The Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc. announced Monday that it awarded grants totaling $456,063 to eight projects that develop innovative and sustainable methods to deliver financial planning services to communities not traditionally served by the financial planning profession.

The second annual Financial Planning Grants program received applications from more than 75 projects. The grant award recipients are:

   California Institute of Finance at California Lutheran University (Thousand Oaks, Calif.)

   The Curators of the University of Missouri (Columbia, Mo.)

   Economic Awareness Council (Hinsdale, Ill.)

   Hope Pastoral Care & Counseling (San Clemente, Calif.)

   Mind's Eye Resource Management (Denver, Colo.)

   Sage Financial Solutions (Pinole, Calif.)

   Skills for Living (Houston, Texas)

   The University of Central Arkansas (Conway, Ark.)

The grants aim to help a range of constituencies, such as the $40,084 awarded California Lutheran University's California Institute of Finance to help it develop an Information Center for Women, which is an online forum to provide underserved women with the basic financial advice, information and tools they need to help themselves and dramatically improve their lives.

The $60,000 that went to Mind's Eye Resource Management will help fund a project designed to provide financial planning education to the food and hospitality industry, a community that is the second largest working segment in the U.S. but which is not a population traditionally targeted by the financial planning community.

The grant awards were made through CFP Board's Financial Planning Grants program, which has provided grants totaling $1.3 ml. to 28 projects across the U.S. Through the grant program, CFP Board has provided financial support to non-profit organizations, educators and CFP® professionals involved in a wide variety of activities, ranging from innovative uses of technology that expand public access to financial planning to creative partnerships delivering financial planning information and assistance through libraries, high schools, colleges and community-based organizations. Additional information about CFP Board's grant program is available at www.CFP.net/grants.