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Kim Cole: Hi everyone, and thanks for joining us today. I’m Kim Cole, President of the Community Foundation Morgan County, and we have been really, really, busy. Lilly Endowment, who is our largest benefactor, has blessed us with a grant of $1.5 million for a community project. We are going to support non-profits who provide services to the county for childcare, food insecurity, and affordable housing. And that grant cycle is a special grant cycle separate from our normal grant cycle, and we’re going to open that towards the end of the month. And with me today is our Director of Programs, Michelle Keller. She will be in charge of rolling this out and helping the non-profits who are eligible to apply. So welcome, Michelle.
Michelle Keller: Thanks for having me.
Kim Cole: This is very exciting. For viewers that don’t know, this is our first ever community project grant. This is half of Lilly Endowment’s GIFT 9, and we’re just really excited to be able to present this to our non-profits that are doing so much for the county. So, Michelle, first off, let’s talk about when it opens up and how non-profits can apply.
Michelle Keller: Okay, so the grant cycle will open April 27th at 9 a.m., and we will have a link for the application. And it’s going to be a very simple process, not quite as lengthy as our regular grant cycle. We want to see a big impact in a short application. So, it’ll be a basic application with the fields for your organization, if you’re partnering with anyone.
Kim Cole: So just like name, address, email, just basic information.
Michelle Keller: Basic information. And then the biggest part of this application, which is a little different than our other grant cycle, they will be asked to submit a letter of intent. And so, there’s criteria that we have on the application, but it’s very basic. And we just want to hear about these projects, and we want everyone to think outside of the box and how they can impact the community.
Kim Cole: Okay. And so letter of intent, maximum length?
Michelle Keller: Two pages.
Kim Cole: Two pages. So, yes. Okay. So everybody needs to be efficient and telling us what kind of project that they would like that they’re proposing for use of the funds. And how long are you going to be taking the letter of intent?
Michelle Keller: We will be, the application cycle will be open until May 18th at 4 p.m. And then after that, we will go review all of the applications and letters with our board. And then we will set up interviews May 21st for the finalist.
Kim Cole: So, a pretty quick turnaround. April 27th opens, and May 18th is when everything has to be in. And then interviews, May 21st. And then announcements?
Michelle Keller: Hopefully the end of May or beginning of June, we want to try to get this money out into the community as quickly as we can to start making a difference.
Kim Cole: So we will be, as I mentioned, any nonprofit that provides childcare, food relief, poverty relief, and affordable housing are eligible to apply. And one of the things that we are, that we’re doing right now is we’ve been, you know, we’ve done direct outreach with the nonprofit, with those nonprofits that provide those services saying, hey, any of you that can partner and collaborate with others that are in your sector to really be able to bring strength to your cause, those applications and letters of intent will be, will have, will carry preference. Tell us a little bit about that.
Michelle Keller: Yes. We’re really trying to bring the community together and make a stronger impact. And so, after discussing the whole grant cycle process, we decided that collaboration would be the key to this project in particular. And so yeah, we’re just excited to see what, what these nonprofits will come up with.
Kim Cole: Yeah, me too. And, you know, I know that when we talked through this, our intention is, you know, for example, Morgan County is a child, is in a childcare desert. We need more childcare facilities. So, for those nonprofits who are working, providing those services, if a couple of those can get together and they could provide another one or other places, that’s what we’re shooting for here. Larger footprint.
Michelle Keller: Yes, absolutely.
Kim Cole: More services to the public because goodness knows we need them… $500,000 goes a long way. And so, if there’s a collaboration and they are, you know, a child care center, for example, they have to supply food. So that makes them eligible for, for both buckets. Okay and we are hosting, we hosted an organizational meeting. We’re doing outreach, the newspaper, the radio, this podcast, we even put it on our window. We had it painted on the window what we’re doing. So, we want nonprofits to, know what we’re doing, know that they’re eligible.
Michelle Keller: Well, and one thing that I would like to mention, we did do an outreach, via email to the nonprofits that were aware about are aware of, but I am sure there are multiple organizations that we might not be aware of. Just this morning, I received an email about a new childcare, 501c3. So, you know, I am going to reach out to them, but we’re also hopeful that between the newspaper and social media and the window that people will come to us as well and ask questions.
Kim Cole: Absolutely. And, and which is the point of talking here today, hopefully people will go to our website and, and watch this podcast. And so, this cycle that we’re going to be, the special cycle for the grant project that goes, we’ll be finished with that May 21st. And then we have a regular cycle that opens up
Michelle Keller: July 7th, no July 6th, I’m sorry, July 6th. And it closes August 7th. Okay. Yes. A little bit about that just and that’s open to all nonprofits, all nonprofits. Um, it is a lengthier application. Um, it’s, it’s definitely doable, but, um, yes, that, that cycle, we will be granting out 130 ish thousand dollars. Is that correct?
Kim Cole: I think it’s closer to 160.
Michelle Keller: Okay, great. That’s awesome. Yeah. So, um, so yes, we, we will, uh, look at those applications and it’ll just, it’ll be based on, um, our grants committee will evaluate these applications and we’ll go based on scores. We have a rubric that we use and, um, and then we’ll kind of, you know, figure out who those recipients will be.
Kim Cole: Great. So, and so tell them where they can get information about that.
Michelle Keller: So, we will have a, we will have a link that will be available. Um, and we will start putting that on social media as well. We want, we don’t want to confuse the two cycles. So, we will wait until after to start marketing, um, that impact grant. Um, but yeah, we’ll have a link and, um,
Kim Cole: There’s a sample application already online, correct?
Michelle Keller: Absolutely. On our website. So, if they go to our website and click on the grants tab, they can find out, you know, information about the dates and as well as a sample application.
Kim Cole: Okay. www.cfmconline.org for our website. And, um, so I mentioned that the funder, uh, the funding source for our grant for the, for the, um, special project is Lilly Endowment. So we completed gift eight last year and surprisingly gift nine was rolled out October 1st and the special project grant was half of it. That’s 1.5 million, but we also have another 1.5 million that we are eligible to get. If we collect $750,000 of donations into our unrestricted account, what does that mean? That whole word salad is if we can get donations from the public to go into this account, this is what funds our grant budget.
Michelle Keller: Yes.
Kim Cole: This is why our grant budget went from last year, $73,000 to this year, 164, 165 ish, thousand dollars. And that was thanks to donors responding to gift eight, with Lilly Endowment saying, Hey, for every dollar, we’re going to triple that. They’re going to put $2 to your $1. So for those of you viewing this podcast that really want to help the County and help nonprofits in all that they work, that they do, if you want to make a donation to our unrestricted account, that will be tripled right now from now until, until it’s finished and the outlying deadline is June of 28th, but we are hoping to finish that this fall so that that can set the budget for our 2027 grants. So, let’s do it again, Morgan County. We did it with gift eight. We can do it with gift nine. We’re very excited about this and look at all the help that we’re going to be able to provide to our nonprofits that are really lifting up this County. Thanks, Michelle.
Michelle Keller: Thanks for having me. I’m excited.
Kim Cole: You’re always great at what you do, and we appreciate you.
Michelle Keller: Thank you very much
