Friday, December 4, 2009

MHM & Associates Secures $5.2 Million In Grants for Non-Profits




 Members of Upland’s California Community Development  Coalition were all smiles after receiving a $707,500 grant from the California Department of Education to assist in starting Marshall All Star Academy at Marshall Middle School in Pomona. The program now provides students help with math, English and study skills, and teaches parents how to help their children succeed and prepare for college.

(RIVERSIDE Calif.) For nonprofit organizations, there are millions of dollars available in grants from government and corporate sources. They just need to know how to find them.

A Riverside company, M.H.M. & Associates, has helped hundreds of organizations better their communities through grants. Just this year, they secured $5.2 million in grants.

Over its 15 years in business, M.H.M & Associates has a 67 percent success rate in obtaining the grants it applies for, compared with an 11 percent success rate for all grant applications nationwide, and a 13 percent success rate for grant applications originating in California.

“It is our passion to help organizations that are doing all these wonderful and marvelous things to make their communities a better place to live,” said President Luvina Beckley of M.H.M. & Associates. “What they lack most of the time is funds.”

Many of the organizations’ leaders are not familiar with how to pursue grants, Beckley explained. M.H.M. & Associates helps in two ways – by putting on free workshops to review the process of applying for and securing grants, and secondly, by writing quality grant applications for their clients.

Grants are one of three ways non-profit organizations can raise money, Beckley said. The others are through donations and fund-raising.

“A fundraiser may raise enough money to sustain an organization for several months,” Beckley said. “Grants can sustain an organization for several years.”

Recently, M.H.M. & Associates tracked down $3.2 million for a single organization. That money enabled the organization to create after-school and Saturday programs for middle school students, emphasizing healthy and drug-free lifestyle.

The grants M.H.M. & Associates secured will help fund this program through 2013. They are:
•    $3.1 million from the California Department of Education
•    $592,440 for three years from the U.S. Department of Education.

Other recent grants M.H.M. & Associates has helped organizations secure are:

•    $338,711 for Colton Church of the Nazarene, from the California Department of Education to develop a program that provides effective and culturally appropriate instruction to infants through 5-year-old children.

•    $20,000 from Verizon for Libreria del Pueblo to provide language and computer skills training to limited- and non-English speaking Hispanic adults.

These skills help them to receive further training at San Bernardino Valley College, vocational schools and other educational institutions said Father Patricio Guillen, director of Libreria del Pueblo.  They also help Hispanic, limited English-speaking parents help their children with homework.

“We want to help these families move up in society,” Father Guillen said.

•    $707,500 to the Upland-based California Community Development Coalition from the California Department of Education, to help it start Marshall All Star Academy, a program to help students at Marshall Middle School in Pomona Unified School District with math, English and study skills. The program also teaches parents how to work with the school district to help their children succeed, and how to help their children prepare for college.

•    $79,356 to Pasadena Development Corporation from the U.S. Treasury Department, to help it continue its 32-year history of providing loans to small businesses in San Gabriel Valley.

“This grant helps us develop small businesses,” said Keith Rogers, Executive Director of the Pasadena Development Corporation. “It will help us offer better programs and services, and receive more support in the future for our non-profit organization.”

For more information, go online to www.MHMandAssociates.com or call (951) 682-4646.


About M.H.M. & Associates:
M.H.M. & Associates Enterprise, Inc. has served Southern California nonprofits since 1994. The company’s seven primary areas of focus are: agriculture, arts and culture, criminal justice, economic and rural development, health/ and human services, environmental and education.  M.H.M & Associates has generated nearly $30 million in grant funds for its clients.


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