Community Foundation of the Ozarks

The Community Foundation of the Ozarks, in partnership with Commerce Trust Company, will present grants totaling $127,500 at 2:30 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 9. The grants will be awarded to 14 regional organizations that work on rural poverty issues across southern Missouri.

Media are invited to attend the 2012 Louis L. and Julia Dorothy Coover Regional Grantmaking Program presentation, which will take place at Commerce Trust Company, 1345 E. Battlefield Road, Springfield. Each agency receiving a grant will make comments about the needs and services being provided in their communities that led to the grant requests.

This year’s grant awards will be used for a wide range of programs focusing on basic needs including hunger and nutritional food programs, homeless prevention, medical and dental care, child abuse resources and other human-services needs. The grant committee received more than $715,000 in requests for this year’s grant cycle, up from about $500,000 in requests for last year’s pool of $105,000.

These grants are made possible through the generosity of the late Julia Dorothy Coover, who worked for Commerce Bank for 30 years. She established the Louis L. and Julia Dorothy Coover Charitable Foundation in 1992 to honor her husband’s memory. With this year’s awards, the Coover Charitable Foundation surpasses $1.5 million in grantmaking across the Ozarks since its founding.

The following agencies will receive 2012 Coover Regional Grantmaking awards:

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Every Friday, we share the news of new groups and individuals choosing to make philanthropic gifts and investments in their community. You can read more about types of funds available at CFO here. Click here for a full list of non-profit Agency Partners. For more information on fund types and how to get involved, contact Winter Skelton at wskelton@cfozarks.org.

Jerry and Sharon Berkstresser Fund – Becky Berkstresser Brill established this family and community fund to honor her parents and help simplify her charitable giving. This is a component fund of the Community Foundation of Southwest Missouri.

Dignity Now Endowment Fund – This is a fund which support the long terms needs of Dignity Now. It is a component fund of the Community Foundation of Taney County and is a new Agency Partner in the social services category.

O’Day Family Mausoleum Maintenance Fund – John Baldwin O’Day has established this fund which will distribute to the City of Springfield for the public beautification and historic preservation of the O’Day Family Mausoleum located in Hazelwood Cemetery. Should the available to spend be more than the City of Springfield needs for this task, the remaining available amount will granted to Ozark Greenways for the maintenance and improvement of the greenway trail network in Springfield-Greene County.

Ozark Actors Theatre Endowment Fund – This fund will support the long term sustainability of the local theatre in Rolla, Mo. It is a component fund of the Meramec Regional Community Foundation, and is a new Agency Partner in the arts category.

Skyline R-II Youth Empowerment Fund – This fund will support youth programming. This is a component fund of the Douglas County Community Foundation.

The Rare Breed Youth Outreach Center, a drop-in center for at-risk youth run by The Kitchen, Inc., has selected a new, larger building to better serve those who use the center to reduce the amount of time they have to spend without permanent shelter each day.

The new location at 301 N. Main Ave. is several blocks west of its current site at 215 S. Campbell Ave.

The new building was purchased through the Community Foundation of the Ozarks’ Mission-Related Investment program. This initiative offers below-market rate investments for projects that create a “double-bottom line” of both financial and social returns for Ozarks communities, instead of investing assets solely in financial markets.

The CFO will own the building with The Kitchen having options to purchase throughout the 15-year term at a decreasing amount.

A neighborhood meeting is scheduled from 4-6 p.m., Wednesday, Jan. 4, at the current Campbell Avenue location, in preparation for a rezoning request to go before the Springfield Planning and Zoning Commission later in January. The building on North Main is currently zoned for Heavy Manufacturing and the new zoning would be the less intense use of Center City. (more…)