The Community Foundation for San Benito County awarded nearly $300,000 to 30 nonprofit organizations as part of the Impact Grant Awards for 2014. The grants are designed to benefit local residents in a wide array of activities supporting many fields of interest.
The grants were used to advance arts and culture, support youth and education, contribute to health and social services, promote agriculture and the environment, provide community enhancement, and foster economic development.
The applications were ranked using pre-established criteria, such as expected community impact. The Foundation Grants Committee then made what it called the difficult decisions necessary to fit the recommendations into its budget.
The Grants Committee is made up of a knowledgeable and diverse committee of community volunteers, as well as CFFSBC board members and staff, to assure proper and fair evaluation of all grant requests.
In a release, the Foundation said, “We would like to thank the following committee members for all of their hard work throughout the year: Richard Bianchi, Allison Rohnert, Will Sutton, Gene Zanger, Dohn Larson, Dan Dungy, Susan Schwabacher Modic, Rebecca Medeiros Wolf, Gretchen Blatter, Susan Thompson, Gerry Wright, and Ana Maria De Alba.”
2014 IMPACT GRANT AWARDS
AGRICULTURE & ENVIRONMENT
$ 7,500 SBC CattleWomen – Will produce and distribute free placemats to local restaurants to educate the general public about the nutritional value of beef.
$ 1,500 Pinnacles Partnership – Program to enhance community services and promote education with Pinnacles National Park.
$ 7,000 California FarmLink – Provides technical assistance and financing to beginning and limited resource SBC farmers to facilitate capital and land access.
ARTS & CULTURE
$10,000 SBC Olive Festival – Adds part time administrative and executive staff to expand the Olive Festival’s organizational capacity.
$ 9,600 SBC Arts Council – Integration of arts education throughout the county.
$ 3,000 San Benito Stage Company
COMMUNITY ENHANCEMENT
$15,000 Hollister Downtown Association – Partial funding to establish a Development Director position to further expand funding for the HDA.
$12,500 BenitoLink – Helps to fund content development on BenitoLink.
$ 5,650 SBC Historical Society – Funding of the preliminary inventory, creation of finding aids, and archival storage of the Howard Harris Collection for preservation and future access.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
$ 9,000 CSUMB – Small business advisory services for San Benito County.
$10,000 SBC Chamber of Commerce – Chamber revitalization project.
EDUCATION & YOUTH
$15,000 Girls, Inc. – ECHO and Smart Choices programs (ECHO Leadership will work with 25-35 San Benito High School girls to encourage them to graduate from HS, enter college, and plan for a career. Smart Choices will recruit 15 SBC middle school girls to live on a college campus for a week to learn about college and how to avoid risky behaviors.)
$10,000 Youth Alliance – HYPE (Healing Youth People through Empowerment) is a social media educational outreach project identifying and promoting topics preventing teen pregnancy; school, relationship, and community violence; and other issues relevant to local teens.
$10,000 Si Se Puede! Learning Center – Provides support for disadvantaged students to improve their academic performance in literacy and mathematics.
$15,000 South County Cal-SOAP – Helps fund continuing program to tutor and advise students for college at ASJSD and SBHSD, along with four additional programs steering students toward college.
$20,000 Leadership San Benito – Rebuild, revitalize, and reinvigorate Leadership San Benito program.
$15,000 COPA (Communities Organized for Relational Power in Action) – Support for the development of a San Benito County cluster for COPA.
$ 5,000 St. Luke’s Academy – Scholarships for preschool bilingual tutoring and enrichment activities.
$ 8,000 Black Sheep Redemption Program – Support of a youth tutoring center in San Juan Bautista and continued partnership with Bulldog Boxing in Hollister for at-risk youth.
$ 2,500 United Way of San Benito County – Continuing 2-1-1 service to connect SBC residents with existing service programs, joblessness support, and disaster response information.
HEALTH & SOCIAL SERVICES
$15,000 Fishes & Loaves – Continuing to feed the poor and needy in San Benito County.
$15,000 YMCA of SBC – Afterschool Sports Leagues for Hollister area youth.
$12,000 Pet Friends – Replace operational spay and neutering clinic necessities, autoclave, surgical lights, cold storage units, and medical supplies.
$ 4,000 Family Services Agency – Suicide prevention and community outreach services.
$10,000 12 Days of Giving – Collaborative fundraising project for 6 local nonprofits.
$ 6,570 Seniors Council – Foster Grandparent Program
$10,000 Health Projects Center – Support for Del Mar Caregiver Resource Center
$ 9,991 Community Solutions – Supports partial funding of a bilingual Victim Advocate to aid in the Solutions to Violence program in San Benito County
$ 7,500 CASA of San Benito County – Funding to recruit and train community volunteers to serve the foster children in our community.
$10,000 Jovenes de Antano – Funding for the Golden Age Nutrition Program, providing home-delivered meals to the low-income, frail, and Latino elderly in San Benito County.
To achieve its mission, the Community Foundation for San Benito County serves donors, advances philanthropy, and achieves impact by supporting the work of nonprofit organizations. In doing so for over a decade, we’ve developed extensive knowledge of San Benito County. We continuously monitor our community to understand the nature of need, the forces of change, available resources, and the capacity for growth.
For more information on the Community Foundation for San Benito County, visit its website at http://www.cffsbc.org