Metropolitan Springfield Community Grantmaking
COMMUNITY RESPONSE CHALLENGE GRANTS 2009-2010
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.
Community Foundation of the Ozarks was joined by American Dehydrated Foods, Inc, the Thomas Carlson fund, the Musgrave Foundation, the Roy W. Slusher Foundation, and the Turner Family Foundation in making available $325,000 to 10 local organizations providing direct services to meet the identified red flag issues of access to healthcare, child abuse and neglect, and hunger and homelessness. The recipients must match each grant dollar with new donations, effectively doubling the new resources for the community to $650,000.
“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 grant recipients have until April 30, 2010, to raise their grant match. “As with most of our grant programs, this was very competitive” said Dr. Gloria Galanes, co-chair of the grants review panel and board member of CFO. “We had 17 requests totaling $647,000. All were outstanding groups and proposals and worthy of funding. Our panel had a difficult task in allocating our $325,000 to make the most impact for our community. I’m proud of the work we did in accomplishing that challenging goal.”
The organizations and amounts awarded were:
• For the access to healthcare category: Breast Care Foundation of the Ozarks, $25,000; The Kitchen Clinic, $40,000; Ronald McDonald House Tooth Truck mobile dental care, $40,000.
• For the child abuse and neglect category: Child Advocacy Center, $30,000; Family Violence Center, $25,000; Isabel’s House, $30,000; The Victim Center, $30,000.
• For the hunger and homelessness category: Boys and Girls Town Emergency Foster Care program, $25,000; Crosslines program of the Council of Churches, $40,000; Ozarks Food Harvest, $40,000.
“We are excited about this initiative, and most certainly, excited about being one of the grant awardees. With unemployment more than doubling in the Springfield area in two years, we have seen a significant increase in demand on providing food.” said Bart Brown, CEO of Ozarks Food Harvest. “ We have really noticed a marked increased in families who have never had never needed access our services before, and who would be going hungry without the assistance of our donors and partner food pantries.”
“These are probably the most demanding times for our organization that I’ve ever seen. To have access to these flexible funds for us to use as needed is truly a great gift, and an even bigger gift to the community in total.” Brown said.
Co-chair Thornsberry noted, “Springfield has long had a cooperative spirit in meeting community challenges. We are grateful to ADF, Tom Carlson, the Musgrave and Roy W. Slusher Foundations and the Turner family in helping us to help others. We can be more effective in our community when we work together.”
For more information on the Community Focus 2009: A Report for Springfield and Greene County, visit www.SpringfieldCommunityFocus.org.
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Information about Metropolitan Springfield Community Grantmaking for the coming year will be available in the Summer of 2010. Please contact Randy Russell at (417) 864-6199 or rrussell@cfozarks.org with questions.