Dan Davis
The Community Foundation of Jackson County encourages giving and provides grants to help programs and the people they serve throughout our community.
The foundation staff and our 20-member board of directors, with help from other community volunteers, do our best to wisely administer more than $16 million in assets to generate earnings that fund scholarships, classroom education grants, community impact grants and our fall grant cycle.
Those grants make an impact across Jackson County. Last year, for instance, we awarded 16 fall grants and helped people and programs in Brownstown, Crothersville, Medora, Seymour and places in between.
They totaled $103,677, the most ever funded through the fall grant cycle, and included two grants that will help fight food insecurity across Jackson County, two others that will help local fire departments and five others that will help address educational and public safety issues.
Work on this year’s fall grant cycle is underway with a July 31 application deadline. Over the next several weeks, foundation Vice President Sue Smith and I will answer questions, review drafts and accept applications. Forms are available now online at cfjacksoncounty.org.
Once the deadline passes and Sue reviews them for compliance (all applications must involve 501(c)(3) organizations or qualifying governmental units), our grant committee will conduct site visits to investigate the requests and their needs.
Two factors can play a great role in determining grants: Whether a nonprofit’s board is engaged financially and whether other funding sources are being pursued for the project. We like to see board members with skin in the game (our board members certainly are), and we support the practice of bringing funding partners together to deal with community issues and needs.
Examples include how the foundation worked with Jackson County United Way to meet the needs of nonprofits during the COVID-19 pandemic and is working with Child Care Network and other community partners to leverage support and assets for the opening of a community child care center.
Once the site visits are completed, the foundation staff and grant committee convene to determine which applications will be recommended for grants. This will take place in September, and our board will consider the recommendations in October. While we’d like to say every organization that applies receives funding, we can’t. Applications often total more than is available for granting. Tough decisions are made.
In 2014, the foundation approved $32,536 in fall grants. That number was $38,195 just five years ago, and this past year, we hit $103,000 — the first time to surpass $100,000. That growth has come through conversations with potential donors and longtime donors, explaining the importance, value and versatility of community funds, enabling the foundation to respond to emerging needs.
The number of endowed community funds has increased, a result of the foundation deciding in 2015 to focus on such funds. Then we had 13 community funds. At the end of 2022, the number had grown to 29. Those 16 newest community funds alone had a total balance of $1,094,289 on Dec. 31, 2022. Community funds now make up 12% of our funds and account for 20% of our fund assets.
Your new gifts, of course, can help make those grant dollars grow in the future, as well. If you would like to donate to any of the foundation’s endowed funds or to create your own endowed fund, call me at 812-523-4483 to set up an appointment. We can discuss your interest in helping others in the community and how to make your assistance a reality.
Your endowed gifts can, through prudent investment, generate earnings for scholarships, classroom education grants, fall grants, agency grants and community impact grants to help people across Jackson County. Over and over, year after year. Forever.
Dan Davis is president and CEO of the Community Foundation of Jackson County. The foundation administers more than 200 funds with assets of more than $16 million. For information about how you can make a donation to any of the funds administered by the foundation or how you might start a new fund, call 812-523-4483 or send an email to Davis at [email protected].