October 26, 2005 - The Board of Trustees of the Grand Rapids Community Foundation recently approved the following grants to four area nonprofits.

• $30,000 to Degage Ministries for The Open Door. This seven day a week drop-in center on South Division Avenue is designed for women who are homeless or in crisis. It is open from 7 p.m. to 9 a.m. and provides showers, a food pantry, counseling, peer support groups and referral services. It has been operational since 2003 and this is the second Grand Rapids Community Foundation grant to The Open Door.
• $35,000 to Dwelling Place of Grand Rapids for its Three Fires Art Gallery and Institute. This grant will help with pre-development, feasibility and sustainability work for the rehabilitation space on South Division Avenue for a street-level art gallery and educational space for Native American artists. Members of the Pottawatomie, Odawa and Ojibwe tribes are working in collaboration with Dwelling Place on this project.
• $20,000 to Steepletown Neighborhood Services, Inc. This grant will help the organization with the development of a business plan for a neighborhood-based used furniture retail store and an occupational training program for high school students.
• $50,000 to the Nonprofit Technical Assistance Fund at the Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy at Grand Valley State University. It provides nonprofits with organizational and technical assistance. Example of the uses for the fund might include: strategic planning, capacity building, technology development, financial or human resource planning. The fund is also supported by the Heart of West Michigan United Way and Frey, Nokomis. Sebastian, Steelcase and Wege foundations.