Charles River Conservancy awarded $75,000 Gift from The Boston Foundation Funding creative initiatives

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact info:
The Charles River Conservancy
617-619-2855
crc@thecharles.org

Cambridge, MA—December 27, 2007—The Charles River Conservancy (CRC) has been awarded a $75,000 Out of the Blue grant from the Boston Foundation, the only unsolicited and unrestricted grant to be awarded that quarter by Boston’s venerable and leading grant maker.

“Working in close partnership with the Commonwealth’s Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR)—which owns and manages the parklands, parkways, pathways, and bridges—the Conservancy does a phenomenal job of keeping up the parklands and making the banks of the Charles an enjoyable place to spend time,” said Paul S. Grogan, the President and CEO of the Boston Foundation. “This grant recognizes them not only for their work in the past, but for the promise their work holds for all who appreciate and take advantage of this precious resource we have right here in our own backyard.”

“The goal is to advance priority work in sectors of major interest to the Boston Foundation and to provide timely support to highly effective organizations,” according to the Boston Foundation’s annual report 2007. Grogan said the CRC was selected the for this “Out of the Blue” grant because it has “demonstrated a high level of achievement in terms of strong and effective community leadership, outstanding quality of work, and an impressive history of accomplishment.”

“This grant will allow us to undertake some projects that we believe are crucial as we move our mission forward but that have been lacking seed funding,” said CRC Founder and President Renata von Tscharner. According to von Tscharner, funding will be used to:

• Plan expansion of weekend road closings to cars to take better advantage of the parklands as a place for active recreation. To continue the Conservancy’s efforts to facilitate bicycle and inline skating along the river, this grant will help fund planning of a car-free Storrow Drive on Sunday mornings—following on the success of the 25 years of Sunday closings of Memorial Drive and the recent Hub on Wheels bicycle ride on Storrow Drive this past September.

• Explore events that will bring residents and visitors to the newly created parklands downriver from the Museum of Science known as the New Basin, where the skatepark will be built next year. These 40 acres of new parklands, not all built yet, will replace industrial wasteland as part the Big Dig mitigation. The Conservancy is now taking on the challenge of how to make this whole New Basin an active and attractive civic space.

• Expand the Conservancy’s parklands stewardship efforts, which annually bring some 2500 volunteers to work in the parklands to include the care of trees. While volunteers already do pruning in the winter, the new Tree Initiative will also look at caring for the many ailing trees and explore the planting of new trees.

• Inform a broader public about the Charles River Parklands by hosting a weekly TV show on BNN (Boston, Monday 7pm, channel 9). Conservancy staff and board members will interview politicians, historians, activists, landscapers, artists, athletes and others who care about the urban shores of the Charles.

• Update the Conservancy’s website, which Emerson College students donated to the brand new Conservancy in 2001.

“We are very grateful to the Boston Foundation for this grant, which quite literally comes to us from out of the blue,” said founding CRC board member Catherine Donaher of Brookline. “These funds will allow us to take on new initiatives that complement and expand on several CRC successful projects well underway, such as the Conservancy Volunteers, the Charles River Skatepark and the Swimmable Charles effort.”

The Charles River Conservancy is a nonprofit citizens’ advocacy group founded in 2000 and dedicated to the renewal and stewardship of the Charles River Parklands from the Boston Harbor to the Watertown Dam. While advocacy for and education about the parklands are the top priorities, physical improvements and events form part of the Conservancy’s efforts. The Conservancy’s other programs include bringing some 2500 volunteers to the parklands every year, improving the pathways, working on the return of swimming, illuminating the bridges, and organizing RiverSing with Revels. For more information about the Charles River Conservancy, please visit www.thecharles.org or call 617-619-2850.

The Boston Foundation, one of the nation’s oldest and largest community foundations, has an endowment of close to $770 million. Last year, the Foundation made grants of $63.9 million to nonprofit organizations and received gifts of $73.6 million. The Boston Foundation is made up of more than 850 separate charitable funds, which have been established by donors either for the general benefit of the community or for special purposes. The Foundation also serves as a civic leader, convener, and sponsor of special initiatives designed to build community. For more information about the Boston Foundation and its grant making, visit www.tbf.org, or call 617-338-1700.