During the first half of 2010, The Dayton Foundation awarded more than $14 million in grants from donor funds to a wide variety of charitable organizations in the Greater Dayton Region and beyond. A portion of this amount was made through the Foundation’s discretionary grants program, which a number of donors have made possible by providing unrestricted or largely unrestricted funds to The Dayton Foundation to be able to act on opportunities for the community and address pressing needs throughout Greater Dayton.

Discretionary grants are approved by the Foundation’s Governing Board to promote efforts in the areas of arts and culture, health, education, human services, philanthropy and other community-building endeavors in Greater Dayton. Recently the Foundation made $142,000 in discretionary grants to assist the following organizations in helping Greater Dayton.

Alzheimer's Association, Miami Valley Chapter ($17,000): To help provide home-care visits to individuals with Alzheimer's by purchasing laptop computers for staff to access and update client information.

American Red Cross, Dayton Area Chapter ($10,000): To help transition the Red Cross Family Living Center's emergency housing units into permanent supportive housing for people in need.

Community Blood Center ($20,000): To support leading-edge tissue research and development in the region, with the construction of the state-of-the-art Center for Tissue, Innovation and Research.

The Dayton Art Institute ($10,000): To assist in reaching broader and more diverse audiences through the Institute's Reaching Out to Our Neighborhood diversity project.

Fisher Nightingale Houses, Inc. ($25,000): To assist in building a compassionate care facility for military personnel and families whose loved ones are undergoing medical treatment at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base Medical Center.

KDI Workshop, Inc. ($15,000): To help purchase additional equipment to provide added career development activities for high school students with disabilities.

K12 Gallery for Youth ($10,000): To support an in-depth program, in partnership with the Montgomery County Juvenile Court Probation Services Department, as an alternative to juvenile incarceration.

Memorial United Church of Christ/Kids in New Directions ($15,000): To better serve East Dayton children in need by offering educational enrichment programs.

Parity, Inc. ($10,000): To facilitate the expansion of its mentoring services for at-risk youth in Dayton.

Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio Region ($10,000): To help convert to electronic health records to better serve patients and meet federal regulations due to take effect in 2012.