The Tomberg Family Philanthropies is pleased to announce our 2023 grants. We are happy to be able to support a number of truly excellent projects and organizations working to improve the world in our four primary funding areas of poverty alleviation, the environment, health and education.
We congratulate the following twelve organizations for their successful grant requests. Follow our social media pages for information about each project and organization!
Adolescent Health Champions
Adolescent Health Champions was founded in 2017 to address the critical intersection of gender, adolescent health, and education. We started AHC after seeing that, despite India having the most adolescents globally, there was a dearth of quality programs and interventions for this demographic. Adolescence is when youth solidify their own attitudes and behaviors, and so it is critical we engage with them during this formative period to shape lifelong healthy habits and positive health outcomes. To date, we have reached 12,800+ youth and trained 1,700 Champion peer health educators in 47 schools across India.
The project we support will assist a youth-led movement to transform adolescent health and gender in India.
Exhale Pro-Voice
Exhale Pro-Voice is the premier organization supporting the emotional health and wellbeing of people after their abortions and their loved ones. Our history began the year 2000, founded by and for people who have had abortions. We provide – and train others in providing – nonjudgmental after-abortion support.
Since our founding, Exhale Pro-Voice has been at the forefront of creating cultural change in how we discuss abortions and emotional wellbeing. We have partnered with the media to shift public dialogue; we have advised advocates on communications strategies; we have supported efforts for new emotional health research; and we have educated medical and mental healthcare providers to increase the quality and availability of nonjudgmental, Pro-Voice after-abortion counseling.
The project we support will expand upon their current peer-counselor training by developing a multi-tier, Continuing Education (CE) certified Pro-Voice Training Program designed for individuals outside of their organization who want to learn about the Pro-Voice framework
Gila Watershed Partnership
Founded in 1992 and headquartered at Eastern Arizona College Discovery Park Campus in Safford, AZ, The Gila Watershed Partnership (GWP) is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit Arizona Corporation. GWP strives to protect and improve the overall health of the Upper Gila Watershed of Arizona. Our watershed issues affect everything we do. Both the quality and quantity of our water plays an important part in our lives.
The Gila Native Plant Nursery, a division of the Gila Watershed Partnership, is a unique growing environment. Our nursery staff gathers and propagates only plants native to the Chihuahuan-Sonoran crossover region with only two exceptions (fig and pomegranates), providing plant materials for botanical gardens, conservation programs, and restoration nonprofits from all across southern Arizona, through southern New Mexico and across west Texas.
The project we support will increase the nursery capacity at the Gila watershed partnership.
Grameen Foundation
Grameen Foundation, founded in 1997, was inspired by the work of Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus, founder of Grameen Bank and a global leader in the fight against poverty. Grameen Foundation uses digital technology and data to understand very poor people, in detail, and offer them—and the entire ecosystem of agencies and actors surrounding them—empowering tools that meet and elevate their everyday realities.
The project we support will facilitate access to micro loans in one of the Uganda’s refugee settlements.
Greater Farallones Association
The Greater Farallones Association (GFA) is the non-profit partner of the Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary. Its mission is to ensure the Sanctuary remains an ecologically diverse and globally significant ocean environment.
The project we support is focused on advancing Blue Carbon understanding and management in Marine Protected Areas.
Guns Down America
Formed in 2016, Guns Down America is successfully building a future with fewer guns by weakening the gun industry and building political and cultural support for policies that will keep us safe from gun violence. Small but mighty, Guns Down America has led the gun violence prevention movement by ending the NRA’s lucrative insurance program, pushing major American banks to end their business relationships with irresponsible gun manufacturers, and forcing large retailers like Walmart to dramatically shrink gun sales.
The project we support helps to build a system that will allow banks and credit card networks to flag sudden bulk firearm and ammunition purchases made through debit and credit cards — purchasing patterns that are usually exhibited by would-be mass shooters and firearm traffickers.
John H. Boner Community Center
John Boner Neighborhood Centers (JBNC) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded to serve the residents of the Near Eastside neighborhood in Indianapolis. JBNC’s mission is to inspire neighbors and partners to improve the quality of life on the Near Eastside by providing tools for change and growth.
The project we support will pilot Indianapolis’ first Universal Basic Income (UBI) program.
Media in the Public Interest
Media in the Public Interest was developed by the founders of Public News Service who realized that nonprofits and grassroots organizations needed help interacting effectively with journalists. As a partner organization, MPI would keep the strategic communications work separate from the editorial work of PNS. Thus, in 2003, Media in the Public Interest was founded.
The project we support will launch a state level news service in Mississippi–Mississippi News Service (MNS)–to cover underreported public interest topics that receive too little attention in the MS news ecosystem.
Mission Fulfilled 2030
Mission Fulfilled 2030’s goal is to Inspire | Educate | Activate 100K Black Boys from disadvantaged and underserved communities to meet the digital high tech workforce demand of 2030. As a developing organization, we’re making good progress toward achieving our goals and with assistance from the philanthropic community, we can achieve our grand vision of impacting 100,00 Black males by 2030.
The project we support will not only serve to meet the predicted high-tech and STEM workforce demand shortage of the future but will have a long-term impact on the income/wealth and opportunity gap for young men within the BIPOC community of Rochester, NY.
Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association
The Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association (NSEA) is a 501 c(3) community-based, non-profit organization focused on reversing the trend of declining salmon runs in Whatcom County. We enhance river, creek, and riparian habitat while educating people of all ages to provide Pacific salmon & Steelhead the best chance at survival.
The project we support provides watershed education, and hands-on stewardship opportunities to residents, visitors, and recreational users of the Nooksack River in the Northwest corner of Washington state.
Studio Samuel
Studio Samuel is an Internationally Licensed NGO dedicated to lifting girls and women from poverty through our proven teach a woman to fish model, which is incorporated in each of our three programs. By removing barriers to her education, the impact on our graduates’ futures increases exponentially on her path to independence, leadership, and viable employment.
The project we support advances Studio Samuel’s “teach a woman to fish” model by empowering female heads of households [ages 24+] to take leadership roles in the community as entrepreneurs.
Thrive Allen County
Thrive Allen County is the largest and most prominent rural health advocacy organization in Kansas. We work relentlessly to make Allen County the healthiest rural community in the state, a community that thrives both physically and fiscally.
In 2017, Thrive’s vision was recognized nationally, as Allen County won the prestigious Culture of Health Prize from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, for pursuing innovative ideas and bringing partners together to rally around a shared vision of health.
The project we support will help streamline safety-net applications in three communities: Allen County, Butler County, and Woodson County.
Conclusion
We would like to thank all the organizations that submitted Letters of Inquiry and / or full grant requests. This year we were able to make grants to 16% of the organizations that applied for our assistance, a 400% increase over our previous grant cycle. To those organizations that we were unable to help this year, our decision should not be considered an opinion on the merits of your project. We wish you success in obtaining funding from other sources.
The mission of the Tomberg Family Philanthropies is to support well run and effective programs that make a difference in the areas of poverty alleviation, the environment, health and education. Our focus is on supporting projects that help their recipients build capabilities themselves that will last far beyond the end of the specific project.
You can learn more about us at www.tombergphilanthropies.org.
