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Bon Secours Health System Inc. has invested $1.6 million in the Calvert Foundation, which has routed $500,000 of the amount to Consolidated Bank & Trust for loans in the Richmond and Hampton Roads areas.

Bon Secours also placed $500,000 nationally with the Mercy Loan Fund, which provides loans to affordable-housing organizations such as the Better Housing Coalition in Richmond.

"This past year, foundations have had to cut back on grants," said Edward Gerardo, Bon Secours director of community and social investments. "This is complementary or supplementary. In some cases, you can give out more money because you know you'll get principal back. You can keep lending it year after year. It achieves more things."

Bon Secours will get a 2.5 percent return on its investment, Gerardo said. "We made a conscious decision to forgo the highest return . . . for purposes of seeing that the capital amount becomes available for lower-income communities and for initiatives to build the health of the community [through] education, housing and economic development."

Calvert and Mercer will focus their lending on communities where Bon Secours operates nonprofit hospitals, Gerardo said. In Richmond, the medical facilities include St. Mary's, St. Francis, Memorial and Richmond Community.

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Verizon employees at 38 Virginia work locations collected nearly $31,000 worth of items to donate to 14 local domestic-violence shelters during a recent 12-day Shower for the Shelter drive.

In the Richmond area, the YWCA of Richmond and Safe Harbor received personal-care products, clothing and household items. Nationally, 485 Verizon locations donated items to nearly 200 shelters.

A Glen Allen electric cooperative association has awarded college scholarships to 48 high school seniors.

The Educational Scholarship Foundation of the Virginia, Maryland & Delaware Association of Electric Cooperatives is giving 39 $1,000 and nine $500 scholarships.

The total of $43,500 in scholarships is the largest amount in the foundation's nine-year history, the association said.

Virginia students received 38 of the 48 scholarships.

The scholarships went to the children of consumer-members of the 16 electric distribution cooperatives serving Virginia, Maryland and Delaware. The recipients were chosen through a competitive screening process.

"We are pleased to have the opportunity to help these deserving students and their parents make their college dreams a reality. Giving back to your community is one of the seven principles of our cooperative business model," said Richard Johnstone, the association's executive vice president.

The Educational Scholarship Foundation is funded through donations from individuals and the association's cooperatives, and by fundraising events. Since its inception in 2000, the foundation has awarded 262 scholarships for $171,500.

The Virginia, Maryland & Delaware Association of Electric Cooperatives is the trade association for the electric cooperatives serving the mid-Atlantic region.

Contact Katherine Calos at (804) 649-6433 or .

Staff writer Peter Bacqué contributed to this report.