Community Foundation Awards More Than $330K in Grants at Year-End

[Photo credit: Generations Ahead // Image description: A Generations Ahead representative sitting in the park with a young mother and her infant.]

The Grand Traverse Regional Community Foundation has awarded a total of $330,823 in grants at year-end to organizations across Antrim, Benzie, Grand Traverse, Kalkaska, and Leelanau Counties as part of its fall grantmaking cycle.

The Youth Endowment, one of the Community Foundation’s oldest endowments in its nearly 30-year history, provides grants during this fall cycle. Youth Endowment grants are decided among the Community Foundation’s Youth Advisory Councils (YAC) that are composed of high school-age students in each of the region’s five counties. In total, the Community Foundation awarded $80,000 from its Youth Endowment this season, with $16,000 awarded from each of the region’s five county-based YACs to organizations such as Kids on the Go Traverse City, Michael’s Place, Ronald McDonald House of Western Michigan, Title Track, and Traverse Bay Children's Advocacy Center, among others.

“Our YACs used our most recent Youth Needs Assessment to support their decision-making, which highlighted youth mental health as a core local issue,” said Gina Thornbury, Program and Grants Manager at the Community Foundation. “The results of this assessment are reflected in the grants awarded to organizations across the region that are supporting children, youth programs, literacy, and other youth-focused initiatives.”

In addition to the Youth Endowment, during this cycle the Community Foundation awarded grants from 18 other endowments it stewards, from the Access to Recreation Endowment that is focused on supporting universal access design to the Land Use Conservation and Planning Endowment that is focused on supporting land use planning and stewardship activities.

Organizations receiving recent grants include Acme Christian Thrift Store and Food Pantry, Child and Family Services of Northwestern Michigan, Elk Rapids Schools, Generations Ahead, Grand Traverse Conservation District, Grand Traverse Dyslexia Association, Grow Benzie, Inland Seas Education Association, Justice for our Neighbors Michigan, Kalkaska Commission on Aging, Leelanau Children’s Center, and the Rock of Kingsley, among others.

“Our fall cycle is our largest open-application grantmaking opportunity each year. We are proud to support both emerging and ongoing community needs and opportunities across the region through these grants,” said David Mengebier, President and CEO of the Community Foundation.

To view the full list of the Community Foundation’s fall grant awards, visit: https://www.gtrcf.org/grants/grant-awards. To support areas of greatest need across the five-county region, visit https://www.gtrcf.org/give.