Open Hearts Foundation
GRANT PROGRAM in 2022
Open Hearts Foundation’s grant making program impacts communities in need by providing direct support to emerging and growing nonprofit organizations, whose origins and mission align with the Open Hearts Philosophy.
Through a competitive grant making process, the Foundation vets, identifies, and funds these charities across the United States, helping them to feed the hungry, provide the most basic human necessities, offer lifesaving medical or mental health programs, and care for those populations who need it most.
We continue this work by raising awareness for their cause, partnering with them to share their stories, and staying connected through their successes and their challenges. Many of our charity partners match our grants with the generosity of their donors, helping them to serve even more in their community.
The Open Hearts Foundation has invested more than $1,799,545.00 since our founding and has impacted over 60 emerging charities across the United States.
In 2022, we transitioned from our COVID-19 Emergencry Relief Fund to return to our grantmaking that directly aligns with our Open Hearts Philosophy.
To learn about our work in the COVID-19 Pandemic, click this link.
To learn more about all of our charity partners, click here.
Grantmaking in 2022
Assistance League Coachella Valley
$5,000 grant to support the school clothing and hygiene kit program for over 4,000 socioeconomically disadvantaged students in Coachella Valley of California. Founded by retired teachers who witnessed the need of these children when they were volunteering in schools, participating students will receive three shirts, a pair of shoes, six pairs of socks, six undergarments, and hygiene supplies.
The Children’s Lifesaving Foundation
$10,000 matching grant to significantly help 35 families in their Vita Network in the Greater Los Angeles area and beyond, providing them with grocery gift cards, toiletries, needed supplies, backpacks and school supplies for their children, as well as providing support to 15 college scholarship recipients in their Care through College Program. In the summer of 1993, Maria D’Angelo founded The Children’s Lifesaving Foundation with a desire to help young people due to her initial experiences as a volunteer at a homeless shelter in Central Los Angeles, as well as her own experiences as an immigrant child in America, and her years teaching in New York.
Chinle Planting Hope
$5,000 seed grant to support the R.E.A.D. in Beauty (Reading Empowers Adventures and Dreams) Bookmobile and literacy program, covering the costs of computers, portable chargers, and STEM activities for personal enrichment and advancement in the often-disconnected community in the Navajo Nation of Chinle, Arizona. Founded by Navajo women, any of whom live without running water or electricity, these volunteers are working together to bring basic educational resources and play spaces to the children in their community.
Conejo Community Outreach
$5,000 grant to support their Diaper Bank, distributing diapers and wipes to families in the Conejo Valley, including teen and foster parents. This volunteer run organization was founded by Moms helping other Moms provide for their children and families.
Critical Mass Dance Company
$5,000 grant to expand their Women Empowerment program, partnering with local nonprofits and schools that work with trauma survivors to provide dance workshops and classes throughout the year. Founded by Sophia Kozak, this Los Angeles based charity has grown the Dance from the Heart program to serve trauma survivors in partnership with over 50 organizations throughout the Greater Los Angeles area.
Home Again Los Angeles
$10,000 grant to operate their new program, Lifting People Up, which will positively impact the lives of 500 individuals by increasing income, attaining employment, and achieving housing stability, while their children achieve a sense of normalcy despite experiencing homelessness or being on the verge of homelessness. In 2008, founding board member Jennie Greene-Smith recognized a shortage of accessible services for situationally homeless families with children, and worked to build a coalition of community organizations to offer wrap around services which help these families achieve sustainable independence.
Lending Hearts
$10,000 matching grant to support Lending Hearts’ Integrative Oncology Wellness Program for children and young adults living with cancer and their families. This program offers free integrative care to patients and families within UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and virtual programs for all, including educational panel discussions with leaders from across the country, yoga, mindfulness, relaxation, structured courses, and fellowship opportunities. The charity was founded by Vasso Paliouras, who saw a void in services available to young patients and their families when her own sister was diagnosed with cancer as a high school student.
Morrison Park Playground
$5,000 grant to create an inclusive all abilities play space in Agoura Hills, California where all children, disabled adults and veterans can play together. Founded by the father of Skylar Goldman, who suffers from cerebral palsy, epilepsy and is fed via a g-tube in his abdomen, the Morrison Park Playground seeks to create this new inclusive play space with the highest ADA standards applied.
Safe Alliance North Carolina
$10,000 matching grant to expand the capacity of the Children’s Program, given the growing needs of children witnessing domestic violence because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The program will provide basic supplies, food, and individualized therapeutic services and activities for children. Formed in 1909 by a group of businesses and leaders, Safe Alliance continues to be a community-based response charity providing hope and healing for those impacted by domestic violence and sexual assault.
Children of Inmates
$10,000 grant to provide healthy meals and snacks to children and their families during the charity’s signature bonding visits. Founded by seven organizations who came together to create opportunity for children with an incarcerated parent, the charity’s reunification programs have reconnected over 2,700 families with over 6,400 children in 22 Florida correctional facilities.
Creighton Community Foundation
$10,000 grant to support the Fresh in the Neighborhood program, distributing hunger relief food and consumable supplies for over 3,500 low-income Phoenix families. Founded by communities and individuals in the Creighton School District, the charity utilizes asset-based community development and engages its youth to create healthier communities by strengthening food access, improving life skills, and changing family nutritional patterns for the long-term.
Foster Angels, South Texas
$10,000 grant to respond to the distressing circumstances for vulnerable foster children in South Texas, and provide them with adequate food, clothing, shelter, educational support, and positive experiences. Ted Oakley, who experienced neglect and a difficult childhood, founded Foster Angels after years of personally buying things like shoes and clothing items for kids in foster care. Today, the charity helps 70- 75 children and youths in foster care weekly in 19 counties in South Texas.
Kids Community Dental Clinic
$10,000 grant to expand their services to 1 to 4 new schools impacting 600 children in the Greater Los Angeles area with free dental services and oral hygiene kits to eradicate their rampant decay and prevent other serious oral health diseases. Founded by Sisters of Providence at St. Joseph Medical Center who witnessed countless dental emergencies in the ER, the charity now engages volunteer Dentists and Dental Hygienists who serve over 9,000 children each year at their schools and another 2,200 within the clinic.
Manna Conejo Valley Food Bank
$10,000 matching grant to provide food and nutrition, relief, and caring support to those at risk in Conejo Valley, California. Founded by a group of women who witnessed the displacement and food insecurity of their neighbors, the charity has grown to become one of the largest independent food pantries in the region, serving approximately 7,500 individuals who are under-employed, seniors living on fixed incomes, disabled persons unable to work, or those experiencing persistent poverty.
My Sisters’ Place New York
$10,000 matching grant to support the delivery of services through the launch of a new community based “Survivor Safety Circles” during 2023. This new initiative will bring wrap around services to welcoming and trusted community spaces, in order to support the immediate needs of domestic violence victims and survivors as well as their children in Westchester County, New York. The charity was founded by the Yonkers Women’s Task Force, who was among the first to recognize and gather support for domestic violence victims in their community in the early 1970s.
Voices for Children Tampa Bay
$10,000 grant to provide every foster baby in their SWAT program with baby blankets, Boppy pillows, clothing, walkers, bassinets and necessity kits, while also providing foster children with shoes, clothing, bedding, educational necessities, medical services and extracurricular activities through their Children’s Needs Fund. The charity was founded by a group of businessmen and women who formed the charity to provide essential needs to foster children.
Impact Reports
Nonprofits which receive grants from the Foundation have certain obligations, including grant reporting and grant recognition. The impact of their grants and the stories of their service are life changing.