About the Fund
Gilana's Fund, works to uplift and support organizations which celebrate and promote equality, justice, inclusion, & acceptance of our communities, each other, and ourselves.
Gilana's Fund was established through the Community Foundation for Muskegon County in 2007 and to date has raised nearly $100,000.
Originally created and fund-raised by those that knew Gilana Shira Alpert in November, 2007, the Fund today is managed by the Alpert Family--Gilana's parents Rabbi Alan & Mrs. Anna Alpert, her sister Aleza Alpert Elles, and her brother David Alpert; along with the help of the Community Foundation for Muskegon County.
When it was first created, the Gilana Shira Alpert Fund served as a memorial fund, and in 2011 the Alpert family began to give out grants in the areas in which Gilana felt passionately: Sex Education, Holocaust Awareness, Theatre Education, and Equality Advocacy.
In 2014 the Fund was rebranded as Gilana's Fund and focused the mission of the fund to it's current statement of celebrating acceptance. It also adopted its butterfly imagery for a multitude of reasons.
The caterpillar blossoms into a beautiful flying symbol of hope. Gilana once said that butterflies, while gliding from place to place, are good listeners which encourages changing mindsets and acceptance.
It is the hope that those who benefit from Gilana's Fund will be inspired by what Gilana set out to accomplish in making this a better, more accepting world.
The many organizations who have benefited from Gilana's Fund, as of October 2016.