The Columbus Foundation announced applications for the John W. and Edna McManus Shepard Fund/Guernsey County Foundation are due Friday, May 30, 2014.

Douglas F. Kridler, Columbus Foundation president and CEO, announced today that Columbus native and Ohio State University graduate Colleen Durbin Mitchell, a highly regarded national figure in philanthropy, will be joining The Columbus Foundation team as Senior Vice President for Donor Services and Development, effective July 7, 2014.

The Columbus Foundation announced a $50,000 grant to the Jewish Federation of Columbus to help support basic needs for local individuals who suffered under Nazi persecution.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. and The Columbus Foundation today released complementary action plans focused on helping prepare adults and students to fill the high-demand, living wage jobs in the region. The Columbus Foundation’s report, Opportunity Awaits: Reconnecting Franklin County Young Adults to School and Work, focuses on the education and employment challenges facing young adults, age 18 to 25, who are not college bound.

The Columbus Foundation today announced The Big Give, a 24-hour online giving rally, will kick off at 10:00 a.m. EST on Tuesday, May 12, to benefit local nonprofits. The community-wide effort encourages people to show their community spirit and donate to one or more of their favorite local nonprofits in PowerPhilanthropy,® the Foundation’s online giving marketplace.

Five leading artistic directors were named the first recipients of The Columbus Performing Arts Prize, made possible by the Performing Arts Innovation Fund.

The John W. and Edna McManus Shepard Fund/Guernsey County Foundation has extended the grant application deadline to Friday, June 19, 2015. The Fund awards grants to benefit cultural and economic programs for Cambridge and Guernsey Counties.

Gifts and bequests to community foundations vary from year to year according to the generosity, interests and, yes, life spans of donors. The Columbus Foundation well knows the ebb and flow. But even its non-record tallies continue to top the $100 million mark. Donors gave $132.9 million to new and existing funds and to supporting foundations in 2014, the fifth consecutive year the foundation has reported at least a nine-figure gift total.

The Columbus Foundation recently named 10 nonprofit organizations that will serve as host sites for its 2016 Summer Fellowship Program. Since 2010, the Foundation’s Summer Fellowship Program has been providing career-related work experience for college and graduate students interested in the nonprofit sector. These fellowships are made possible by the generosity and vision of many Foundation donors.

The Arts Innovation Fund of The Columbus Foundation has awarded a Columbus Performing Arts Prize to David Brown, founder and creative director of Harmony Project, to support a dynamic multi-disciplinary finale at its performance at the Ohio Theatre on December 1, 2015.