18 » Friday, June 4, 2021
epnews.com
Local Grants Invest $415k In Nonprofits This Spring, Down By 33%
Four granting organizations give annually to nonprofits in Estes Park. The Town of Estes Park and the Community Foundation of Northern Colorado award funds from taxes and interest on endowment funds respectively. Their total amount awarded is relatively unaffected by COVID regulations compared to volunteer organizations that rely on public events and sales for fundraising. COVID policies impact a combined loss of opportunity for weekend events and year-round earned income from in-person sales. The total dollars awarded are down by 33% ($415k vs $616k), the majority of that loss is due to the closure of Village Thrift Shop in 2020. By: Karen McPherson, Estes Park Nonprofit Resource Center Roughly 70 nonprofits serve Estes Valley. Many apply for local grants to support their mission. This week, the Estes Park Nonprofit Resource Center (EPNRC) connected with four organizations that annually grant money to local nonprofits to see how COVID has affected this year’s granting cycle. Each organization has different sources of funding: tax dollars, investment from endowments, weekend festivals, and retail sales. Total dollars awarded are down by one-third overall, but each funding stream was affected differently by COVID. Town of Estes Park What is the total dollar amount awarded this year? The Town awarded $244,500 in 2021 to 9 organizations in Base Funding. This is up slightly over last year. Other funds have been awarded for COVID and Fire recovery over the last year. How did COVID affect the amount you were able to award? COVID did not impact Base Funding at all. It actually led to a significant increase in funding from the Town for community businesses and organizations. How has the last year affected the requirements or the sentiment towards the kinds of projects or organizations you might want to support? I don't think there has been much of a
change in sentiment. Equity continues to be an important consideration when thinking about organizations or projects to support. How are your grants funded? General Fund dollars (mainly sales tax revenue). What other grants or funding does the Town offer to nonprofits? Community Initiative Funding, Event Sponsorship, and additional funds to support businesses and address things like food and housing insecurity during COVID. Community Foundation What is the total dollar amount awarded this year? $92,000 in 2021 to 22 organizations. How did COVID affect the amount you were able to award? Because of the way our spendable amount is calculated on our endowment fund, it did not have an effect on the amount we were able to award. How has the last year affected the requirements or the sentiment towards the kinds of projects or organizations you might want to support? Our grant committee has entertained catalytic grants: larger amounts to fewer organizations. This was put on hold during COVID thinking nonprofits needed more general support. We kept our priority areas the same: projects and programs that directly serve the residents of Estes Valley, enhance the com-
EVICS Welcomes New Program Director-Carlie Bangs EVICS Family Resource Center is excited to announce that Carlie Bangs has joined the team as Program Director. Bangs brings a broad scope of experiences within youth and family services and a long history of service to the community. She and her family live, work, and play in Estes Park and experience firsthand the joys and challenges of parenting young children. EVICS Family Resource Center provides services and programs to strengthen and support children and families in the early years of life. Services include early childhood mental health consultation, developmental screenings,
childcare scholarships, and a diaper bank. Bangs will guide programming for Estes Park families that supports their ability to thrive. Bangs will lead engagement and outreach activities over the summer months to connect to families and develop programming to meet identified needs. Bangs will offer a deep knowledge of the early childhood education sector and community-wide efforts to support families. The organization is building the team to elevate the ability for all families to thrive in our community. Be watching for more news from EVICS Family Resource Center, meet the full team, and welcome Carlie!
munity, and provide support to the diverse local population. Innovative, sustainable actions that make a positive, sustainable impact. How are your grants funded? Endowment funds. There are a couple of funds from which the Estes Valley Grant Committee has the ability to make recommendations. There are “field of interest” funds specific to Estes Valley, one fund is specific to housing, another towards health. A more general Estes Valley Community Fund supports projects within Estes. There are currently roughly 9 people on the local grant committee. We do an application through an annual competitive grant cycle that opens July 1 and closes on July 22, 2021. What other grants or funding do offer to nonprofits? Last year, we had a COVID Response Fund in collaboration with United Way of Larimer County. We also have NOCO Fires Fund. We have in the past done a lot of fire response funding, much of that has come up to Estes. Village Thrift Shop (VTS) How did COVID affect the amount you were able to award? VTS was not open in 2020 so the amount we awarded was far less than in years past ($50,000 this year compared to $230,802 in 2019). How has the last year affected the requirement or the sentiment towards what kinds of projects you might want to support? Most VTS grant committee members wanted to fund projects having to do with people and safety during COVID. Arts proj-
ects, equipment for schools, etc were items not funded How are your grants funded? Items sold in the Village Thrift Shop funded the grants. Sunrise Rotary What is the total amount awarded this year? Approximately $28,000 including community grants, scholarships, international grants, community services and youth. How did COVID affect the amount you were able to award? In the previous year, we awarded around $53,000. How has the last year affected the requirement or the sentiment towards what kinds of projects you might want to support? This year we looked at youth, first responders and the elderly. How are your grants funded? Three ways: Arts and Crats Show, Autumn Gold and individual contributions. This year much of the funding came from reserves. EPNRC regularly shines a spotlight on local organizations and grantors. To see interviews, visit epnonprofit.org/news. EPNRC helps to diversify local nonprofit partners’ grant income by providing access to The Foundation Directory Online, a database locating in-depth information about grantmakers and their grants. Includes almost one million grant opportunities from about 90,000 grantmakers.