Grant History
Since its founding in 1994, The David and Lura Lovell Foundation has supported projects that focus on mind, body and spirit. The Foundation partners with organizations that address social needs in areas of personal interest to the Lovell family. The Foundation also has funded a diversity of projects in schools, endowed chairs at universities to educate the next generation, and nationwide philanthropic collaborations.
The Act One Field Trip Program engages students from Title 1 schools in Pima and Maricopa Counties in hands-on arts learning opportunities that provide a lasting and meaningful experience. Launched in the 2012-13 school year, the Field Trip Program is “full service,” providing transportation, tickets, and educational materials for a fee of only $1 per participant. Elements that distinguish Act One from other programs that provide arts experiences for students include focusing exclusively on Title 1 schools, covering transportation costs, paying arts partners for tickets, offering “one-stop” scheduling, and providing teaching materials related to the performance or exhibit and aligned with Arizona’s Core Curriculum. With Act One handling all the logistics, teachers can focus on students’ learning. In 2017 and 2018, the Field Trip Program received grants of $50,00 from the Lovell Foundation. In addition, their SEATS (Scheduling Educational Art Trips Service) initiative was awarded $187,000, payable over three years, in 2018.
Established in 1967, American Film Institute’s (AFI) mission is to preserve the heritage of the motion picture; to honor the artists and their work; and to educate the next generation of filmmakers. “Women They Talk About,” named for the lost 1928 film, will leverage the AFI Catalog of Feature Films to showcase the work of female film pioneers who have been omitted from history books and prove a theory that film historians have been pondering for years without scientific evidence: gender parity may have been achieved in the early decades of film. Through advanced research tools, new webpages, study guides and a slate of AFI public programs, “Women They Talk About” will bring the forgotten names of trailblazing female filmmakers into the vernacular, and provide information critical to understanding how and why the industry changed, so that discrimination does not continue into the future. AFI received a $73,600 grant in 2019 to support this initiative.
University of Arizona College of Medicine
Founded in 1994, Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine is dedicated to leading the transformation of healthcare by creating, educating and actively supporting a community of professionals who embody the philosophy and practice of integrative medicine. The program offers the broadest and most extensive range of fellowship programs available in the field, including distributed learning, residential sabbaticals, research training fellowships and the first integrative family medicine residency. Dr. Andrew Weil is founder and director. The Lovell Foundation granted $5,000 for marketing materials and $10,000 to assist with the Alumni Association’s first annual meeting. In 2000, the Lovell Foundation co-endowed the University of Arizona Arthritis Center’s Alana and Colbert Jones and David and Lura Lovell Endowed Chair in Integrative Rheumatology with a grant of $750,000. Upon changes in leadership and focus at UAAC, this chair was transferred to AzCIM in May 2006 and Dr. Weil was named the first chair-holder. The endowment will continue to provide funding for leading work in education and research in rheumatology, including modules on rheumatology for the residential and fellowship programs. The Lovell Foundation also funded $250,000 over five years (beginning in 2008) for the Integrative Medicine in Residency (IMR) program which changes the way medicine is practiced by changing the way residents are trained. The pilot program created a 200-300 hour curriculum designed for use in primary-care residency programs. In early 2008, AzCIM was named a Center of Excellence by the Arizona Board of Regents. In 2011, the foundation granted $300,000 over 4 years to support the newly established Pediatric Integrative Medicine Residency. In 2013, with the arrival of Dr. Esther Sternberg, the Lovell Foundation granted $300,000 over three years to provide start-up funds for the newly created Institute on Place and Well-being. In 2016, a $300,000 grant was approved, payable over two years, for an initiative in integrative health self-care. In 2019, $50,000 was awarded to support a strategic planning initiative.
AzCA was created in 1981 by business, community and arts sector leaders, with a mission of ensuring arts and culture is viewed as a critical contributor to Arizona’s quality of life. It advocates for public support for the arts at federal and state levels, and promotes the value of arts to community life, economic vitality, and education excellence.
In 2018, AzCA received a planning grant of $35,000 to develop/institutionalize an Arts Education Advocacy Network to be a collaborative, inclusive, unified voice for expanding access to arts education, and providing more classroom and teacher resources in Arizona schools. Arizona has a number of strong arts education policies in place as a foundation, with a gap between policy and practice. Closing this gap requires accountability for quality arts education; a public awareness/constituent building campaign; and a committed, organized network of arts supporters who can mobilize as advocates and act as public allies on behalf of quality arts education.
Arizona Grantmakers Forum (AGF) is a statewide network that connects, educates and advocates for Arizona philanthropy. Founded in 1986 and incorporated in 2001, AGF’s mission is to empower its members to transform Arizona through leadership and meaningful philanthropy. In early 2018, AGF was invited by southern Arizona members to assume the role of convener for the informal networking group, Southern Arizona Grantmakers to create Arizona Grantmakers Forum – Southern Arizona Network (AGF-SAN). In 2018, they received a grant of $15,000, payable over three years, to support creation of the new network.
University of Arizona
Arizona Public Media is a trusted source of information that promotes thoughtful conversation and community collaboration. AZPM creates, acquires and distributes distinctive and relevant content for, with and about Southern Arizona, the University of Arizona and the Southwest. AZPM achieves this strategic intent through focused efforts in five key areas – audience development, financial sustainability, developing people and culture, strategic partnerships and technology. In 2006, the Lovell Foundation granted $7,073 for a pre-screening event, outreach and advertising for the broadcast premiere of “The New Medicine: Integrating Body, Mind and Spirit” (www.thenewmedicine.org). In 2012, the foundation provided a challenge grant of $95,400 ($31,800 per year for three years) to support a mental health producer/reporter to create specific in-depth segments around mental health-related topics, communicating in such a way that the audience gains an accurate non-stereotypical understanding of mental illness, and to provide perspective on stories throughout the spectrum where an understanding of mental issues or impacts can play a critical or productive role. This challenge was met at the end of 2012. Additional grants in support of the mental health producer/reporter were made in 2015-17, totaling $98,250. In 2018 an additional grant was approved for $98,250, payable over three years. In 2015 and 2016, the foundation made grants totaling $220,000 to support the production of two documentaries, Not Broken and Passing On. Passing On, which discusses death, dying and end of life planning, was selected by PBS for national broadcasting, and received an Emmy award.
The mission of the Arizona Theatre Company is to create professional theater that continually strives to reach new levels of artistic excellence in the state of Arizona and throughout the nation. Recognizing the importance of sharing the power of professional theater with the next generation, ATC maintains a strong commitment to its educational programming, offering a range of opportunities for students and teachers throughout Arizona. The Lovell Foundation granted $7,500 in January 2009 to assist the ATC in enabling 3,000 middle and high school students to experience professional theater through performances, classroom workshops and classroom curriculum. This included bus transportation and ticket subsidies for underserved students. Between 2010 and 2015, the foundation funded an additional $40,000 for this matinée program. Additionally, the foundation granted $5,000 for outreach surrounding ATC’s production of Next to Normal to promote this production and mental health awareness within the community. In 2017, they received $10,000 in support of their Student Matinee Series – Tucson, with additional funding approved in 2018 of $22,500, payable over three years.
Arts for All provides special considerations during planning and programming for persons with physical, learning and intellectual disabilities, visual and hearing impairments, emotional disturbances, mental illness, behavior problems, autism, and seizure disorders. All programs attempt to provide a quality art focus for children and youth with and without disabilities and adults with disabilities. Arts for All has three programs which merge the arts with human services: daily out-of-school time classes, Summer Arts Camp and a day program for adults with disabilities. In 2018, they received a grant of $20,000 for transition planning, strategy development, and potential partnership for Arts for All’s future, with additional support of $25,000 in 2019 for the new strategic partnership.
Youth In Philanthropy
The Southern Arizona Chapter of the Association of Professional Fundraisers enlists the participation of schools, youth groups and other nonprofits to offer them seed money and a curriculum to assist middle-school-age youth in understanding the value of philanthropic giving in their lives and within their communities. In 2011, the Lovell Foundation provided the Youth in Philanthropy program a grant of $2,100 as part of its Youth Philanthropy Initiative.
Youth Funding Youth Ideas (YFYI)
Bay Area Community Resources includes Communities in Harmony Advocating for Kids, which operates a city-wide youth philanthropy program launched in 2003 called Youth Funding Youth Ideas. In 2011, the Lovell Foundation provided YFYI with a grant of $5,000 as part of its Youth Philanthropy Initiative.
The purpose of Spiritual Generalist Training for Healthcare Providers at Brandeis University is to expand capacity to deliver spiritual care. Most patients have religious/spiritual needs, even if not religiously affiliated or even atheist/humanist. Spiritual/religious care has been shown to increase patient satisfaction and strengthen patient-provider relationships. While chaplains often provide this care, there are not enough of them to meet the demand in many contexts, especially palliative care. It is important for non-chaplain clinicians to know how to provide basic, culturally appropriate spiritual care and to refer patients and family members to chaplains as spiritual care specialists when needed. In broad terms, generalist spiritual care refers to attending to patients’ self-reported religious or spiritual needs as they pertain to their health; in practical terms, it includes tasks such as conducting spiritual screening to determine a patient’s needs, responding to the spiritual concerns of patients and their families, and providing basic spiritual care to patients and families. It is not meant to replace the specialized care of highly-trained chaplains; instead, it supports all patients, and helps identify those in need of the specialist care chaplains are uniquely prepared to provide. In 2019, a grant of $84,955 was awarded to support Spiritual Generalist Training for Healthcare Providers.
The Bravewell Collaborative, an operating foundation, exists to bring about optimal health and healing for individuals and society by organizing and sustaining a community of philanthropists dedicated to advancing integrative medicine. The collaborative is committed to: offering strategic and informed program initiatives which create optimal healing environments for both patients and healers; creating an atmosphere of collaboration that stimulates and supports innovation in integrative medicine, and providing educational opportunities for health professionals, consumers, philanthropists and others in position to move American healthcare to integrative medicine. Both Ann and Lura Lovell served on the Board of Directors, and Ann is the organization’s treasurer. The Lovell Foundation granted $500,000 for membership over a 13-year period, $61,100 for a mapping initiative, $250,000 to support the PBS documentary “The New Medicine: Integrating Body, Mind and Spirit” and an additional $50,000 for educational outreach around the broadcast of “The New Medicine.” The foundation granted $32,500 for a Bravewell Fellowship practicing in a community clinic in the San Francisco area and $200,000 toward the four-year strategic plan for 2007-2010. The foundation granted $41,000 for an additional Bravewell Fellowship for a nurse at the National Institute of Nursing Research and $20,000 to support a one-half scholarship for an additional fellowship for the final Bravewell Fellows class graduating in 2012. In 2013, the foundation granted a final $50,000 for two legacy projects – PRIMIER, a national database of uniformly collected patient-reported outcomes and provider observations – and the Leadership Program in Integrative Healthcare, a partnership with Duke Integrative Medicine and Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, Medical School and Clinical Research Institute.
Camp Reel Stories (CRS) media camp for girls believes that when women and girls are better represented behind the scenes in the media, they will be better reflected on the screen. The media industry is prevalent, pervasive and influential in how women and girls are perceived in the world. CRS offers 1- and 2-week filmmaking summer camps and mid-year workshops to 12-18 year old girls, empowering them to create their own media, view current media critically and thoughtfully, and aspire to careers in their chosen field. CRS is taught by top professionals working in the industry, and gives young women the storytelling and production skills to showcase their unique points of view. The curriculum incorporates technical skills, collaboration, critical thinking, problem solving, media literacy, leadership, and mentoring. Camp culminates with a film festival, which draws an audience of several hundred each year. CRS films are accepted into film festivals all over the country and also distributed through schools, community events, and social media. In 2017, they received a grant of $20,000, with an additional $30,000 awarded in 2018.
In the United States, one in four people shot by a police officer has a serious mental illness, as do almost 25 percent of jail inmates and 15 percent of state prison inmates. Police officers have increasingly become first responders to people experiencing a mental health crisis, despite the fact that they have few effective tools for dealing with them. In San Antonio, under government auspices, the mental health and law enforcement communities formed a coalition to help the mentally ill find help, and support them when they do, that has resulted in quantifiable change, both institutional and structural. The documentary film (Ernie & Joe) will show the ways in which San Antonio has changed its approach to training and policing, and its impact. The film follows two police officers with the San Antonio Police Department’s mental health unit (along with their fellow officers) as they respond to 911 calls and work to divert people from jail and into treatment. There is tremendous opportunity for Ernie & Joe to bring uncomfortable issues to the table and provide other communities a road map to improve communication, empathy, and awareness in providing support to those in crisis.
In 2018, the Center for Independent Documentary received a grant of $50,000 to support the film Ernie & Joe. An additional grant was made in 2019 for $50,000 outright, plus a 1:1 matching grant up to $25,000.
Central Catholic is a coeducational high school located in Toledo, Ohio. It serves a diverse population and provides course studies at six ability levels to enable a larger number of students to achieve success. Central Catholic also accepts graduates from Mary Immaculate, a local school providing special education where Robert Lovell attended. Central Catholic offers a unique curricular program that focuses on students who have significant learning challenges along with emotional needs. The program uses the “inclusion” concept in which services for its Project 100 students are delivered in the normal classroom setting. The Lovell Foundation granted $8,000 to the Project 100 program, then an additional $100,000 to support an endowment for this program. The Lovell Foundation also awarded $50,000 to endow a scholarship program for students with identified disabilities who could be served by the special education programs provided by Central Catholic.
Chicken & Egg Pictures’ Accelerator Lab for first- and second-time filmmakers provides timely out-of-the-box support to expand the pipeline of ascending women non-fiction filmmakers. Chicken & Egg empowers women directors from a range of diverse backgrounds and experiences to realize their artistic goals, build sustainable careers, create positive social change, and achieve parity in the film industry. The Accelerator Lab helps each filmmaker align her creativity, style, and unique voice with industry best practices; produce and finish the film faster; and lay the foundation for a sustainable career that is as much about the art of storytelling and catalyzing social change as it is about the business of film making. Chicken & Egg Pictures showcases the power of women’s voices to expose and confront human rights abuses, inequalities, and injustices in communities across the United States and the world, and believes in the power of film to reframe seemingly intractable issues, humanize them, and effect change. In 2017, they were awarded a grant of $80,000.
In 2018, Chicken & Egg Pictures received a $138,165 strategic planning grant.
Celebrating 30 years in 2016, CMT is the only arts resource devoted to children in all of Southern Arizona. CMT’s mission is to provide fun, play-based, hands-on learning experiences for children and families. Art After Dark is a monthly arts program for youth featuring interactive activities facilitated by CMT and local arts organizations. Admission and all hands-on activities are provided at no cost, and all visitors to Art After Dark receive a complimentary return-visit pass to CMT. The Artivity program started in 2014 as a collaboration with the Tucson Museum of Art and Sonoran Glass School to provide large-scale community arts events throughout the year. In 2017, CMT received a grant of $25,000 to expand Artivity into a year-round Art After Dark program to include a wider audience and more arts organizations. In 2018, the Art After Dark program was granted an additional $25,000.
The mission of Children’s Theatre Association (CTA) is to encourage theatrical excellence and provide live musical theater at no charge for primarily inner-city schoolchildren in the San Francisco Bay Area, in hope that the experience will serve as a springboard to a lifetime appreciation for musical theater and the arts in general. CTA partners with the San Francisco Unified School District to entertain as many students as possible, as funding for the arts in public schools continues to decrease. After each performance, teachers follow up by asking their students to critique the show, comment on their favorite character, and discover what moral they derived from the story. In 2017 and 2018, they were awarded grants of $10,000.
CommunityShare is an online network that connects the skills of volunteer community professionals, leaders, organizations and businesses in the greater Tucson region with the goals and needs of educators in schools and informal learning environments. Teachers and community partners work together to create “real-world” learning opportunities for youth to discover their own passions and transform them into career possibilities. In 2016 CommunityShare received a $15,000 grant from the Lovell Foundation through the CITY Center for Collaborative Learning. Additional grants of $69,000 were awarded in 2017, and $75,000 in 2019.
C-TAC is a non-partisan, diverse alliance of consumer advocacy groups, healthcare professionals and providers, private sector stakeholders, faith-based organizations, and healthcare payers with the shared mission of ensuring all Americans, especially the sickest and most vulnerable, receive comprehensive, high quality, person- and family-centered care that is consistent with their goals and values and honors their dignity. Today, many individuals with advanced illnesses receive care that is fragmented, uncoordinated, or inadequate to meet their needs and personal wishes. The direction of demographics in the United States will make the required level of services and trained professionals inadequate to respond to the care and wishes of the rising numbers of those in need. In 2019, C-TAC was awarded a grant of $220,000 to define and develop an Index of Measures for the care of individuals in Arizona with serious illness in order to help determine whether the implementation of best practices, which may not currently be in use across the state, can lead to positive and measurable changes.
The Complementary Medicine Center opened for clinical services in October of 2001 and offered acupuncture, massage, hypnosis, yoga, tai chi and herbal counseling. The center’s focus was to integrate traditional and complementary practices. The Lovell Foundation granted $13,800 to initiate a six-week standardized Reiki Treatment Protocol in persons with chronic pain. It was hoped that the results of the study would help to create a Reiki treatment protocol that would be proposed for use in a clinical setting that is evidence-based, efficient and economical. The Lovell Foundation also granted $32,660 to study the effects of therapeutic touch on arthritis of the knee in order to determine the effects of these treatments on pain, level of functioning and quality of life. The Lovell Foundation provided $25,000 to support the Wellness Initiative for Future Health Care Providers. In 2010, the foundation also granted $25,888 to support the Translation from Classroom to Clinic wellness program for third-year medical students.
The CIPM Policy Congress (under fiscal sponsorship of The Pain Community) is dedicated to improving access to comprehensive integrative pain management, giving it national visibility and lasting impact to raise awareness and catalyze change to advance integrative health and wellness overall. The Policy Congress unites leaders who represent patients, the full scope of healthcare providers, public and private insurers, government agencies, and policy and research experts, brought together with a common interest in advancing comprehensive integrative pain management. In 2019, they received a grant of $332,200, payable over two years, to identify a core around which the group can coalesce to maintain its momentum and ensure sustainability.
Corpus Christi University Parish is the official name of the Catholic presence at the University of Toledo formed in 1976. This parish serves approximately 10,000 students who attend the university, as well as faculty, staff and the community. Corpus Christi is part of the nationwide effort of the Catholic Church to provide ministry for collegians at public universities. Father James Bacik was the pastor until 2012 and the congregation included David and Lura Lovell. The new Catholic student center was built on 3 ½ acres directly across from a main entrance to UT. Lura Lovell served on the parish building committee. The library in the church complex was dedicated to David C. Lovell in a ceremony on December 5, 1998, attended by the entire family as well as hundreds of well-wishers. Diane Nyitray was commissioned to create a portrait of David, which hangs in the library. The Lovell Foundation granted Corpus Christi’s building fund $1,000,000 and granted $500,000 to be endowed for the purpose of assisting with the parish’s ongoing operating expenses. The Lovell Foundation also granted $100,000 to support the Christian Leadership Program and $3,000 to the Mary Peskor Memorial Fund in honor of the mother of Lura’s longtime friend, Francine Lawrence. The endowments were retained in the Lovell Foundation’s portfolio with quarterly distributions provided at 6 percent (totaling $210,000). On June 31, 2009, these funds and associated market gains (totaling $102,932) were distributed to Corpus Christi Parish upon their request.
Coyote’s mission is to provide vocational and pre-vocational services through peer support, in a safe environment, for adults recovering from serious mental illness who are enrolled in the State Indigent Behavioral Health Care system. They strive to combat personal and societal stigma associated with mental illness by providing ongoing peer support, education about mental illness, and community interaction with recovering adults.
• Our Place Clubhouse: Opened in 1989, the Clubhouse has been run by Coyote Task Force since 1992. The Clubhouse model is a best-practice non-clinical program to empower and support individuals with serious mental illness in their recovery process. Membership is voluntary and lasts a lifetime; all are welcomed back at any time with no waiting lists or delays. The Clubhouse provides structured unpaid work experiences where members gain confidence and build on their talents, and offers a variety of supported transitions into community-based paid employment.
• Café 54: Opened in 2004, Café 54’s mission is to assist citizens with mental illness in becoming self-sufficient, to provide the community with a pool of reliable employees with training and first-hand experience working in a real employment setting, and to reduce the stigma surrounding mental illness by shifting focus from disabilities to abilities. Individuals receive one-on-one on-the-job training in a variety of restaurant positions. A job developer works closely with trainees to create a resume and career goals, preparing them for re-entry into the Tucson workforce.
In 2017, Coyote Task Force received a $25,000 grant for capacity building.
Culture Jam Youth Camp was created by the Oregon Country Fair as a way to provide a youth camp based upon the Power of Hope program developed in Seattle. The camp focuses on using the arts as a means of self expression and empowerment. A team of artists, writers, actors, naturalists, musicians and dancers show teens how to use the arts to unleash their power. The Lovell Foundation granted $101,000 to support this program over 10 years. In 2012, the foundation provided a two-year grant totaling $10,000 for the Oregon Country Fair to develop an integrated fundraising plan.
Dancing Wheels is a professional, modern dance company that unifies both stand-up and sit-down dancers and provides awareness of the possibilities for people with disabilities, as well as being inspirational for all. The Lovell Foundation granted $2,000 to assist in bringing this dance group to Toledo for a performance in April 2005.
The goal of the End of Life Care Partnership is to develop and implement a broad-based collaboration with a shared vision that all individuals expect excellent healthcare at all points in their life transitions; to die with dignity, meaning, and respect; and that our communities and health systems can meet those expectations. The mission is to encourage broad community dialogue; recognize and support diverse communities through culturally relevant initiatives; advance geriatric, hospice and palliative care initiatives through education and workforce development; create a call to action to influence public policy and reimbursement practices; encourage collaboration to ensure best quality care; provide a neutral forum for information exchange in the face of competing priorities/entities; and champion both immediate and long-range initiatives to significantly improve end of life care. The United Way of Tucson and Southern Arizona serves as the umbrella organization for the Partnership.
In 2017, the Lovell Foundation made grants totaling $2,057,619 to support the work of the following members of the Partnership:
- Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association – $1,000,000, payable over four years, to support Thoughtful Life Conversations
- Interfaith Community Services – $500,000, payable over three years, to support the Wholistic End of Life community outreach and education program
- Our Family Services – $50,000, payable over two years, to support engagement in the Partnership
- Southwest Folklife Alliance – $50,000, payable over two years, to support engagement in the Partnership
- Tu Nidito – $50,000, payable over two years, to support engagement in the Partnership
- Tucson Medical Center Foundation – $229,000 to support TMC and Community Advance Care Planning Program
- University of Arizona Center on Aging – $28,617, payable over three years, to support the Living Will Project
- United Way of Tucson and Southern Arizona – $600,002, payable over three years, for planning/infrastructure support of the End of Life Care Partnership
In 2019, additional grants totaling $731,656 were made in support of the Arizona End of Life Care Partnership:
- The Dunbar Coalition – $ 25,000 to support integrating end of life workshops into their Health and Wellbeing Program
- El Rio Community Health Center – $25,000, to support integrating end of life workshops into their Employee Value Health Incentive Program and $256,656, payable over two years, to support a Registered Nurse – Advance Care Planning as part of the RN Care Management team
- Our Family Services – $50,000 to support engagement in the Partnership
- Southern Arizona Senior Pride – $25,000 to support integrating end of life workshops into work with the LGBTQ+ community
- Southwest Folklife Alliance – $50,000 to support engagement in the Partnership
- Tu Nidito – $25,000 to support engagement in the Partnership
- United Way of Tucson and Southern Arizona – $400,000 to support enhanced infrastructure for the Partnership
Friends of the Future was established in the early 1990s in Kamuela, Hawaii, to increase community stability and esteem by developing cultural anchors, to promote dialogue that brings together community members of diverse backgrounds to effectively focus community resources on community identified needs, and to develop community-based activities that significantly improve the health-related quality of life of those residing in North Hawaii. The Lovell Foundation granted $5,000 for the Health Maps program which provides a computer-assisted health and wellness learning program. The Lovell Foundation also granted $5,000 for Earl’s Garage which provides a science-based project learning center that offers after-school programs in science and technology and is a site for class field trips to supplement science curriculum. In 2010, the foundation granted $10,000 to support Tutu’s House: Perspectives on Healthcare, a community healthcare program. An additional grant of $15,000 was made to Tutu’s House in 2017.
GTFF’s Firefighter Mental Health and Wellness Program links firefighters and their families with services that are confidential, timely, and affordable. The program saves careers and lives by addressing unhealthy coping behaviors and mental health problems such as depression and post-traumatic stress. To overcome the stigma firefighters have regarding the use of available services and eliminate the barriers to seeking help, the GTFF reaches out to first responder agencies, their unions, and medical/behavioral health professionals throughout the area. The GTFF has hosted and participated in workshops, seminars and national conferences to address first responders’ problems coping with family and job-related stress. GTFF addresses the stigma of seeking assistance with an “off campus, out of the chain of command” model, in partnership with providers that are aware of the unique first responder culture and available within 24 hours. The GTFF also helps with costs of the counseling sessions. In 2017, they received a grant of $25,000, payable over two years.
Healing Works was founded in New York City in 1994 as the nation’s first nonprofit organization dedicated to offering holistic wellness services free of charge. The mission was to empower low-income individuals to achieve physical and emotional wellness by providing them with the opportunity to experience the healing power of holistic care. Healing Works was particularly qualified to respond after the World Trade Center attacks on September 11, 2001, because the nonprofit had an existing network of almost 200 volunteers who immediately mobilized in response to the disaster. Mental health and stress reduction services were provided to police and fire personnel and to community agencies throughout the city. The Lovell Foundation granted $5,000 to support these efforts. Sara Lovell was also involved with Healing Works.
An initial grant was made to the National Alliance on Mental Illness Southern Arizona (NAMI SA) to launch Help & Hope for YOUth (HH4Y), the state-wide youth mental health initiative and multi-sector coalition in Southern Arizona. After the initiative was transferred to Arizona Youth Partnership, a subsequent grant was made to sustain and expand HH4Y. HH4Y engages community partners to ensure that youth ages five to 24 and their families have the education and access they need to identify and seek early care for mental health concerns, just like any other health problem. The coalition also works to make sure that help is available, regardless of ability to pay. Our focus on youth is because the earlier we act on mental illness, the better the outcomes for everyone involved.
HOPE, Inc., is a peer- and family-run outpatient treatment center that provides psychosocial rehabilitation and counseling services for adults using the public behavioral health system, being discharged from a crisis facility or incarceration, on probation or parole, or in behavioral health court or diversion programs. All services are provided in a peer-supported, member-driven and recovery-focused model of care to help members form supportive relationships, develop social supports, live independently and access community education and resources. In 2014, the Lovell Foundation granted $24,875 toward the Health and Wellness Program, focused on their clients living with serious mental illness. HOPE’s Young Adult Peer Music Program received a grant of $35,000 in 2015. In 2019, they received a grant for $27,500 to ensure stability through consolidation with a complementary peer-run agency.
Established in 1981, Hospice of Northwest Ohio continues to be the only nonprofit agency in the Toledo, Ohio area specifically created to care for terminally ill patients and their families. Providing holistic medical and nursing care, plus spiritual and emotional support, Hospice serves more than 1,300 patients a year in their homes or in the Edward and Marion Knight Hospice Inpatient Center. Hospice is staffed by approximately 175 medical, nursing and counseling professionals whose efforts are enhanced by more than 250 trained volunteers. JoDee Robertson, a Lovell Foundation trustee, was one of Hospice’s trained volunteers. Hospice works in teams to assure every patient and family is fully supported during the patient’s illness and death. The staff continues to provide support to surviving family members for at least a year following the patient’s death. After a patient’s death, specially trained social workers, psychologists, clergy, art and music therapists, bereavement counselors and volunteers come together to work as a team with the family. These unique community support services are offered free to the public and are dependent on private funding. The Lovell Foundation granted $100,000 to support Hospice’s family bereavement counseling services over a four-year period and $45,800 for the Caregiving at Life’s End Program trainings (Anamcare) including a challenge grant for support of the fourth and final unit of Anamcare in 2011, which was fulfilled in 2012.
The Institute for Mental Health Research was established as a world-class institute for mental health research in the state of Arizona. The institute has three major focus areas – women, children and families. The Lovell Foundation granted $25,000 for a one-day conference targeting the stigma surrounding mental illness. The program was designed to educate the public, policy makers, the media and interested individuals about the advances in mental health that can and do allow people with mental illness to live fulfilling lives as active participants in their families and communities. The Beautiful Minds & Creative People: Erasing the Stigma of Mental Illness symposium was held in Phoenix, Arizona on Nov. 21, 2003. There were 11 presenters, including award-winning producer Bill Lichtenstein, who presented his film “West 47th Street,” and Susan Smiley, who presented her documentary http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCWGdUFyT8Q
Interfaith Community Services was established in 1985 to assist the elderly, the disabled and disadvantaged to achieve stable and independent lives. The nonprofit accomplishes this with the support of faith communities, volunteers and the community at large. Programs providing service to more than 40,000 individuals include a Food Bank, Emergency Financial Assistance Program, Caregiving Services, Mobile Meals and Health Advocacy. The Lovell Foundation provided grants totaling $150,000 between 2008 and 2013 to support the implementation of ICS’s Health and Wholeness Program. This program assists leaders in faith communities with integration of health-related activities into the life of their congregation. The foundation also granted $50,000 to support the 2012 Faith and Mental Illness Conference. This grant included additional post-conference follow-up as efforts continue to embed mental health into the already existing Health and Wholeness Program. In 2013, $50,000 was granted to continue the follow-up activities and support the planning of the 2014 Faith and Mental Illness Conference. An additional grant of $115,000, payable over two years, was made to increase ICS’s outreach and impact through an integrated whole health initiative in 2014-2015. The foundation continued its support of the ICS annual conference, Faith Communities and Well Being, with a grant of $25,000 in 2016. Grants payable between 2015 and 2017 were also approved for a total of $560,000 to support the Faith and Community Health Network, and $60,000 for Mental Health Safe Space. In 2017, as a member of the End of Life Care Partnership, ICS was awarded $500,000, payable over 3 years, to support the Wholistic End of Life community outreach and education program. In 2018, $100,000 was granted to support the Care Partners Coalition, which provides non-medical support to medically fragile individuals recently released from hospitalization.
The Invisible Theatre of Tucson started in 1971 as an arena for local playwrights and has expanded its programs to include adaptations of classics and recent Off-Broadway plays and musicals. It is dedicated to producing quality theater and arts education experiences for all facets of the community in an intimate setting that showcases local professional talent and guest artists. IT has also been working with special-needs children for the past 28 years through Project Pastime – a prototype of innovative out-of-school arts education programming for youth designed to increase understanding and acceptance of the diverse qualities and gifts of mentally and physically challenged young people. In 2013, the foundation granted $6,000 to support Project Pastime’s production of “The Me Inside of Me: An INVIS-ability Project,” an original musical that the students help create and perform for community and school audiences. An additional $4,000 was granted to provide matching funds to leverage a grant from another funder and for general support of the organization. This grant was used to build IT’s development infrastructure. Support for Project Pastime continued with grants of $7,500 in 2014 and $8,000 each year in 2015, 2016, and 2017. In 2018, Project Pastime received an additional grant for $21,000, payable over three years.
Iowa State University is the alma mater of both David and Lura Lovell. David received his degree in chemical engineering in June 1950 and Lura, who majored in child development, received her degree in home economics in March 1951. Father James Supple, a campus minister, provided the education necessary for Lura to convert to Catholicism and presided at David and Lura’s marriage ceremony. The Lovell Foundation contributed $100,000 to help create the Msgr. James A. Supple Chair of Catholic Studies at Iowa State University. The Lovell Foundation also granted $102,500 to the Iowa State University Foundation to endow a scholarship in honor of David. The David C. Lovell Scholarship is awarded annually to outstanding sophomores in the engineering program. The Engineering College Scholarships and Awards Committee selects the recipients. The Lovell Foundation also granted $150,000 to establish the Lura M. Lovell Fellowship for the benefit of research on botanical supplements.
Let it Ripple’s mission is to use film, technology discussion materials, and live and virtual events to engage people in conversation and action around complicated subjects that are shaping our lives, and update these topics through an engaging 21st century lens. 50/50 Day is an annual global initiative where, all on the same day, thousands of organizations, companies, schools, museums, libraries, and homes gather to screen films and join a global conversation about what it will take to get to a more gender-balanced world across all sectors of society: business, politics, culture, economy, the home, and more. The ultimate goal is to galvanize audiences, momentum, and press as a catalyst for year-round education, inspiration, and action. In 2017, the Lovell Foundation granted $200,000, payable over two years, to support 50/50 Day.
PLAN is part of a national alliance that assists families in creating programs of assistance and care for the time when the parents can no longer provide for their mentally ill family members. Plans of care are set up to use the income from testamentary trusts utilizing the supplementary trust laws. The Lovell Foundation granted a total of $102,000 to this organization between 1996 and 1998.
The Mariachi Miracle is a documentary film illustrating the transformational power of the youth mariachi and folklorico movement turning to its own culture to solve its own problems, and in the process creating a new avenue for education with manifestations of higher student achievement; dramatically decreased dropout rates; gang abatement; increased family involvement in education; increased earning and social potential; parity for young women, Native Americans, LBGT community members, people with mental health issues, disabilities, etc.; increased college matriculation of Hispanics and other minorities; reduction of racial tensions; increased community civility, and more. A companion book will be the first comprehensive history of the youth mariachi movement and its impact in the Tucson community, with ripples of influence around the country. Together, they will contribute to national conversations on the importance of arts education and strength through diversity. In 2018, the Mariachi Miracle initiative received a grant of $50,000.
Mary Immaculate School was begun by the Sisters of Notre Dame of Toledo, Ohio in 1960 for students with unique learning needs. The original population of the school consisted of students classified as educable mentally retarded. Additional students were enrolled, as they were “falling through the cracks” at other parochial schools. As years progressed, the Toledo Diocese found a need for a Catholic School program for students with learning disabilities. The school also served students with traumatic brain injury and other health impairments as well as students with autism and Asperger’s Syndrome. Robert Lovell is a graduate of Mary Immaculate School. The Lovell Foundation granted $100,000 for an endowment to assist with tuition for families of children with unique learning needs who could not afford the cost of this specialized Catholic learning environment. The endowed scholarship program honored Robert Lovell. The Lovell Foundation granted an additional $5,000 to enable scholarships to be granted in the first year of the endowment. In 2009, the foundation granted an additional $4,200 to enable scholarships to be awarded without accessing the endowment during the financial downturn. The scholarship program ended in 2013, when the school had to close for lack of financial support. The remaining funds were returned with interest ($110,463).
Maumee Valley Habitat for Humanity helps to provide affordable housing for families who might not otherwise have the ability to own their own homes. The Lovell Foundation sponsored half of the costs to build a home for each of two families impacted by mental illness ($15,000 in 2007 and $30,000 in 2008). The remaining $15,000 is available for eligible recipients.
The Lovell Foundation provided a matching grant of $5,000 to support the Mayo Clinic’s first complementary and integrative medicine continuing education program on June 8-9, 2007 in Rochester, Minnesota. This conference was designed to expose practicing physicians and other healthcare providers with evidence-based information to help their patients make informed healthcare decisions.
Me2/Orchestra was founded in 2011 in Burlington, Vermont, with a mission of combatting stigma one concert at a time. A second orchestra began in Boston in 2014. Founder and Music Director Ronald Braunstein conducted major symphonies worldwide until his career was destroyed when his diagnosis of bipolar disorder was made public. After decades of discrimination, Braunstein created a non-auditioned orchestra for “people like him.” Half of the musicians are living with bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, borderline personality disorder, anxiety, addiction and depression, and half have no diagnosis. For audiences, it’s impossible to tell who’s living with mental illness and who is not…and that is the point. While performing the musicians break down misconceptions, reconnect with community, foster friendships, and gain confidence. Me2/ affiliates have been starting in other cities including Atlanta, Portland, and Pittsburgh. The goal is to create a network of Me2/Orchestras and ensembles across the country.
Orchestrating Change is an empowering feature-length documentary that tells the story of the Me2/Orchestra. The film will leave audiences with a greater insight into and compassion for those living with mental illness. Me2/ believes that by speaking so candidly in the documentary about the realities of living with mental illness, the musicians will empower others to do the same. Orchestrating Change illustrates how important it is for people living with mental illness (or any marginalized group) to have a sense of belonging, and the support of those who understand their challenges and who provide acceptance. In 2019, the Me2/Orchestra was awarded a grant for $40,000 to support the documentary film.
Fund for Civility, Respect and Understanding (FCRU)
The Fund for Civility, Respect and Understanding is a project of the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona born out of the tragic mass shooting in Tucson on Jan. 8, 2011. With a focus on eliminating the stigma of mental illness so that another such tragedy might be averted, FCRU formed a coalition of organizations and individuals called Mental Health Safe Space to develop a training for residents and employees of downtown businesses, government offices, schools and churches. Evan Mendelson, Lovell Foundation executive director, has been involved in the project from the beginning. The Lovell Foundation provided a $5,000 grant to fund the development of marketing and educational materials for the project. The community partnership matched the grant and is providing additional in-kind support.
The Mill was created to provide a well-chaperoned environment for teenagers in the Toledo area and operated a 10,000-square-foot facility with a recreation area, computer lab, café and lockers, a quite zone, intern apartments and an event area with seating for 600 equipped with sound and lighting systems. Between 2002 and 2005, the Lovell Foundation granted $10,000 to expand the Mill’s services for people with developmental disorders.
Founded as a grassroots advocacy organization in 1979, NAMI has grown from a small group of families around a kitchen table into the nation’s leading voice on mental health – an association of over 900 local affiliates, 48 state organizations, and thousands of volunteers who raise awareness and provide peer-led education, support, and advocacy for people with mental illness and their families. In 2017, NAMI received a $300,000 grant, payable over three years, to align core functions across the entire Alliance to be a stronger, more vibrant organization, with the goal of better coordinating in key strategic areas of advocacy, communications, fundraising, and information/referrals. Expected outcomes are ensuring those served have a coordinated and more consistent experience that results in greater impact.
Dan E. Weisburd had a 35-year career in the motion picture and television industry as a writer-producer-director and as a corporate executive. When his oldest son was diagnosed with schizophrenia while attending Harvard University, Weisburd began to devote more and more of his professional energy to increasing awareness of mental illness. He became the editor and publisher of “The Journal,” a nationally renowned quarterly magazine covering issues concerning mental illness published by NAMI California. The Lovell Foundation granted NAMI California $133,200 to increase distribution of “The Journal,” to assist in creating the one-hour documentary film “Women and Mental Illness” narrated by Margo Kitter, and to promote The Clergy Counseling Collection project. The “Women and Mental Illness” documentary was picked up by numerous PBS stations nationwide.
Lura Lovell was a founding member of BOOST– Building on our Strengths Together – which was established in 1981. The organization represented family members, consumers and providers of services to people with mental illness. BOOST was dissolved by 1990 when Lura helped establish NAMI of Greater Toledo, with essentially the same mission as NAMI Ohio. The Lovell Foundation awarded $11,500 to develop and launch a Mental Illness Educational Program at Lourdes College. The foundation granted $395,000 over 13 years to support the Journey of Hope/Family to Family educational program – which is designed to teach families how to manage and maintain family structure when dealing with a family member who is mentally ill. A total of $526,934 was awarded over 10 years to Positive Connections, a collaboration with Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Northwest Ohio and Unison Behavioral Health Services to provide education, support and mentoring for children who have a parent with a serious mental illness. In 2012, the foundation provided a $17,000 tie-off grant to Positive Connections to support students currently enrolled in the program. In 2013, $20,000 was awarded toward the Family to Family Program. From 2014-2016, the foundation made grants totaling $100,000 toward support of Family Education and Kidshop programs.
NAMI Ohio is a statewide, nonprofit organization formed in 1982 by families and individuals affected by serious mental illness. Lura Lovell was a founding member. Its mission is to improve the quality of life, ensure dignity and respect for persons with serious mental illness and to support their families. NAMI’s strategy is four-pronged – advocate and educate, support, promote quality healthcare and build and maintain a strong organization. The Lovell Foundation awarded a total of $20,887 in grants for projects that promote education concerning mental illness and a housing award honoring David C. Lovell.
The National Alliance on Mental Illness of Southern Arizona is the Tucson affiliate of the largest nationwide grassroots organization advocating for, educating and supporting people living with mental illness and their families. This local nonprofit was originally chartered in 1983 to increase awareness and reduce stigma for those living with mental illness and their caregivers. They are dedicated to the eradication of mental illnesses and to the improvement of the quality of life of all whose lives are affected by these diseases. The Lovell Foundation granted $15,000 in January 2009 to support the Family to Family and In Our Own Voice programs. In 2011, the foundation granted $18,000 to support upgrades to the database system. In 2013, $10,000 was granted to support the training of volunteer trainers for NAMI-SA’s educational programs and $5,000 to build its organizational capacity. From 2014-2016, an additional $65,000 was granted to support capacity building. In 2017, they received a planning grant for a school-based mental illness stigma reduction initiative, which was supported in 2018 with a grant of $621,168, payable over three years.
The National Apostolate for Inclusion Ministry is a leader in disability ministry, advocating for and supporting persons with Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities, their families and the professionals who work with them. The Lovell Foundation granted $6,000 for NAfIM’s 2008 national conference that provided educational opportunities for families, members of religious communities, program administrators and professionals.
Created in 1982, the National Organization on Disability promotes the acceptance and full participation of men, women and children with physical, sensory, psychiatric and intellectual disabilities. NOD requested a grant for $100,000 to develop, promote and distribute a book that encourages and empowers congregational leaders to fully welcome and include people with disabilities in their congregations. The Lovell Foundation provided a challenge grant of $50,000, which was successfully matched in 2008.
Neighborhood Properties offers supportive housing for Northwest Ohio residents who live with severe mental illness. The program’s mission is to support recovery. David and Lura Lovell were founding board members and Lovell Foundation advisor Carol Church, a former NPI board member, served as chairman of the board and as interim director. David and two other businessmen led the acquisition, rehabilitation and organization of the first 40 units. In 2001, NPI created Neighborhood Property Services to enable the employment of its customers by using NPS for its property management needs. NPS now handles maintenance, cleaning, landscaping and snow removal for Neighborhood Properties, as well as several external customers, and has branched out into painting and construction. By 2004, NPI had 646 units in 99 buildings which it managed entirely in-house. The Lovell Foundation granted $92,500 between 2004 and 2013 to support NPI’s Mental Health Month event on supportive housing and its importance to recovery. In 2011 and 2012, the foundation granted a total of $36,000 to support the Faces of Recovery to conduct a public education campaign using radio, newspaper and Facebook. The program was designed to increase public awareness of mental illness in order to decrease stigma and promote support for local services. NPI’s Showcase of Recovery event received Lovell Foundation support of $10,000 each year in 2014 and 2015.
Grace Sills is a former dean of the College of Nursing at Ohio State University and an active member of the National Organization of Psychotherapy and Psychiatric Nursing. Lura Lovell met with Sills and knew her to have a special interest in the needs of families who have a mentally ill family member. In 1996 the Lovell Foundation granted $25,000 towards the establishment of a professorship honoring Grace Sills.
Community 101 Youth Philanthropy Initiative (C101)
Community 101 is a school-based program that connects students to neighborhood issues and provides experience operating a mini-foundation. In 2011, the Lovell Foundation provided C101 with a grant of $5,000 as part of its Youth Philanthropy Initiative.
www.oregoncf.org/ocf-initiatives/civic-engagement/community-101
The grant supported the deep integration of Our Family’s Elder Legacy Services within the Arizona End of Life Care Partnership’s end-of-life-care planning initiative. Working with Interfaith Community Services (ICS), Our Family Services (OFS) participated in the development of the end-of-life-care planning curriculum and its community implementation, positively impacting end-of-life-care planning awareness and activity in Pima County. OFS focused on three goals: to promote end-of-life planning and increase the number of older adults in Pima County who have completed and communicated end- of-life plans; to serve as a conduit through which Partnership initiatives and activities reach a diverse community of older adults; and to provide direct services that promote independence, stability, and well-being among older adults, supporting their ability to engage in thoughtful end of life discussions and care planning.
The Pain Society of Oregon is a multi-disciplinary professional organization committed to quality care and advocacy for patients struggling with pain disorders. In 2006 the Lovell Foundation provided support for two PSO projects for individuals with acute and chronic pain disorders – $5,000 for an 8-12 week visual arts project and exhibition, and $2,500 for a series of quarterly educational presentations on pain management, medications and effective communication with healthcare providers offered free of charge to the public.
Partners in Education’s mission is to promote student success through school/community partnerships. Partners in Education is a catalyst for community involvement in the Toledo Public, Washington Local and Diocese of Toledo school systems. The program matches area businesses, civic organizations, labor, government agencies and churches with local schools to provide guidance, training, support materials and expert counsel on an ongoing basis. The Lovell Foundation granted $14,600 to support operational expenses, strengthen existing partnerships with training and mentoring, and evaluate and set community-wide goals for current and future partnerships over a period of three years from 1999 to 2001.
The Partnership for Mental Health was a community partnership between the National Alliance on Mental Illness of Greater Toledo, the Medical University of Ohio and Rescue Mental Health Services. Their goal was to develop relationships between their coalition and the local congregations to increase participation of people with mental illness in the life of the community. The Lovell Foundation granted $66,000 for this pilot program to educate religious leaders to recognize the biological and clinical nature of mental disorders for enhanced identification and support, and to enable these leaders to refer members of their congregation to the appropriate professional providers.
Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing (PHWFF) was founded in 2005 at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, and incorporated as a nonprofit in 2007. It has grown continuously and now operates 217 programs in 47 states. It is recognized as a premier recreational therapy program by the Veterans Administration. Their National Program Rendezvous (NPR) training conference focuses on training and equipping their volunteer leaders with skills and knowledge to help heal injured and disabled military service personnel and disabled veterans.
A prominent goal of the NPR is to teach the basic skills to effectively interact with disabled veterans suffering mental health issues. One of the focus areas will be suicide prevention and training, which is designed to equip volunteers to demonstrate care, support and compassion when talking with veterans who could be at risk for suicide; discuss signs and symptoms of suicidal thinking; ask questions about suicide in an objective and nonthreatening way; and refer them for evaluation and treatment. The training also lessens the stigma associated with mental health issues.
Research has shown that there is a healing effect of being in the outdoors. PHWFF offers a community where individuals with similar experiences and disabilities can engage with one another, building lifelong relationships while undergoing therapeutic recreational benefits. The camaraderie of this informal peer support group contributes to participants’ mental and physical rehabilitation. This novel approach, education in action outside of the clinical setting, elevates mental health awareness and reduces the stigmas associated with PTSD and suicide among participants, volunteers and their extended relationships at a national level. In 2019, PHWFF was awarded a grant of $100,000 to aid in the psychological rehabilitation of disabled veterans.
ProMedica is a locally owned nonprofit healthcare organization serving Northwest Ohio and Southeast Michigan with nearly 14,000 employees and 3,000 physicians. Dr. Mounir Elkhatib is director of The Great Lakes Center for Integrative Medicine and has been practicing integrative medicine for more than 35 years. 2013 is the tenth year that Elkhatib and ProMedica’s Continuing Medical Education Department sponsored the Wellness Across the Age Spectrum Integrative Medicine Conference. The two-part program includes a free evening community event for the general public and a full-day conference designed for physicians, nurses, social workers, counselors, occupational therapists, chaplains, psychologists and other healthcare professionals. The Lovell Foundation granted $3,500 to support the Fall 2013 Conference in order to raise awareness of integrative medicine through evidence-based information, and supported annual conferences from 2014-2016 with additional grants totaling $18,000.
“The Science of Healing” follows author and medical researcher Dr. Esther Sternberg to a village in Greece, where her own story of illness and recovery inspired her research into the role the brain and the emotions play in healing. The film was written and directed by Renard Cohen and produced by the Emmy-award-winning Resolution Pictures. The Lovell Foundation supported the PBS broadcast of this documentary.
Social Venture Partners Tucson was chartered in October 2006 as a new way to engage philanthropists and support nonprofit organizations in the Tucson community. SVPT is a project launched by the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona. Member partners pool expertise, time and money to strengthen local nonprofit organizations by providing substantial multi-year grants along with capacity building. The Lovell Foundation provided a three-year grant of $25,000 to support infrastructure from 2006 through 2008. Ann Lovell is a founding board member and was chairman of the investment/grant committee. Additional grants of $15,000 in 2015, $10,000 in 2016, and $12,500 (payable over two years) in 2017 were made in support of SVPT’s Fast Pitch program.
Soul Shoppe’s mission is to create safe learning environments that bring forth a culture of compassion, connection, and curiosity – eliminating bullying at the roots. Soul Shoppe programs support kids by giving communication and conflict resolution tools that help them support each other as allies. In addition to working with students, Soul Shoppe supports the entire school community through dynamic staff-development trainings that give teachers tools to foster academic growth and social-emotional learning, as well as parent workshops and resources. They partner with schools throughout the year to make sure there is follow-up and continued support. Soul Shoppe received grants of $5,000 in 2015 and 2018.
In 1970, the Governor of Arizona designated six planning and development districts in response to federal planning requirements in an effort to achieve uniformity. The SouthEastern Arizona Governments Organization (SEAGO) was established in 1972 as the regional planning agency to serve Cochise, Graham, Greenlee, and Santa Cruz counties. SEAGO’s mission is to stimulate social and economic progress in its region; its team is committed to being a respected, credible source of leadership, information, funding, planning, technical expertise, and services.
Through its Area Agency on Aging, the End of Life Care Matters initiative provides information to the public about end of life issues and how to communicate individual desires about those issues. It informs and educates the population within SEAGO’s service area about the facts related to end of life planning as well as assists that population to complete their Power of Attorney for medical and mental healthcare and a Living Will. SEAGO has been providing this service to the people of Cochise County and eastern Santa Cruz County since April 2018. In 2019, a grant of $141,950, payable over two years, was made to support expansion of these efforts throughout their four-county service area.
The mission of the Southern Arizona AIDS Foundation is to create and sustain a healthier community through a compassionate, comprehensive response to HIV/AIDS. The Lovell Foundation provided support for SAAF’s Complementary Therapies Program, providing visits with a naturopathic physician to create an individual health plan that could include body work such as massage and chiropractic, as well as nutritional supplements. Grants were provided in 2006, 2008 and 2011 for a total of $50,000. In 2015, funding of $45,000 was granted to the Travis Wright Memorial Buyer’s Club, which is part of the Complementary Therapies Program. In 2018, SAAF received a grant of $45,000 for capacity building.
St. Elizabeth’s mission is to provide medical, dental and healthcare for the uninsured and underserved in the Tucson community. Founded by Our Lady of Victory Missionary Sisters, St. Elizabeth’s Health Center was converted from a school to a clinic and is staffed with more than 100 volunteer physicians, dentists, dental hygienists and nurses who care for more than 14,000 patients each year. In 2012, the Lovell Foundation granted $20,000 to support the behavioral health department of this clinic, whose care providers strive to integrate behavioral health services within primary care. Additional grants totaling $200,000 were made in 2014-2017 toward expenses for direct services. In 2018, St. Elizabeth’s received a grant of $105,000, payable over three years.
Strength Building Partners is a Tucson-based organization whose mission is to provide a structure for people to create positive, caring relationships in the public school system. SBP is committed to working with schools to bring about long-term, systemic change. SBP begins by introducing their model of organizing staff at each school so that the staff can identify its own strengths and build upon them. SBP then facilitates training sessions to assist in the development of planning for strategic improvements. The Lovell Foundation granted $20,000 to support ongoing work at four Tucson area public schools over three years.
The Sunstone Cancer Support Center was situated on 14 acres in northeast Tucson. The center provided programs and cancer support services designed to inspire and empower cancer survivors, their caregivers, loved ones and health providers. Sunstone’s programs ranged from Reiki, yoga and massage to numerous support groups, retreats, meditation and nutritional classes. They worked in collaboration with the Arizona Cancer Center and the Program for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona, the Cancer Care Center at Tucson Medical Center and St. Mary’s Hospital in South Tucson. The Lovell Foundation granted $20,000 to support scholarships for participants attending four-day, three-night survivorship immersion retreats over two years. The foundation also granted $10,000 to support their cancer guide program.
TACT provides individuals with disabilities access to training and education regarding the adaptive equipment and assistive technology tools that will support them in the vital activities of learning, hearing, seeing, speaking, playing, moving, recreating and writing. These tools and TACT’s programming make it possible for individuals to expand their independence, build on their skills and talents, and be included within the larger community. Their board of directors is primarily composed of individuals with disabilities or parents of such individuals. The Lovell Foundation granted $274,775 for support of TACT’s learning lab program over a period of five years.
The mission of the Healthy US Collaborative is to inspire a new understanding about what optimal health is and how it can be achieved. The desired outcome of the project will be the creation of an executable plan that will result in a successful national campaign to improve the health of the American public. A series of approximately 30 short films, combined with a national campaign, will inspire a new understanding about what optimal health is and how it can be achieved. The Utah Film Center is acting as the fiscal agent. In 2017, the Lovell Foundation approved a planning grant of $250,000. In 2018, a grant of $1 million was awarded to support the Take Care Campaign.
The grant supported stakeholder engagement, outreach events, and staff to facilitate needs assessments and community reports on end-of-life services for the Tohono O’odham Nation. The Tohono O’odham Nursing Care Authority is a partner in the Arizona End of Life Care Partnership.
Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association developed Thoughtful Life Conversations to train healthcare professionals across the state how to have end-of-life discussions with their patients, as well as to develop effective workflows in their clinics and offices to ensure patients and familiar have access to end-of-life planning resources. The grant included technical assistance for the implementation of community-based workshops by Arizona End of Life Care Partnership grantee partners.
In 2016 the Lovell Foundation established a donor-advised growth fund with an investment of $100,000 administered by the Toledo Community Foundation (TCF) to support mental health needs in Lucas County, Ohio, in honor of the legacy of founders David and Lura Lovell. TCF awarded $97,700 from this fund to 5 community organizations in 2017. In 2018, the Lovell Foundation contributed $150,000 to their donor-advised fund, the first installment of a $450,000 grant payable over three years, which TCF awarded to 6 community organizations.
The Toledo Museum of Art is a privately-endowed, nonprofit institution that opens its collections to the public – free of charge – six days a week, 309 days a year. Lura Lovell enjoyed this museum and its art programs in her youth. The museum now has more than 30,000 works of art representing American and European painting; the history of art in glass; ancient Greek, Roman and Egyptian works; Asian and African art; medieval art; sculpture; decorative art; graphic arts; and modern and contemporary art. The foundation has granted a total of $105,000 (2010-2016) to support the Art After School program. This program partners with community children’s services for underserved and at-risk youth to provide after-school art programming at the museum.
The Toledo Symphony Orchestra serves disadvantaged inner-city youth in Toledo through Community Music Lessons and Young People’s Concerts programs. The TSO provides group and private music lessons in community centers as well as concerts at local high schools featuring the orchestra. The Lovell Foundation granted $170,000 for these programs, including transportation to youth concerts, between 2001 and 2012. The foundation also provided a $5,000 discretionary grant for then-conductor Chelsea Tipton II to determine the best use to enhance the Toledo Symphony Orchestra. Continued funding was approved for $35,00 per year from 2014-2017.
The Tom Wernert Award is an annual award program for innovation in community behavioral health. It was named in honor of Tom Wernert, who was executive director of the Lucas County Mental Health Board for 30 years. He was a powerful mentor for Lura Lovell and many others. Without Tom’s mentoring, Lura felt she would not have been as successful an advocate and leader in promoting mental health access and family support. The National Association of County Behavioral Health Directors partnered to provide the annual award for at least one program nationally along with five runners up. The top program receives a cash award of $10,000. Marty Cohen, a Lovell Foundation advisor, was instrumental in creating this award. Cohen was founder of Technical Assistance Collaborative. TAC and the Lovell Foundation each provided $50,000 to initiate this program in 1999.
Tu Nidito is a Tucson-based organization whose mission is to provide individual, family and group support through emotional, educational, social and spiritual services to children and their families as they deal with serious illness and death. The Children to Children program was created to offer age appropriate support to children who are grieving the death of a loved one. The Lovell Foundation granted $90,000 over a period of five years to support the Children to Children bereavement program.
Founded in 1985, the mission of the Tucson Girls Chorus (TGC) is to prepare a diverse group of young women to be confident leaders through participation in a well-constructed educational program that emphasizes music, performance, leadership training and community service. The program primarily serves girls in grades K-12, with a recently added alumnae choir. TGC staff are qualified and active music teachers in the Tucson community. In addition to the choirs that operate from TGC’s main facility, engagement choirs were added to enable girls from diverse cultural and financial backgrounds to participate in their own communities. The engagement choirs join the main choirs at the final concert each semester, as well as participate in the summer music camp. Financial assistance is available for the main choirs; engagement choirs are offered at either modest or no cost to families. The program is more than learning music; girls grow in poise, confidence, character, and work ethic. In 2017, TGC received a grant of $7,500 toward outreach and recruitment, with an additional $10,000 awarded in 2018.
The mission of the Tucson JCC is to cultivate and enrich Jewish identity, ensure Jewish continuity, foster wellness, and broaden communal harmony. Special Needs Services is one of their major departments, which has served families with disabilities since 2009. They are contracted with the State of Arizona Department of Economic Security and Department of Developmental Disabilities as a service provider, but need is greater than the supply. A 2014 study by the Special Abilities Task Force pointed to a need by families with disabilities for referrals to community resources, high-quality socialization and respite programs, vocational training, and greater acceptance and inclusion overall. In response, the Tucson JCC created the position of Special Abilities Coordinator to develop tools and programming that would show the way for the community to meet those needs. In 2018, they received a grant of $47,980 to support the position.
Tucson Museum of Art has served Southern Arizona for 84 years as the region’s oldest and largest visual arts institution. In fulfilling its mission of “connecting art to life,” the museum presents a wide range of exhibitions and programs of the finest artistic and educational quality. The Lovell Foundation granted $7,500 in January 2009 and again in 2010 to support the Art for Schools program that provides children in grades K-12 the opportunity to visit the museum and participate in engaging tours through galleries and historic houses, followed by an accompanying hands-on art-making component. For many children, this program is the only visual arts resource available because arts education has been drastically cut from the public school curriculum in Arizona. To ensure its accessibility, the museum provides bus subsidies and offers the program at reduced rates to low-income school districts. In 2012-2014 the foundation granted $7,500 each year for TMA’s Picture This! Art for Families Program, which provides coordinated museum and art activities for children at Free First Sundays (the first Sunday of every month). In 2015 and 2016 the foundation supported TMA’s Family Destination Project with grants of $10,000 each year, with additional funding approved in 2018 of $22,500, payable over three years.
The Tucson Symphony Orchestra’s mission is to “present live symphonic performances and music education at the highest level of artistic excellence, enriching and entertaining the people of Southern Arizona.” From its beginning in 1929 to the present, the TSO has not missed a season of sharing symphonic music with Arizona citizens. The Lovell Foundation granted $7,500 in 2009 to support the Southern Arizona Residency program, an ongoing collaboration with rural communities to bring music education and live orchestra concerts to children and adults in Southern Arizona’s outlying areas. In 2012-2014 the foundation granted $7,500 each year to support Music in the Schools/Young People’s Concerts, with additional grants of $10,000 in 2015, and $15,000 each year in 2016 and 2017. In 2018, a grant was approved for $32,500, payable over three years.
In 2017, the Lovell Foundation made a $30,000 grant to the UWTSA to support strategic planning and community facilitation aimed at expanding and maturing the work of the ELDER Alliance/End of Life Care Coalition (EOLCC) to increase quality healthcare choices during the final years of life.
- The EOLCC is dedicated to community outreach and education to support adults of all ages in the conversation, planning and documentation of advance directives and increasing access to and knowledge of high quality health care choices.
- The ELDER Alliance is a change network that supports services for the increasing number of older adults in Pima County to enable them to stay healthy, active and have quality of life through the aging process. The Alliance is co-led by the United Way and Pima Council on Aging (PCOA).
- PCOA and UWTSA each assign one paid staff member to work with the ELDER Alliance co-chairs; all other member participation is on an in-kind basis (with over 100 volunteers). UWTSA is the fiscal agent for the ELDER Alliance; PCOA, the local Area Agency on Aging, is the host for the EOLCC.
The UAAC is a stand-alone research center serving the state of Arizona that is physically housed at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, Tucson campus. Dedicated to eradicating arthritis as a cause of human suffering through biomedical research, teaching and patient care, UAAC was one of the first to employ a multi-disciplinary approach to combat arthritis and bone and connective tissue disease. Lura Lovell served on the Arthritis Center’s Board of Advisors and Ann Lovell served on the Arthritis Center Friends’ board for a number of years. The Lovell Foundation granted $315,000 for the Living Healthy with Arthritis project that successfully provided a community-based program integrating traditional and complementary health practices to promote optimal health for individuals with arthritis. The Lovell Foundation also provided $98,595 for a validation study on the effects of the Living Healthy Program and an additional $45,000 to supplement research, then funded by the National Institute of Health, generated from these outcomes. In 2000, the Lovell Foundation co-endowed the Arizona Arthritis Center’s Alana and Colbert Jones and David and Lura Lovell Endowed Chair in Integrative Rheumatology with a grant of $750,000. This endowed chair was transferred to the Program in Integrative Medicine in May 2006, upon changes in leadership and focus at the Arizona Arthritis Center. A grant of $62,713 was awarded in June 2007 for a pilot oxytocin study and a grant of $116,800 was awarded in January 2009 to support a research study on the role of close relationships in fibromyalgia symptom severity.
The UA College of Education Counseling program’s mission is to educate professional counselors to work with persons with disabilities as well as children and youth in school settings. The “Talk it Out” counseling initiative was created in partnership with the Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) Family Resource Centers. It provides free and timely mental health counseling services to TUSD students and families using a practicum training model. Under supervision, Master’s level counselors-in-training provide individual, group, and family counseling free of charge. The model can be utilized in other school districts across the city and state, or even nationwide. Talk it Out strives to help students provide evidence-based, responsive, and multiculturally competent services. In 2019, a grant of $63,423 was awarded to support a licensed professional program coordinator to oversee the day-to-day supervision of the students on site until permanent funding can be secured through the College or Provost’s office.
Lovell Foundation funding was originally in support of UA Presents, a nationally recognized presenter of world-class performances and programs for the communities of Southern Arizona. Their mission is to educate, enlighten and inspire by bringing performing arts and artists together with the diverse communities of Southern Arizona. UA Presents provides the opportunity to experience a broad range of activities with the goal of developing a lifelong love of and respect for the performing arts. In 2009, the Lovell Foundation granted $7,500 to support a performance for the Rodel Exemplary Teachers initiative. The foundation also granted $15,000 to support a community-partnering ticket program for students and their families between 2010 and 2011. In 2012 a grant of $7,500 supported the In the Schools program. In 2014-2016 the foundation made grants totaling $44,000 to Lead Guitar, a program that teaches elementary and high school students technique, music reading, theory, performance skills and ensemble playing. The Lead Guitar model is now being expanded under the auspices of the College of Fine Arts in Schools, which received a grant of $20,872 in 2017. In 2018, The College of Fine Arts received two additional initiative grants totaling $343,140, payable over three years, to support further expansion and sustainability of the model.
The University of Arizona College of Nursing was established in 1957 and was the first college west of the Mississippi River to offer a PhD in nursing. While nurses provide care for others, they often forget the need to care for themselves. It is challenging to retain nurses within the current medical system, as the long hours, patient complexities and reduced staffing often lead to burnout. In 2008 the Lovell Foundation granted $43,400 in support of the College’s Collaborative Partnership for Nurse Retention: Increasing Nurse Resilience through Holistic Healing. In 2009, the Lovell Foundation granted an additional $37,747 for Phase II of the THHIN initiative. The foundation then granted $10,000 in 2011 to support Phase III of THHIN, to bring knowledge from Phases I & II of the THHIN collaborative to address the needs within the College of Nursing. In 2010, the foundation also provided a $10,000 grant for the Cheryl McGaffic Memorial Scholarship Endowment, established in honor of the nurse-educators killed in the 2002 shooting at the University of Arizona. In addition, the foundation has approved grants totaling $506,402, payable from 2015-2017, in support of the first-of-its-kind Integrative Nursing Faculty Fellowship.
The University of Arizona Center on Aging received a grant to support The Living Will Project, the overarching purpose of which is to equip new physicians with the skills and confidence to comfortably guide patients and families through end-of-life conversations. Funding provided for collaborative leadership, evaluation, and infrastructure support for The Living Will Project to design, implement and sustainably embed experiential and didactic educational activities on advance care planning into the four-year medical school curriculum at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson. The Center on Aging is a partner in the Arizona End of Life Care Partnership.
The Thomas Murray and James Bacik Endowed Chair in Catholic Studies
This endowed chair is the first fully funded chair in religious studies at the University of Toledo and honors Murray’s parents as well as Father James Bacik, former pastor of Corpus Christi Parish. In 2000, the Lovell Foundation granted $600,000 for the endowment of this chair. The Lovell Foundation also granted an additional $44,200 for support of this endowment because of the loss of market value in the university’s investment portfolio.
In 2017, the Lovell Foundation granted $75,998 to the Media, Diversity & Social Change (MDSC) Initiative at the University of Southern California (USC) Annenberg School for Communication to develop and test a set of measures related to the presence and portrayal of mental health conditions in film. The focus of MDSC is investigating and advocating for media inclusion. In 2015, the group researched disability, including in the mental or cognitive domain, but the assessment was of mental illness rather than the spectrum of mental health conditions. To address this gap, MDSC is expanding its current work to include an examination of mental health portrayals in film. Pending the success of the project, the results will eventually be presented alongside data that illuminates other aspects of inclusion, to provide an intersectional look at the representation of mental illness. This analysis will offer a unique understanding of the landscape of cinema that will enable activists and advocates to find solutions to address what may be skewed and stereotypical portrayals of mental health. In 2018, USC Annenberg was granted $26,000 to extend their research to television. In 2018, The Annenberg Inclusion Initiative began a transition from an era of primarily conducting research to one in which it has a leadership role around developing and disseminating solutions. In 2019, they were awarded $300,000 to develop a strategic plan to increase inclusion in entertainment and pursue a long-term strategy for growth.
The mission of The Victory Center is to help people with cancer fight for their recovery by providing free psycho-social support as an adjunct to conventional medical treatment. It is designed as a place to learn whatever the patient needs to know in order to participate in their fight for recovery, along with their healthcare team. The Lovell Foundation was involved in the initial fundraising to establish this entity. The foundation also granted $473,400 for support groups and educational programs for men diagnosed with prostate cancer, for healing touch, massage, Reiki, reflexology and other integrative therapies between 1995 and 2013, as well as temporary support for the Director of Volunteers position. Additional funding for general operations was approved totaling $180,000, payable from 2014-2020.
“Out of the Shadow” is a documentary that follows filmmaker Susan Smiley’s mother, diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, through the Illinois mental health system. Millie’s story is representative of the millions of mentally ill people in the United States who are helpless in coping with powerful diseases and betrayed by the inadequacy of public programs. Smiley is a professional documentary producer in Los Angeles and this project was fiscally sponsored by the International Documentary Association. The film was featured in the Vancouver International Film Festival, SILVERDOC AFI/Discover Channel Documentary Festival and Durango Film Festival. There have been more than 200 screenings of the film for advocacy groups and numerous presentations, including the American Psychiatric Association’s annual meeting. The documentary was broadcast on PBS beginning in 2006 and outreach continues to provide educational distribution into public schools, universities and local chapters of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. The Lovell Foundation granted $140,000 for this project and provided $56,175 for clergy guides to assist with educational outreach for “Out of the Shadow.” The foundation also granted $25,000 for “All Locked Up, Nowhere to Go,” a documentary that explores the complex issues surrounding the criminalization of the mentally ill caught in the Los Angeles County jail system. From 2009 to 2010, the foundation also provided $70,000 for “Mind Healing: The Practice of Integrative Mental Healthcare”, a documentary about proven successful complementary and alternative treatments for mental health issues.
WGTE Public Media provides broadcast services to over 1.5 million households throughout Northwest Ohio and Southeastern Michigan. They offer a broad range of educational programming and educational services that not only positively affect the lives of their viewers, but also directly serve more than 8,000 teachers and 150,000 students annually. The Lovell Foundation granted $10,000 to provide support for presentation of important national health-related programs and to conduct outreach efforts that connect those programs – including “The New Medicine: Integrating Body, Mind and Spirit” and “Out of the Shadow” – with local organizations.
The Women’s Foundation of Southern Arizona is an educational and grant making institution founded to educate women and girls about money and philanthropy, and to assist organizations that support women and girls. The Lovell Foundation funded this organization’s Companeros Domestic Violence Project with a grant of $10,000. The foundation also granted $90,850 to fund Unidas, the Women’s Foundation philanthropy program for high-school-aged young women in Tucson. (Unidas is the feminization of the Spanish word for united.) The program gives young women the opportunity to make grants to support the type of social change important to them. Throughout the eight-month program, qualified applicants gain hands-on experience in community service, research, fundraising, public speaking and grant-making – all centered around helping to improve the quality of life for women and girls in Southern Arizona. In 2010, the Lovell Foundation initiated a $25,000 challenge grant to support an endowment for the Unidas program. Program participants then added fundraising to their skills and met this challenge in the fall of 2011. In 2015, WFSA received additional grants of $12,150 in support of Unidas and $10,000 toward the Tucson Public Voices Fellowship. Ann Lovell has been a member of the Women’s Foundation Advisory Council since the early 2000s. Prior to joining the council, Ann served on both the finance and the grants process and policy committees. Ann and Lura Lovell were the WFSA annual luncheon honorees in 2008. In 2018, Unidas was awarded two grants, for $25,000 payable in 2018, and for $70,000, payable over three years 2018-2020.
University of Arizona College of Medicine
The Women’s Mental Health Program at the University of Arizona College of Medicine is dedicated to public education. This annual symposium was organized to meet the educational needs of all who are interested in compelling mental health topics specific to women. The symposium targets nurses, midwives, physicians, psychologists and all specialties of healthcare providers, as well as interested members of the community. Participants learn about issues from bipolar disorders and substance abuse to dementia, menopause, breast cancer and risk of depression. Between 2001 and 2014 the Lovell Foundation granted $130,200 to support these annual symposiums.
This Tucson-based organization aids homeless youth by providing support, basic human needs and guidance to complete high school. YOTO provides services including assistance with school enrollment, a $150 monthly stipend for rent or food, assistance in finding employment, free medical, dental and counseling services, clothing, household items and food, plus assistance in securing college aid. YOTO is funded primarily by private donations and grants. The Lovell Foundation awarded $123,000 to fund the stipends over a period of seven years.
YWCA is a 165-year old international, intersectional and inclusive women’s movement with 250 associations across the U.S. on a mission to “eliminate racism, empower women, and promote peace, justice, freedom, and dignity for all.” YWCA in Arizona has been a leader in the fight for gender equity and social justice for more than 100 years. Its Stand Together AZ Training and Advocacy Center (STAT) programs educate Arizonans on issues that impact women and people of color, engage/re-engage disenfranchised voters, encourage and equip women (especially women of color) to run for public office, provide support and training for grassroots activists, offer inclusion and anti-racism trainings to help create a more equitable workplace culture, and build understanding between people and across divisions through the arts.
Operation Haboob, named after dust storms in the Arizona desert, is a STAT program that brings together diverse groups and individuals in a statewide, nonpartisan alliance to create a storm of voices and use their collective power to rebuild community, revive democracy, and co-create a new future for an Arizona where everyone can thrive. In 2018, Operation Haboob received a grant of $300,000, payable over three years.