Feb. 12, 2026
Donor-advisors expand original grantmaking budget by $45,000
The Community Foundation of the Ozarks presented $165,000 in grants through the Jewell Schweitzer Quality of Life program today at Centerstone’s administrative campus. Named in memory of the late Springfield philanthropist, the grant program funds innovative solutions to “Red Flags” identified in the 2024 Community Focus Report for Springfield and Greene County.
For a second straight year, the CFO engaged advisors of donor-advised funds to expand funding for the Schweitzer grant program. With an initial program budget of $120,000, donor-advisors recommended grants totaling $45,000 from their funds to support three additional grants.
Recipients, donors and selection committee members of the CFO’s Jewell Schweitzer Quality of Life Grants celebrated at Centerstone’s administrative campus in Springfield on Feb. 12.
The recipients, with donor-advisor support noted, are:
- Boys & Girls Clubs of Springfield: $30,000 to close achievement gaps for underserved students through the Academic Achievement Bridge Program.
- CASA of Southwest Missouri: $30,000 to enhance the child advocacy program by strengthening family support through an early childhood specialist.
- Centerstone Foundation: $30,000 to partner with Preferred Family Healthcare to provide scheduled drop-in child care services for families in need, allowing increased access to behavioral health crisis services, individual/family therapy and weekly parenting skills groups.
- Drew Lewis Foundation Inc.: $30,000, with support from John and Beth Raidel, to renovate a recently purchased home for a family in its RISE program, giving the family the opportunity to become homeowners and build generational wealth.
- Foundation for Springfield Public Schools: $5,000, with support from Laurie Edmondson, to support the annual Back-to-School Grant Program, an initiative that provides SPS educators with direct funding to dismantle learning barriers for all students.
- Ozarks Regional YMCA: $10,000, with support from Rob and Sally Baird and Michael and Katie Meek, to provide need-based Y Academy scholarships and snacks to low-income families.
- Springfield Community Gardens: $30,000 to support unanticipated costs related to the build-out of Osage Prairie Farm, which provides produce for food-insecure individuals and serves as a training site for 36 interns per year.
“We are so grateful to both the nonprofits addressing community needs and the donors who have chosen to help fund additional projects from a group of many worthy applicants,” said Winter Kinne, president and CEO of the CFO. “The philanthropic legacies of Jewell Schweitzer and our donor-advisors will continue through the lives transformed by these grant-funded projects.”
The Jewell Schweitzer Quality of Life grant selection committee comprised Austin Elliot, Tony Lewis, Travis Liles, Parker Reid, Karen Shannon, Chase Snider and Margo Spilde.
