Edison Wetlands Association (EWA, Norman grantee 2008–2015) was established in 1989 to protect the public health and environment of New Jersey. In the early 2000s, New Jersey was the most contaminated state in the country, with 114 Superfund sites —…
Founded in 1989 by ten regional religious, labor and community organizations, Merrimack Valley Project (MVP, Norman grantee 2004–2008) was created to address the devastating economic decline of the Merrimack River valley in Massachusetts, one of the oldest industrial regions in…
The Grant Committee discussed the impact of the financial crisis on the foundation’s assets and grantmaking budget. They agreed that the grants budget would be decreased, but they committed to making every effort to minimize the impact on grantees. They…
Founded in 1991, Padres y Jovenes Unidos (PJU, Norman grantee 2002–2007) traces its roots to a group of immigrant parents who came together after a local elementary school forced their children to eat off the floor as a form of…
Founded in 2002 by young workers in low-wage jobs, Young Workers United (YWU, Norman grantee 2003–2011) set out to organize the workers juggling school and jobs in the service and retail sectors, who were not reached by unions nor youth…
In 1963, a group of brave mothers — Black, white, Asian, Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish — traveled across Arkansas to speak in churches and civic groups about racial discrimination and the importance of school integration; in their first 18 months,…
The Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN, Norman grantee 1999–2004) was created in 1993 to organize low-income Asian immigrant and refugee communities in the San Francisco Bay Area who were facing some of the most hazardous environmental conditions in the country.…
Founded in 1995, Philadelphia Student Union (PSU, Norman grantee 2002–2009) organizes low-income high school students to fight for high-quality education in the Philadelphia school system and transform schools and communities. In the years that Norman funded PSU, Philadelphia’s school system…
The Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE, Norman grantee 1996–2002) was created in 1993 by community, religious and labor leaders who recognized that Los Angeles’s celebrated economic recovery of the 1990s was bypassing its poorest residents, with seventy…
Kentuckians for the Commonwealth (KFTC, Norman grantee 1993–2002) is a membership-based grassroots organization with deep roots in eastern Kentucky’s coal fields. Norman supported its predecessor organization, the Kentucky Fair Tax Coalition, in the early 1980s, which at the time focused…