Past Grants

Since 2010, the Waldron Rise Foundation has provided over four million dollars of support to Monroe and Onondaga counties. Fifty-seven organizations have received grants from $1000 - $250,000. We award both single year and multi-year grants. Grant recipients include: the Al Sigl’s Golisano Autism Center, St. John’s Home’s-Green House Project, the Seneca Park Zoo, RIT’s Idea Lab and WXXI Public Television.

We are proud of all our grantees and the work they have achieved with our support. Below are examples of several grantee’s accomplishments.

Golisano Autism Center and Autism UP

Waldron Rise is proud to have supported a ground breaking program that coordinates services for people of all ages who experience Autism Spectrum Disorder. This program was the first to coordinate these services into one program making it easier for people in Monroe County to receive holistic support.

The board of Waldron Rise fell in love with Golisano Autism Center’s mission statement: “To support individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder, and their families, by expanding and enhancing opportunities to improve their quality of life. The Golisano Autism Center provides help for today and hope for tomorrow”.

The Golisano Autism Center’s vision is to provide a continuum of services that span a lifetime and offer a full array of coordinated program options for infants, toddlers, youth, teens and adults. This includes behavioral and primary care support; care-giver respite; community habilitation; social, recreational and therapeutic services; and act as a housing and employment liaison. Waldron Rise also provided funding for Autism UP to be part of this collaboration of service providers.

St. John’s Home - Green Houses

Michelle Whitman, Waldron Rise Foundation President, has always had a caring heart for the elderly and their families. Their mental and physical well-being is important. Edlers deserve to live the rest of their lives with dignity and feeling loved.

Edlers are challenged by loneliness, helplessness and boredom. WRF supported St. John’s Home as they embrace the Green House methodology to address these challenges. The Green House methodology focuses on helping elders live their lives to their fullest capacity while caring for their physical, mental and emotional needs. St John’s transformed the traditional institutionalized nursing home by designing and building a new care environment for skill nursing homes. St. John’s built the first two Green Houses in New York and now have some of the floors of their main building on Highland Avenue in Rochester, NY implementing the Green House concept.

Seneca Park Zoo Society

The Waldron Rise Foundation supported the Seneca Park Zoo Society’s efforts to build a new education center which teaches young children about animals. WRF also contributed the Zoo’s “A Step into Africa - Ngorongoro Crater Exhibit, as well as, the development of a Safari Bus which allows visitors to enter the bus so they can view the lions sitting on the front hood eating and sunning themselves. These expansion efforts provide an amazing and well-deserved natural habitat for the Zoo’s animals and enhanced the educational experience for all zoo visitors.

Rochester Institute of Technology’s Idea Lab

RIT’s Idea Lab is a part of the Albert J. Simone Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship which helps students fully realize their entrepreneurial goals from start to finish. The Waldron Rise Foundation provided funding to help the Idea Lab fulfill its mission of stimulating creativity and innovation in their students. The Lab provides a platform for students to use their creative minds to think outside of the box resulting in innovative solutions which help people who are physically and mentally challenged.

WXXI

The Waldron Rise Foundation has continued Anne Whitman’s support of children by funding WXXI’s program Sesame Street in the Communities . This 50 year old program provides hundreds of bilingual multi-media tools to help kids and families enrich and expand their knowledge during the early years of birth through age six, a critical window for brain development. WRF feels honored to support a pillar of our community which educates and reaches all ages, especially our young ones.