Bay Area nonprofits get Hearst Foundations grants

Nonprofits in five Bay Area counties are among the recipients of $1.65 million in grants awarded statewide this month by the Hearst Foundations.

Several grants went to local cultural institutions: The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco received $200,000 for its Friday evening programs at the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, while $50,000 went to the Festival Opera Association of Walnut Creek for its 2012 and 2013 seasons. A $150,000 grant will help San Francisco Film Society with its Youth Education program.

Educational priorities also were reflected in a $50,000 grant to Reading Partners of Oakland to expand its national efforts to work with low-income children. Pivot Learning Partners of San Francisco received $75,000 to launch a redesign of English language teaching systems in Los Angeles County.

The Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito received $150,000 for its capital campaign.

The largest award was a $500,000 grant to Stanford University School of Medicine to support the Stanford Institute for Neuro-Innovation and Translational Neurosciences.

The foundations, which were established in 1945 and 1948, focus their efforts on the fields of culture, education, health and social service. They are independent of the Hearst Corp., which owns The Chronicle.

—Chronicle Staff Report, San Francisco Chronicle / Source