The Community Foundation is excited to announce that 17 organizations will share $110,000 in Vital Community Grants. These grants are at the heart of the Foundation’s vision of building a vital community for everyone.
Each year the Community Foundation offers Vital Community Grants to address a theme of community need. For the past few years that has been an Equitable COVID-19 Recovery; 2022 is no different as we persevere into the third year of the pandemic.
As part of the grant-making process, ten applicants were invited to participate in a granting circle, which empowered its members to decide collectively how to best distribute the available funds.
Participatory grant making reflects the Community Foundation’s values of trust, inclusivity, collaboration and community vitality. The practice is based on the principle of “nothing about us without us” which acknowledges that those on the front-lines best understand the complex needs of various community groups.
Vital Community Grants are made possible thanks to pooled contributions from fifteen of the Foundation’s many funds including the Housing Field of Interest Fund, the Pilkington-Henniger Fund, and for the first time, the Almira Grover Foley Fund, which has been dedicated to serving the marginalized since the late 1800s.
Donors choose to support funds like the Vital Community Fund because they trust the Foundation’s expertise in knowing where the funds will have the greatest impact. Together, these funds allow the Foundation to respond to urgent community needs and to emerging opportunities for projects, programs, and services across a broad range of charitable organizations.
Please consider supporting the Vital Community Fund by making a donation now.