The new grantmaking programs include:

Metropolitan Springfield Red-Flag Response Grants – The Community Foundation will offer $225,000 in challenge grants intended to help support existing programs of Springfield area non-profits that address red-flag issues identified in the 2009 Community Focus Report for Springfield-Greene County.

Coover Regional Poverty Grants – This program will award grants to support new or innovative non-profit programs outside of Springfield-Greene County aimed at fighting rural poverty. These grants are made possible through the Louis L. and Julia Dorothy Coover Charitable Foundation Regional Grantmaking Program, which is a partnership between the CFO and Commerce Trust Company.

Agency Partners Endowment-Building Grants – These grants, offered to the more than 350 non-profit agencies that partner with the Community Foundation, are intended to support efforts to plan, develop and implement endowment-building programs. These can be used for projects such as promotional materials, fundraisers, information/education programs and other awareness efforts.

The Rural Schools Partnership also has three grant cycles now open.

For more information on the CFO’s grantmaking programs, please e-mail Julie Leeth, Executive Vice President, or call her at (417) 864-6199.

• The Leona Mackler Fund was established to support the Foster Grandparent program in Higginsville.  This year, the program will receive $610 to provide transportation for volunteers as well as equipment and material needs.

• The Jerry and Tac Caplan Mid-Life Initiative Fund will provide $1,239.25 for an individual currently living in The Kitchen’s Missouri Hotel.  The Caplans established the fund to provide financial assistance to economically challenged women who want to change their lives through education, specialized training or job skill and presentation needs. The woman will receive restorative dental services and dentures to help improve her job interview and employment opportunities.

• The Helen M. Delano Fund provides financial assistance to uniformed police officers and firefighters who have been injured or killed in the line of duty. If, thankfully, circumstances do not match the criteria during an award year, assistance can be provided for needs created through individual or family illnesses, catastrophic losses through fire or storms or other pressing needs.  This year, the Delano Fund will provide $2,844 to the family of a uniformed police trainer whose finances have been challenged by the costs of a long illness.

The two remaining Field-of-Interest Grants are structured to accept year-round applications, with awards made available for requests to the individual programs as they are received:

• A very generous anonymous donor established the Senior Dreams program to provide individuals under Hospice care a chance to live out their dreams, similar to the “Make a Wish” program.  The wide variety of “Dreams” being granted include providing transportation and equipment for an individual who wanted to go fishing in the Cape Fair area, and a visit to family in the Portland, Ore., area.  The “Dreams” vary both in geography and cost, but the thank-you messages sent by the participants all echo similar sentiments of profound thanks for the opportunity.

• The Ellis Fund was established by a donor in honor of her son, who died of pediatric cancer.  The donor understood the financial hardships placed on a family when faced with a life-threatening diagnosis and wanted to provide assistance for those families in need.  This year, one family has greatly benefited with assistance for the hotel stays required for multiple visits to St. Louis Children’s Hospital for diagnostic tests, treatment and follow-up testing.  A second family was faced with a series of financial hardships as a result of a child’s illness and eventual death. The Ellis Fund provided financial assistance throughout the child’s illness, as well as helping with funeral expenses.

These programs help with a wide range of needs for people ranging from schoolkids to grandparents.

We’ll profile these grants in two segments this week.

• The $3,300 made available through the Caplan/Kramer Holocaust Museum Award will allow three Springfield R-12 Social Studies teachers to attend workshops this summer at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D. C., for the opportunity to work with curators of the Museum and other teachers from around the country.  The Caplan and Kramer families created the grant to expose teachers to the Museum’s instructional offerings so they can share authentic knowledge of one of the most tragic periods in history.
• The John, Beth and Jack Raidel Fund will provide $1,300 in funding for early intervention for Springfield Public School students who experience repeated absences and poor achievement due to chronic head lice infestations.  The funds from this program provide the appropriate equipment and personal hygiene materials needed to treat these infestations and get the children back to school as quickly as possible, without exposing the remainder of their classmates.  The Raidels were inspired to create this fund after reading an article about the problem for Springfield children.
• The $1,198.00 award made through the David B. Woodruff Fund will extend summer school opportunities for youth held in the Greene County Juvenile Detention Center, beyond what is provided through Springfield Public Schools.  This allows for continued instruction for students who are traditionally behind their classmates and the chance to re-enter in the fall better prepared.
• The Lennie Cloud Fund for the Hearing Impaired Fund will provide a $450 scholarship for a hearing-challenged student to attend the Term 8, Sensational Week at Camp Barnabas, which provides services for campers who have hearing or vision difficulties.  The traditional camp experiences will be made available to the scholarship recipient, with the necessary equipment, specially trained staff and services, made available though the Cloud Fund.
• The Eslick Fund will award $948 to Sunshine Baptist Church in Springfield.  William E. Eslick established the fund to provide Southern Baptist Churches in southwest Missouri with capital improvement funding.   Sunshine Baptist plans to replace the Fellowship Hall piano and broaden its music-outreach program.

Watch the website for the second group of 2009-10 Field-of-Interest Grants.

In response to the challenging economic times and the persistence of “red flag” issues noted in the Community Focus 2009: A Report for Springfield and Greene County, the Community Foundation of the Ozarks and other local funders announced the Community Response Challenge Grants Initiative on October 30, 2009. The challenge made available $325,000 in 1:1 matching dollars to organizations providing direct services to meet the identified red flag issues of access to healthcare, child abuse and neglect, and hunger and homelessness.

The additional local funders included:  American Dehydrated Foods, Inc, the Thomas Carlson Fund, the Musgrave Foundation, the Roy W. Slusher Foundation, and the Turner Family Foundation.

Recipients included the following agencies:

For the access to healthcare category: Breast Care Foundation of the Ozarks, The Kitchen Clinic, Ronald McDonald House Tooth Truck mobile dental care.

For the child abuse and neglect category: Child Advocacy Center, Family Violence Center, Isabel’s House, The Victim Center.

For the hunger and homelessness category: Boys and Girls Town Emergency Foster Care program, Crosslines program of the Council of Churches, Ozarks Food Harvest.

“This past year has been a challenging one for our world, country, and community.” said Doug Thornsberry, co-chair of the grants review panel and a board member of CFO. “In many ways, our non-profits might have been the most profoundly impacted. The demand for the important services they provide has dramatically increased, but for most, the resources to meet the increased challenges have diminished. These groups are facing hardships and a double-whammy of the economy. The fact that the recipients raised nearly $100,000 over the original goal is remarkable in this environment.  It’s a reflection of the generosity of this community, and the good work of these ten non-profits.”

PHOTO: The Victim Center staff addresses the reception attendees regarding how the Community Response grant dollars are being used to further their mission.

Nixa Community Foundation recently awarded more than $36,000 in grants through its unrestricted, community grantmaking program. Grants were given at the Nixa Community Foundation annual banquet held on February 18, 2010.

Nixa Community Foundation was CFO’s first affiliate community foundation  with its establishment in 1993. Since then, Nixa Community Foundation has granted more than $625,000 to worthwhile programs and organizations serving the citizens of Nixa.

CAPTION: Grantees who received grant checks at the banquet pose for a group picture.

The challenge was created in 2006 as a direct response to the Community Focus Reports in 2004 and 2005, which stated that overcoming the pressing challenges related to the needs of our children would shape the future of Springfield and Greene County.  Red flag issues addressed in the reports suggested there were three main community needs with relation to children in the Springfield area:

• Education systems ill equipped to educate the growing numbers of impoverished children
• At risk children lacking appropriate health care
• Domestic instability and poverty in the home

The gifts listed in the Grantmakers Challenge for Children report that address the three red flags outlined in the 2004 Community Report Card are a testament to the positive community action which occurs in Springfield by thoughtful donors and organizations.

We look forward to continuing this final year of the Challenge.  To view the latest report (PDF format), please here.

United Way of the Ozarks recently received a $25,000 matching grant from the Community Foundation of the Ozarks. This grant was part of a challenge grant commitment by CFO to match new leadership gifts ($500 or above) up to $25,000 for the 2009 United Way campaign.

To date, 79 donors are either first time contributors or increased their 2009 gift to the leadership level. This effort has raised $61,507 for the campaign.

CFO is pleased to partner with the United Way of the Ozarks to help mobilize resources to meet our community’s needs. For more information on the United Way of the Ozarks, please visit their website here.

Photo: Gary Funk, CFO president, presents $25,000 to Jennifer Kennally, president/CEO of the United Way of the Ozarks, and John Wilson, United Way board chairman, at a recent United Way board meeting.

CAPTION: Jill Reynolds, Vice President of Commerce Trust and CFO board member, along with Doug Thornsberry, CFO board member, present grant awards to representatives from the Ripley County Caring Community Partnership.

The Louis and Dorothy Coover Regional Grantmaking Program, a partnership between Community Foundation of the Ozarks and Commerce Trust Company, awarded $109,475.00 to 8 agencies serving the Missouri Ozarks in a grant presentation held on November 17th. This year’s Coover awards focused directly on solutions aimed at fighting rural poverty. The review panel received 35 applications representing $485,909.00 in requested funds. Organizations with regional service areas that are primarily outside of metropolitan Springfield and Greene County are encouraged to apply. Mrs. Coover, a 30 year employee of Commerce Bank, established the Louis L. and Julia Dorothy Coover Charitable Foundation in 1992 to honor the memory of her husband.

Recipients of the 2009-2010 Coover Regional Awards are as follows:
Boys & Girls Club of the Ozarks – $14,000
This grant will allow the Boys & Girls Club of the Ozarks to assist additional children from rural Taney & Stone counties, ages 6-15 years, who fall at or below 125% of federal poverty guidelines. The children will have access to high-quality, day-long youth development programming opportunities & physical activities during the summer.

Cabool Development Foundation – $13,000
This grant seeks to make affordable primary health care available to 43,000 residents of a 4-county region in South Central Missouri. Cabool Development Foundation has partnered with a federally qualified Health Center (Southern Missouri Community Health Center in West Plains) to help realize that goal through medical, dental and mental health care services.

Care to Learn – Bolivar, Nixa and Ozark – $15,000
Funding available through this programming will address emergency hunger, health, and hygiene needs of students in each district through food backpacks, food vouchers, clothing vouchers, hygiene items, and financial assistance for medical needs. This project is based on the very successful model started through Mr. Doug Pitt’s “Care to Learn Foundation” in Springfield.

Hope’s Bridge – $14,500
This organization is dedicated to the temporary care of children whose families are in crisis in Polk, Dallas, Cedar, Hickory, Benton and Webster counties. Funding from this grant will provide for additional staff & operational needs and is intended to double the capacity to provide temporary care for the children; thus helping families remain intact while their needs are being met.

Ozarks Resource Group – $13,950
The programming and grant assistance provided through this grant will help provide a centralized, safe location for parents to access when they need assistance through the Family Resource Center; and, help assist students in Hickory County to make healthy and responsible choices.

Ripley County Caring Community Partnership – $9,025
The funding being made available to this program will provide impoverished students with evening meals, while participating in the Ripley County CASASTART Program — a community-based, after school program that provides Doniphan R-1 students ages 8-13 the opportunity to work with tutors and mentors.

Samaritan Outreach Center – $15,000
This center in West Plains provides emergency shelter and a viable means of support to homeless people in the South Central Ozarks who need assistance in re-entering society. The services available for individuals who access the facility include referral and placements for employment, housing, transportation, educational opportunities, mental health services, and a broad range of children’s services.

The Samaritan Center – $15,000
The Samaritan Center is the only food and clothing distribution center in Henry County and has provided services for clients in Henry, St. Clair and Benton County for 22 years. This grant will allow the center to increase its services to 100 additional families by providing 150,000 pounds of meat, fruits, and vegetables. This will increase their total service outreach to 800 families in the counties served.

To view and/or listen to the story on KSMU/National Public Radio about these grant awards, please click here. 

Details concerning the Community Foundation of the Ozarks’ Community Response Challenge Grants which are tied directly to the ‘red flags’ issues as identified in the 2009 Community Focus are now posted at under Metropolitan Springfield Community Grantmaking or through this link.

PLEASE NOTE: You will receive confirmation via email that we have received your grant application. All applications should be submitted through out online application system.