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Unrestricted Grants from Community Impact Fund (Since 2016)
The Community Impact Fund is an unrestricted fund that supports the greatest needs of our community, now and forever. While our region’s future needs and objectives will almost certainly differ from those in place today, a gift to the Community Impact Fund will provide future flexibility for the evolving needs of our community.
Thanks to a generous opportunity from the Lilly Endowment, CFSI has been awarded $3,750,000 in funding to match contributions to its unrestricted Community Impact Fund as part of the Endowment’s Giving Indiana Funds for Tomorrow, Phase viii (GIFT VIII) initiative. The match is a $2-for-$1 matching grant, meaning the Foundation will need to raise $1,250,000 in contributions from our community to earn the entire match. Meeting the match means that $5,000,000 will be added to the Community Impact Fund, which will generate approximately $200,000 in additional grant funding, EVERY YEAR, for the needs and priorities of our community.
To aid in identifying those needs and priorities of our Clark and Floyd County service area, we rely on the local knowledge and expertise of our board of directors and staff, as well as the extensive research from our Community Needs Assessment – a resource produced in 2015 and updated in 2021 to explore the community’s aspirations for building on its assets to address the area’s highest priorities. (A supplement to the Community Needs Assessment articulating post-pandemic shifts in needs and priorities is expected in 2025.)
The data covers six broad topic areas:
- Arts and Culture
- Community Development
- Education
- Health and Wellness
- Human Services
- Youth Development
…which guides our Foundation’s Board of Directors in awarding grants from the Community Impact Fund.
Using the Needs Assessment and other resources which gathered public data along with input from the community, our grant program shifted beginning in 2016 to focusing on the needs and priorities that were identified. Here is just a small example of some of the grants we have made from the Community Impact Fund since 2016 to strategically address those needs and priorities in ways that benefit the residents of Clark and Floyd counties:
Quality of Place Grants – up to $150,000
Serves people with the least access to safe, high-quality public places and amenities. In 2018, CFSI’s Board of Directors engaged a consulting firm to help them identify a focus area for grantmaking from the Community Impact Fund. Through that process, the Board identified Quality of Place as an appropriate focus. Quality of Place grants prioritize projects that target people with the least access to safe, high-quality public places and amenities, especially those who have low incomes and/or who have limited transportation as well as people with physical or intellectual disabilities. When their lives are improved, our communities are more welcoming and attractive to all residents, tourists, and employers. The Board believes that improving Quality of Place is critical to both improving the health of our residents and the economic future of our communities.
| Organization | Program & Description | Amount Awarded |
|---|---|---|
| City of Charlestown | Funding to support construction of an inclusive playground, which updated outdated, malfunctioning playground equipment in Greenway Park – the city’s centralized and most-used park – and replaced it with safer, ADA-approved equipment for children of all ability levels | $150,000 |
| Floyd Co. Parks and Recreation | Funding to support an accessible playground for all children and adults with physical and mental disabilities in the Southern Indiana area at Kevin Hammersmith Memorial Park | $70,000 |
| Jeffersonville Township Public Library | Funding to construct a pocket park with structures for active, imaginative play designed to accommodate all children – including those with intellectual and physical differences | $80,000 |
| Town of Borden | Funding to develop the south side of Borden Community Park. The project included the installation of an inclusive playground and restroom facility, both of which are ADA-compliant | $150,000 |
Capacity Building Grants – up to $25,000
These year-round grant opportunities help to strengthen and increase the capacity of local nonprofit organizations to better serve their constituents, so that they may continue to provide the essential services that they are uniquely positioned to offer in our community. The Needs Assessment survey of nonprofit executives identified funding for internal capacity building as the most important and difficult funding to obtain. The Foundation Board of Directors has stepped in to fill this gap with the creation of the Capacity Building Grants program, part of the annual funding from the Community Impact Fund.
| Organization | Program & Description | Amount Awarded |
|---|---|---|
| Arts Alliance of Southern Indiana | Funding to support the enhancement of the organization’s administrative systems and operations, aimed at building organizational effectiveness and furthering the success of the organization’s mission | $25,000 |
| BAYA – Beautiful As You Are | Funding to support strategic planning and leadership development, as well as attendance at two national conferences on fundraising and social emotional learning | $14,000 |
| Big Brothers Big Sisters of Kentuckiana | Funding to support the launch of a strategic marketing and communications campaign to recruit more volunteer mentors, allowing BBBS to unlock the potential in the lives of more young people in Southern Indiana | $25,000 |
| Junior Achievement of Kentuckiana | Funding to modernize the organization’s technology infrastructure, which included moving to a cloud-based solution, allowing the organization to be more efficient and provide a better experience for the thousands of students who attended experiential learning labs, JA BizTown and JA Finance Park | $25,000 |
| Hispanic Connection of Southern Indiana | Funding to establish a leadership succession plan, technology for staff training purposes, and technology for case management | $23,710 |
| Homeless Coalition of Southern Indiana | Funding to hire a consultant to assist in building the board of directors, increasing fundraising opportunities and donors, while also allowing the organization to move away from relying on grants for sustainability | $25,000 |
| Hope Southern Indiana | Funding to purchase computers / laptops for 12 employees. Other technology improvements included upgrading the organization’s Wi-Fi, software systems, and VPN to improve communication | $19,629 |
| Maker Mobile, Inc. | Funding to help build, shape, and strengthen Maker13’s operational and program effectiveness and long-term sustainability | $25,000 |
| New Hope Services | Funding to purchase a broad range of new and upgraded technology to meet the growing demand for services offered beyond routine special education, including expansion to serve high school youth and young adults | $23,177 |
| OSI Foundation – One Southern Indiana | Support to create a thorough succession plan to better serve the business community through member services, such as education, connectivity, economic development, DE&I and small business lending | $25,000 |
| Volunteers of America Mid-States, Inc. | Funding to continue education training and replace outdated technology for frontline staff and direct support professionals in VOA Community, which served individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities | $25,000 |
| Vulnerable Adult Care Advocates | Funding to hire a part-time caseworker to record client interactions, which doubled the number of clients served and the volunteers who met with them | $25,000 |
Discretionary Grants – amounts vary
Discretionary grants allow CFSI’s Board of Directors to select from time to time projects and initiatives appropriate to receive funding based on immediacy, need, and/or merit. These grants are awarded in the sole discretion of the Foundation Board and are intended to be more proactive and strategic in nature.
| Organization | Program & Description | Amount Awarded |
|---|---|---|
| Clark County Museum | Funding to support the rehabilitation of the Clark County Museum building in Jeffersonville | $2,500 |
| COVID-19 Disaster Relief Fund | Funding to open CFSI’s COVID-19 Disaster Relief Fund, which helped award more than $1.1 million dollars in grants to local businesses and nonprofit organizations during the COVID-19 pandemic | $100,000 |
| Friends of the Town Clock Church | Support of an Underground Railroad Documentary and surveillance cameras located on the exterior of the building | $5,833 |
| Graceland Baptist Church | Support of Miles of Smiles Mobile Dental Program, which offered dental care to low-income individuals throughout the community | $5,000 |
| Habitat for Humanity | Support of Habitat for Humanity’s Spring Hill Station Project, an 11-home cul-de-sac comprised of financially educated, invested, and empowered families, most of which are homeowners for the first time in their lives | $100,000 |
| Homeless Coalition of Southern Indiana | Support of a new Southern Indiana Coordinator position for United Community, which is a community-wide initiative to deploy an innovative shared technology platform to initiate and close referrals across organizations | $7,500 |
| New Roots, Inc. | Expanding the capacity of the southern Indiana New Roots Fresh Stop Markets, which ignites community power for fresh food access | $20,000 |
| River Heritage Conservancy | Croghan Launch, located within Origin Park, provides access to kayakers and canoers of all experience levels to Silver Creek, which leads to the Ohio River | $100,000 |
Community Catalyst Grants – amounts vary
Community Catalyst Grants are for support for a program or project that is more detailed and strategic to the organization with the potential for a much bigger impact on the target population in the community. This grant program was discontinued in 2022 and replaced with the Capacity Building Grant Program.
| Organization | Program & Description | Amount Awarded |
|---|---|---|
| Carnegie Center for Art & History | Funding to support the New Albany Flow Park, a non-traditional and immersive public art project that rehabilitated a dilapidated 14,000-square-foot skatepark along the New Albany riverfront | $15,000 |
| Centenary United Methodist Church | Support of the Feeding the Food Insecure in Floyd and Clark Counties program, which increased the number of hours to coordinate the organization’s soup kitchen and food pantry for those in need | $12,000 |
| Center for Lay Ministries | Support of the Bliss House, a residential facility for adult women in recovery from alcohol and substance abuse | $12,000 |
| Greater Clark County Schools | Support of the Student Wellness Clinic, which helped keep students in school so they have the learning experience they need to become successful and responsible citizens of Clark County | $10,000 |
| Personal Counseling Services | Funding for a library of psychological testing materials, which helped staff administer tests, score and write summaries, and fulfill the assessment needs of hundreds of referrals in a year | $15,000 |
Community Assist Grants – up to $5,000
These smaller, one-time grants available year-round are designed to support a nonprofit organization’s programs or activities within the broad spectrum of identified needs.
| Organization | Program & Description | Amount Awarded |
|---|---|---|
| Center for Women and Families | Support of the Community-Advocacy Program, which served victims of intimate partner violence (IPV) and sexual assault (SA) | $5,000 |
| Centerstone | Funding to provide life skills training (LST) to children (ages 5-18) diagnosed with behavioral and emotional issues/disorders | $5,000 |
| Choice Life Resources Center | Support of the Step Up Parenting Resource Program, a parenting and life skills education program. Participants earned Boutique Bucks to “spend” on child care items | $1,500 |
| Communities in Schools | Support of the Communities In Schools (CIS) Model, which promoted the healthy child development by eliminating barriers to learning and providing student and family support | $2,500 |
| Dare to Care Food Bank | Support of the Feeding Families program, which worked with a network of partner agencies to distribute food (including locally-grown fresh fruits and vegetables) to low-income individuals and families who are at risk of hunger | $5,000 |
| Family Scholar House | Support of Learning for Life, which helped single parents change their futures by empowering, encouraging, and supporting disadvantaged families in their educational endeavors | $5,000 |
| Floyd Co. Soil & Water Conservation District | Support of the Bat House Project, which alleviated the mosquito problem in Floyd Co. by constructing bat houses in county parks and giving them away to residents | $3,000 |
| Home of the Innocents | Funding to provide Parents Acquiring Skills and Strength (PASS) classes to parents in Southern Indiana. These classes were designed to prevent child abuse, stop children from entering out-of-home care, and helped improve family functioning and wellness | $3,000 |
| Hosparus | Support to provide grief services to patients and families, as well as to community, who are grieving due to death | $5,000 |
| LifeSpan Resources | Funding to assist in purchasing two ADA-compliant lift-equipped vehicles | $5,000 |
| The Louisville Orchestra | Support of the holiday performance of Messiah, which promoted artistic expression, social engagement, and affordable pricing options for Southern IN residents | $5,000 |
| Metro United Way | Support of the Ride United: Overcoming Transportation Barriers to Health in Southern Indiana program, which leveraged the strengths of Metro United Way, the 211 network, and local partners to address unmet transportation needs across Kentuckiana | $5,000 |
| Muhammad Ali Center | Funding to provide free field trip experiences and guided curriculum-based tours to New Albany-Floyd Co. Schools (NAFCS) students | $5,000 |
| Our Place Drug and Alcohol Education Services | Support of Outpatient Drug and Alcohol Treatment services, which served adolescents and adults who may have needed outpatient treatment, but did not have the ability to pay for those services | $5,000 |
| Speed Art Museum | Support of the School Tour Fund, which allowed teachers and administrators within Greater Clark, West Clark, and Clarksville School Systems to schedule a visit with the Speed Art Museum at no cost | $5,000 |
| StageOne Family Theatre | Support of the Play It Forward program, which removed barriers to student success by providing free theatre experiences to 625 Southern Indiana students, increasing their learning potential | $5,000 |
| YMCA of Southern Indiana | Support of the DIAMONDS/YCAP student success program, an after-school program for middle and high school students from Jeffersonville and New Albany that met twice a week for tutoring, mentoring and healthy activities | $5,000 |
