It is great to go on vacation but it is just as good to be back. I hope you all have had a fun Fourth of July and gave yourself some time to relax and enjoy our beautiful country. I thought I would start my post-U.S.A. celebration Grant Gazing with a nod to our government’s efforts to support and encourage grassroots organizations that assist our countrymen and women. This grant is unique in that it gives funding to grantmaking organizations to help them supply additional support to others that make a difference.

This week’s pick: President Obama’s administration will work to leverage investments totaling $1 billion over five years administered by the Corporation for National and Community Service in support of high-impact social sector innovations. Our government has created an Innovation Fund to look for organizations that are providing successful community solutions and will use money to implement their programs and ideas on a bigger scale and to foster other new and unique responses.

"Solutions to America's challenges are being developed every day at the grassroots," Obama said during the White House gathering. "Government shouldn't be supplanting those efforts. It should be supporting those efforts."
- President Obama, June 2009

The fund will provide grants to existing grantmaking institutions that in turn support innovative, results-driven nonprofits. Grantmaking institutions and their nonprofit grantees will be asked to match the fund's investments. Go to http://www.nationalservice.gov/ to learn more.