Community Foundation awards $581K in grants

The Findlay-Hancock County Community Foundation Board of Trustees has approved grants totaling $581,949. This includes seven responsive grants, two president's discretionary grants and 51 donor-advised fund grants. Responsive grants are awarded to nonprofit organizations that seek to meet community needs and match the goals, objectives and priorities of the Community Foundation. Grantseekers mustsubmit a written grant proposal for consideration. Applications are reviewed four times per year. Funding for responsive grants comes from the community's endowment, made up of funds for the common good and field of interest funds established by donors at the Community Foundation. The following responsive grants were approved: • The Black Heritage Library and Multicultural Center was awarded $4,000 to support digitizing its collections, artifacts and other items for online access. • Bluffton Lions Foundation was awarded $75,000 to expand the greater Bluffton bike and pedestrian pathway system through the Lions Way County Line Pathway. • Findlay-Hancock County Public Library was awarded $5,000 to support the 2022 CommunityREAD; and $18,750 for a capital campaign feasibility study. • LGBTQ+ Spectrum of Findlay was awarded $12,000 to evaluate and design programming for LGBTQ+ elders in Hancock County. • Marathon Center for the Performing Arts was awarded $10,000 to support the Riverside Summer Concert Series 2022-26. • The Community Foundation was awarded $109,500 to fund organizational strengthening activities for Hancock County nonprofit organizations in 2022. Discretionary grants fund urgent or special requests that are outside of the Community Foundation's various grant cycles. The president of the Community Foundation is allocated an amount each year. These grants typically do not individually exceed $5,000. The following discretionary grants were awarded: • The City of Findlay Police Department was awarded $1,559 for AED equipment for training for all city departments. • Hancock Public Health was awarded $1,000 for CPR training equipment for schools and the greater community. Fifty-one donor-advised grants were awarded to 45 organizations, totaling $345,140.