Last Updated on September 29, 2022 by Cass County Community Foundation
The Cass County Community Foundation held a press conference and reception to announce the recipients of the 2022 CCCF Community Grant Awards on September 28, 2022, at the foundation office, 729 E. Market Street. Attendees included representatives of the recipient organizations, as well as donors, board members, volunteers, and members of the media. This year, grants awarded to six organizations is a record totaling $176,840.26.
Deanna Crispen, President & CEO shared, “The total grant dollars awarded is once again more than the Board of Directors had originally allocated. The grants committee began their work with an allocation of $180,000. When the committee met earlier this summer to review and evaluate opportunity grant proposals of $5,000 or less, Chairman, Suzanne Chilcott presented the board with a recommendation of $33,234.20, leaving the competitive grants a pool of $146,765.80.
During the Competitive Grant Cycle evaluation, the committee began their work with a review of the proposals. As the committee worked through the process and especially after interviewing the organizations about their projects, the committee felt they could justify additional support of $30,074.46 from the Board of Directors and the directors agreed.
Organizations are required to first sent a letter expressing their desire to apply and briefly explain their project and costs. After the initial letters were evaluated, organizations moving forward in the process were invited to submit full proposals. Finally, each organization was invited to make a brief presentation before the committee to explain further and answer any questions the committee might still have about their proposal. Funding for community grants is made possible through the generosity of donors to CCCF’s unrestricted community endowments.
The following is a list of the 2022 Community Competitive Grant Award recipients and their projects:
2022 Grant Cycle Award Recommendations are:
o Cass County 4H Association—$49,842.00 for a new tractor
o Emmaus Mission Shelter—$30,920.00 a portico sheltering the food pantry distribution area. ***Emmaus has asked for $27,195.20 and was going to use existing funds for the remainder of the project. The committee felt strongly that CCCF should fund the entire project and allow Emmaus to use the funds already collected to purchase more food.
o Lewis Cass Band Boosters—$15,863.51 for new percussion instruments and a soundboard.
o State Theatre preservation Society–$12,056.75 for completion of the MSRP Marquee project and lobby flooring.
o Young America Volunteer Fire Department-$28,158.00 for new
e-hydraulic extrication tools
o Junior Civic Theater- up to $40,000 to install new flooring in their building.
Total awards for 2022 Competitive Grants are $176, 840.26.
Total 2022 Opportunity Grants are $33,234.20
Total for 2022 Grant Cycle: $210,074.46 up from $205, 647.50 in 2021.
Following the announcement of the awards, Crispen had one more announcement. She said, “We are very excited and honored to announce that this week, we received a planned gift of almost $1.6 million to establish the Rebecca Baer Unrestricted Endowment Fund in her memory. This gift, once it is able to make distributions will add tremendously to the amount of funding, we are able to offer organizations like the ones who received awards tonight. Becky was born and raised in the Royal Center area, spent her career as a school librarian in Illinois, and just wanted to help the community she grew up in and loved.”
For more information, please call the Cass County Community Foundation at 574-722-2200.
SOURCE: News release from Cass County Community Foundation