The benefits of more than 50 years of donor generosity are ongoing in hundreds of programs - at hospitals and housing developments, churches, schools and social service centers, museums and music halls and many more places - that continue to improve education, health care, arts and culture, and civic and social services in our community.

CFT awarded grants totaling almost $69 million during the last fiscal year. A breakdown of how the grants were invested is shown in this pie chart, which includes donor-advised, designated and competitive grants.

At its March 2007 meeting, the CFT Grants Distribution Committee approved the following grant proposals, which were approved by the board. Grants to meet these requests came from the limited discretionary funds available for competitive grant awards:

• Avance, Inc. received approval for a $25,000 grant to update computers, servers, administrative machinery and software in support of the Avance-Dallas Parent-Child Education Program. Avance provides education to pre-kindergarten Hispanic children and their parents.

• Baylor Health Care System Foundation was recommended for $30,000 to purchase 10 "smart pumps" to administer continuous intravenous medications to newborns in the Blanche Swanzy Lange Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Baylor University Medical Center.   

• Carter BloodCare received approval for a $94,000 grant to purchase medical laboratory equipment to perform diabetes screening tests and to make this health information available to donors via the agency's newly designed interactive website. 

• Central Dallas Ministries was recommended for $17,400 to upgrade technology at the Ransom Technology Learning Center on Hall Street In East Dallas, and to expand the program to serve clients in the Turner Courts and Frazier Courts neighborhoods in South Dallas. The programs include computer training, GED classes, graphic- and web-page design, and job-search training.

• Creative Arts Center of Dallas received approval for a $27,112 grant to renovate and update the program's 68-year-old facility off I-30 and Ferguson Road. The center provides visual arts classes to students, age 16 and up, of all skill levels and experience. 

• Dallas Children's Theater was recommended for a $100,000 grant to sponsor the Student Matinee Performance Series, the Curtains Up on Reading artist residencies program, the After School Drama Club programs at 10 to 12 inner-city schools, and to purchase lighting instruments for the Baker Theater. 

• Dallas Opera received approval of a $10,000 grant toward the annual campaign in support of the Education Series (Emerging Artists Program and School Performance Program).

• Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra was recommended for $10,000 to support the Adventures in Music Program, a musical outreach effort for more than 60,000 children and their families.

• Friends of the Dallas Public Library received approval for $100,000 for renovation of the Central Library's seventh floor that houses the Texas/ Dallas History, Archives Division and the Fine Books Collection.

• Living Opera was recommended for a $4,000 grant to cover the costs of the set and costumes for touring productions of Puccini's Gianni Schicchi for use in schools throughout North Texas. 

• Mercy Medflight Inc. received approval of a $10,000 grant to purchase medical equipment for free, long-distance aero-medical transportation for non-ambulatory patients unable to pay the costs of commercial air ambulance.

• Vickery Meadow Management Corp.. received approval of a $10,000 grant toward the purchase of school uniforms and lightweight jackets for distribution to students at five elementary schools.