In the latest column, read news about a Palo Alto High and Stanford graduate who's been nominated for two Grammys for his music composition work and CZI Community Fund grants awarded to a dozen nonprofits in the Palo Alto area.

GOING BACK TO THE GRAMMYS ... Christopher Tin has found himself in familiar territory as a nominee at the 2023 Grammys.

The graduate of Palo Alto High School and Stanford University is a contender for Best Classical Compendium for "The Lost Birds." He worked with British ensemble group Voces8 to create the album, which debuted in September. It was co-conducted and co-produced with Barnaby Smith and Sean Patrick Flahaven, respectively. "Sweeping and elegiac, it's a haunting tribute to those soaring flocks that once filled our skies, but whose songs have since been silenced," according to an album description on his website.

He's also in the running for Best Score Soundtrack for Video Games and Other Interactive Media. The nomination is for his score for "Old World," a video game by Mohawk Games that "is a colorful tapestry of sounds and harmonies from the Middle East, married to the forms and techniques of classical composition," his website states.

Tin previously won two Grammy awards in 2011: one for "Baba Yetu," the theme music for the 2005 video game "Civilization IV" in the category of Best Instrumental Arrangement Vocalist(s), and another for his first album "Calling All Dawns," in the category of Best Classical Crossover Album.

COMMUNITY PARTNERS ... Dozens of nonprofits across San Mateo County got an early Christmas gift from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, which announced the 2023 CZI Community Fund recipients. A total of $6 million has been split between 63 organizations to support their work in housing, education and health care, among other areas, according to a Nov. 17 press release.

Each recipient is getting two-year grants that total up to $200,000. "Local community driven-solutions are the key to building a healthier, more equitable partner in San Mateo County," Andrea Jones, CZI's director of Bay Area giving, said in the release.

Hope Horizon East Palo Alto (previously Bayshore Christian Ministries), which teaches life skills to youth, is also among the recipients. "This vote of confidence in the work we have been doing in East Palo Alto and eastern Menlo Park since 1984 is a great encouragement to our community of students, families, churches, volunteers, donors and prayer warriors," Executive Director Tiffany Hong said in a statement.

Nine other grantees are also based in East Palo Alto: East Palo Alto Center for Community Media, East Palo Alto Community Archive, East Palo Alto Kids Foundation, East Palo Alto Senior Center, EPACenter, Foundation for a College Education, New Creation Home Ministries, Retraining the Village and StreetCode Academy. While just past the county border, three Palo Alto-based organizations were among the grantees: DreamCatchers, Ronald McDonald House Charities Bay Area and United through Education.

Since debuting in 2017, the fund has provided $26 million across more than 170 local organizations.