BATON ROUGE - The Baton Rouge Area Foundation has distributed more than $1.6 million so far to local nonprofits helping people affected by the floods, including more $600,000 to schools and groups focused on education.

The grants are the first round of giving coming from the Louisiana Flood Relief Fund, which the prominent foundation established with $100,000 of its own money. BRAF reports that more than $2.5 million from more than 14,000 individual donations have flowed into the relief fund so far, plus additional corporate giving.

The single largest gift, totaling $250,000, did not go to an education-focused group. Rather, it went to another large foundation that helps many organizations, Community Foundation of Acadiana. That foundation primarily serves eight parishes in south-central Louisiana that have all have been declared federal disaster areas.