NEW HOLIDAY CATALOGUE TO BENEFIT CITY, RESIDENTS
December 12, 2007
Dec. 12, 2007
NEW HOLIDAY CATALOGUE TO BENEFIT CITY, RESIDENTS
OMAHA – The holiday season is here, and catalogues filled with gift-giving ideas are making their way to metro area mailboxes.
This year, two Omaha organizations have joined forces to introduce a new catalogue to the local market, one whose items will lead to the creation of a better city. Omaha by Design and the Omaha Community Foundation have published the inaugural Omaha Catalogue of Urban Design Philanthropy, a compendium of strategic giving opportunities that focus on the city’s natural and built environments.
“In the field of giving, the philanthropy catalogue concept is relatively new,” said Connie Spellman, director of Omaha by Design. “We’ve taken this innovation a step further by focusing our catalogue on urban design – a first in the United States.”
The Omaha Catalogue’s 22 projects fall under three categories – Green Omaha, Civic Omaha and Neighborhood Omaha. Each category corresponds to a component of the Urban Design Element, a planning tool approved by the Omaha City Council and incorporated into the City of Omaha’s Master Plan in December 2004. Green Omaha seeks to preserve and enhance the city’s natural setting and public park system, Civic Omaha seeks to define and improve the city’s civic places and public image, and Neighborhood Omaha seeks to preserve and enhance the diversity of the city’s residential neighborhoods.
Projects for the Omaha Catalogue were selected based upon their ability to bring the goals of the Urban Design Element to life, Spellman said. They range from establishing a parks and landscape conservancy to renovating Gene Leahy Mall to supporting a garden project focused on nutrition and preventive health education.
“We hope the Omaha Catalogue will inspire philanthropists interested in our city to make gifts they may not have otherwise known possible,” said Sara Boyd, vice president of the Omaha Community Foundation.
The Omaha Catalogue of Urban Design Philanthropy was made possible by grants from the Fund for Omaha, the Millard Foundation, the Omaha Community Foundation, the Parker Family Foundation and the Qwest Foundation.
For more information, contact Spellman or Boyd at 402.342.3458.