March 1, 2022
Concept letters for multi-year projects due by March 22
The Community Foundation of the Ozarks is now accepting proposals to improve the lives of children and families involved in the foster care system in the greater Springfield area. The new “Musgrave Multi-Year Impact Grants: Foster Families 2022” program will support selected projects with up to $750,000 over three years.
The Jeannette L. Musgrave Foundation’s grantmaking focuses on four areas: Children and Senior Services; Health Care and Education; Poverty, Hunger and Homelessness; and Arts and Community Betterment. Each year, the Musgrave Multi-Year Impact Grants will target a different aspect of these areas. In 2021, the first year of the program, projects centered on improving the lives of children.
For “Foster Families 2022,” projects can focus on benefiting children in foster care, as well as foster parents and biological parents. Concept letters may propose new or existing programs, expansion of programmatic work or capital efforts lasting one to three years in length. Funding requests may be of any size and vary from year to year, but may not exceed $100,000 per year. Each proposal must define ways to fundamentally improve the lives of children and families in the foster care system in the five-county Springfield MSA of Greene, Christian, Dallas, Polk and Webster counties. This year, a total of $250,000 will be dedicated to the projects, which can be renewed each year for the following two years.
Eligible 501(c)3 nonprofit agencies, including local government entities, faith-based organizations and school districts, have until March 22 to submit a concept letter. Agencies can begin the application process at cfozarks.org/applyforgrants.
Concept letters will be reviewed by the Musgrave Foundation distribution committee and finalists will be announced April 15. Full proposals from finalists will be due May 13, with grants announced in mid-June.
“Both the CFO and the Musgrave Foundation recognize the distinct challenges faced by foster children in Missouri,” said Bridget Dierks, vice president of programs for the CFO. “With this high-impact grantmaking from the Musgrave Foundation, we hope agencies will develop programs that benefit the lives of foster children and their parents, both foster and biological, for years to come.”
In 2020, the CFO began administering the Musgrave Foundation’s grantmaking in partnership with U.S. Bank Wealth Management, which oversees the Musgrave Foundation Charitable Trust. The Musgrave Foundation distribution committee guides the foundation’s grantmaking: Chair Rob Baird; Emily Bowen-Marler; Thomas J. Carlson; Ferba Lofton; Danny Perches; Peggy Riggs, Ed.D; and Thomas Slaight.
Since its inception, the Musgrave Foundation has awarded more than $16 million to Springfield-Greene County nonprofits with missions in its areas of focus. The foundation was created by Jeannette L. Musgrave, whose husband, Dr. Edward Musgrave, was a dentist whose family held oil leases in Oklahoma and Texas. Dr. Musgrave died in 1970. Mrs. Musgrave created the foundation in 1983; she lived to be 101.
