Iranian-American Community Foundation Announces $114,000 in Grants to Support Persian Arts and Culture, Leadership Development and Civic Engagement
Contact: Mariam Hosseini
PARSA Community Foundation
1735 East Bayshore Road, Suite 30B Redwood City, CA 94063
Telephone: 650-367-9105
Mariam@parsacf.org
NEW IRANIAN-AMERICAN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ANNOUNCES $114,000 IN GRANTS TO SUPPORT PERSIAN ARTS AND CULTURE, LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT, AND CIVIC ENGAGEMENT
Redwood City, CA June 21, 2007 – PARSA Community Foundation, a new organization focused on the preservation and advancement of Persian arts and culture, the development of Iranian-American leaders, and the support of civic engagement of the Iranian diaspora, has announced a series of grants totaling $114,000 to six powerful projects. The grants include:
· Promises Films for Global Moms: Iran, a feature-length documentary film that will take Academy Award nominated producer/director Justine Shapiro and her six-year old son Mateo to live for three months with three families in Iran and explore Persian influences on family life.
· Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago for the Persepolis Fortification Archive Project which will digitally capture thousands of clay tablets, fragments and seals of the Achaemenid Persian Empire and make it available to scholars worldwide, work that is indispensable to the study of the history, languages and art of the empire at its zenith.
· Iranian Alliances Across Borders for Camp Ayandeh 2007, a camp that will bring together over 50 Iranian-American high school students from around the country for a week of building leadership skills and learning about their Iranian heritage.
· Children’s Hope International Literacy and Development, Youth Ambassadors of Hope to support the development of leaders with socially beneficial agendas by providing Iranian- American youth between the ages of 12 and 25 seed funding to create and lead projects and organizations which benefit their communities locally and abroad.
· Stanford University, Persian Student Association – Business Alliance to create a business-focused forum for communication and collaborative work through events that will include workshops, seminars, and discussion forums involving various members of the local business community.
· National Iranian-American Council for the Iranian-American Civil Society Development Program which will train community leaders to participate in the political process, conduct voter registration drives and assume social leadership, thereby promoting and enabling civic participation by all Iranian-Americans.
Grantees were chosen for their entrepreneurial approach to addressing community needs, their track record in attracting diversified funding, and for their ability to deliver promised outcomes.
Pamela Boll, Executive Producer of the feature-length documentary Global Moms: Iran, said: “Promises is grateful to have the Persian-American community’s support in producing our film which shows the human side of an oft-misunderstood people. PARSA CF provides reliable access for reaching a network of philanthropists through one grant application.”
The overwhelming response to PARSA CF’s national call for grant applications establishes that the community needs enormous resources to fight defamation, prevent Persian history from being rewritten, and promote cultural understanding through the arts.
PARSA CF Board member Anousheh Ansari, a celebrated entrepreneur and the first Iranian woman astronaut, reflected on the Persian-American community’s need to cultivate best practices in grant-seeking and grant-making: “As with any successful business, the most effective philanthropy requires strategic planning and vision. Like a good venture capitalist, PARSA CF finds the top organizations to invest in, performs due diligence, and works with the organizations to help them reach agreed upon milestones.”
While a national grant competition was a first, charity is not new to the Iranian-American community. A multi-thousand year tradition of philanthropy has been transformed into modern day giving in the United States. Over the last three years, just a dozen families have made over $125 million in donations to universities, hospitals, private foundations and other public charities in the United States. “PARSA CF helps leverage resources of the community, be they $100,000 or $100 to achieve maximum impact” says Anouk Lim, Executive Director of PARSA CF. “As one of the most prosperous and highly educated immigrant communities in the United States, Iranian-Americans have made significant contributions to American life and their achievements are woven into the tapestry of America. An accelerated wave of Persian philanthropy is simply the next step.”
This grant cycle coincided with Norooz, an ancient Persian new year holiday celebrated on the vernal equinox by people in Iran and 14 other countries in Asia, the Middle East, the Caucasus, and the Balkans. PARSA CF’s next grant cycle coincides with Mehregan, the Persian autumn festival. PARSA CF’s grants will revolve around those two ancient Persian holidays each year. To learn how to apply, please visit http://www.parsacf.org/grant-seekers/. To learn more about our grantees, please visit http://www.parsacf.org/grant-seekers/past-grantees/.
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About PARSA Community Foundation: PARSA CF is the first Persian community foundation in the United States and the leading Persian institution practicing strategic philanthropy and promoting social entrepreneurship around the globe. Managing the largest independent endowment fund dedicated to Persian philanthropy, PARSA CF provides tax-advantaged vehicles to donors and makes grants to nonprofit organizations. The organization is a nonpartisan, nonreligious, nonprofit registered as a 501(c) (3) entity in the United States. For further information, please visit the foundation’s website at www.parsacf.org.