their digital arts lab, The Collective. Their youth-created arts and culture print magazine, Rabble, is distributed to peers across the state. Skate for Change, with over 100 chapters worldwide, empowers youth to use their skateboards to give back to their communities, often collecting and distributing necessities to people experiencing homelessness.
Overall, Cooper Foundation’s Board of Trustees approved grants at the second quarter grant cycle totaling $185,090 to 15 nonprofit organizations. The foundation awarded grants to a diverse group of arts, community improvement, education, environment, humanities, and human services organizations. Grant recipients are located in Lincoln unless otherwise noted.
Arts
Crane River Theater, Kearney: $5,000
Toward operating support for the 2018 season of theatrical productions and arts education programs.
Lincoln Music Teachers Association: $5,000
For the Music Outreach Program.
LUX Center for the Arts: $15,000
Support for the Artist-in-Residence program.
Nebraska Cultural Endowment: $15,000
General operating support.
Rabble Mill: $20,000
General operating support.
Community Improvement
Nebraska Recycling Council: $9,795
Support for strategic planning.
Sunrise Communications/KZUM Radio: $10,000
General operating support for KZUM.
Education
Girl Scouts – Spirit of Nebraska: $10,000
To expand the Refugee Outreach program to elementary schools in Lincoln.
Lincoln Children’s Museum: $7,500
Support for outreach in collaboration with the Lincoln Public Schools Family Literacy program.
Environment
National Audubon Society, Spring Creek Prairie, Denton: $12,000
General operating support.
University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: $3,795
Support for a planning project to develop educational activities in the Prairie Corridor.
Human Services
Clyde Malone Community Center: $30,000
General operating support.
Fresh Start: $15,000
General operating support.
Multicultural Coalition, Grand Island: $12,000
Support for the Immigration Services Program (ISP), which will add immigration legal services for people in Central Nebraska.
Humanities
Nebraska Writers Collective: $15,000
Challenge grant for Louder Than a Bomb (LTAB): Great Plains Youth Poetry Festival.
The Cooper Foundation, established by Joseph H. Cooper in 1934, has granted nearly $24 million to benefit the people of Nebraska. The Foundation makes quarterly grants supporting arts, community improvement, education, environment, humanities and human services primarily in Lincoln and Lancaster County. For more information about grant eligibility and the application process, visit the foundation’s web site, www.cooperfoundation.org.