Grants are a big part of Community Foundation

Everyday community foundations around the country support their respective communities by supporting donors and non-profits alike.  Because each community is different, each community foundation is different. Locally, the Community Foundation of Grundy County supports a variety of topics from early childhood to mental health to land use and everything in between through our donor funds and grant programs.

Our grant programs are a vehicle we use to push money out into the community again supporting a wide variety of organizations and projects.  Given the current pandemic, the Community Foundation of Grundy County decided to reactivate our Disaster Fund to assist local organizations with meeting the basic needs of their clients.  Since March when this fund was reactivated, over $20,000 has been granted out to local nonprofits.  The majority of those funds were used for food and medical supplies.

While we know the need within our local community is much larger, unfortunately, we have depleted that fund.  The Community Foundation of Grundy County and United Way of Grundy County jointly submitted a grant application to the Illinois COVID-19 Response Fund in an attempt to increase the support of our local organizations.  We are anxiously awaiting information on this grant.  If a grant is received, those dollars will be given directly to not-for-profits to respond to the needs of the community as it relates to COVID-19.  We encourage non-for-profits that have a need specific to COVID-19 to continue applying to the Disaster Fund via our website.

Our competitive grant program kicked off in January with a yearly budget of $35,000.  To date, we have only seen a small number of Grundy County organizations apply for a grant, I believe, due to many programs being put on hold until the stay at home order is lifted.  That being said, if you are a 501c3 organization who has a need, I would encourage you to reach out to me or complete an application on our website.  Our grant committee meets the first Wednesday of each month to review requests.

One of my favorite grant programs recently came to a close.  The Youth Philanthropy Program is a youth led initiative that allows high school students to learn about local organizations and award grant funding to those organizations who speak to the youth’s passions and interests.  On May 3rd, high school students from our five local schools announced their grant recipients for 2020 in a Facebook watch party.  In total, $25,000 was granted out by our youth!

This year’s recipients include: Help for Hope, Coal City School District, Gardner-South Wilmington High School, Catholic Charities, Special Connections, Guardian Group, We Care of Grundy County, REACH Program, Grundy Area PADS, CASA of River Valley, Easter Seals/Jump Start, Ambucs, Loving Deeds for Kids in Need, Morris Community High School, New Beginnings, Illinois Valley Industries, TEACH Outdoors, Grundy County Health Department, and Big Brothers Big Sisters of Will and Grundy Counties.

To learn more about the Community Foundation of Grundy County or to apply to one of our grant programs, please visit cfgrundycounty.com, email me at [email protected] , or call us at 815-941-0852.