The Dayton Foundation during the second half of 2011 awarded more than $18.3 million in grants to charitable organizations in the greater Dayton region and beyond, marking a nearly $2 million increase from that same period in 2010, Michael Parks, president of the Foundation, said Monday.

A portion of this $18.3 million — $275,000 — was earned through The Dayton Foundation’s discretionary grants program, in which donors provide unrestricted or largely unrestricted funds to the Foundation to promote efforts in the areas of arts and culture, health, education, human services, philanthropy, and other community-building initiatives, according to Parks.

The rest of that $18.3 million is made up of money donors give to the Foundation for a specific purpose, such as to set up a scholarship fund or to provide money for a local church, he said.

Donors may be individuals, nonprofits or corporations.

“It’s been a difficult three years for the economy,” Parks said. “People’s DNA hasn’t changed, in that they want to help support their communities and do good things. We’re cautiously optimistic that giving will continue to uptick.”

The $275,000 in discretionary grants assisted organizations — including Culture Works, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, Greater Dayton Public Television, Kettering Children’s Choir, Mary Scott Nursing Center and St. Vincent de Paul — in helping Greater Dayton, according to Parks.

The Foundation awarded Dayton-based Aullwood Audubon Center and Farm $50,000 over two years to help construct a Farm Discovery Center with the first farm-based Head Start Preschool in the nation.

The center is designed to teach children and adults about agriculture, according to Charity Krueger, executive director of Aullwood Audubon Center and Farm.

“The Dayton Foundation really is the critical organization in our community that helps nonprofits with meeting the community’s needs,” Krueger said. “They are vital to so many groups whose focus is on environmental education or conservation. Dayton certainly is one of the great providers of amenities, both cultural and environmental, because of The Dayton Foundation’s support. It really enriches our whole greater community.”

The Dayton Foundation since 1921 has awarded to nonprofits more than 225,000 grants totaling more than a half-billion dollars, according to a report released by the Foundation Monday.