Community Foundation announces challenge grant opportunity to celebrate and encourage resilience

Up to $50,000 available in challenge grants through grant opportunity by the Quad Cities Community Foundation

Nonprofits in the Quad Cities—and across the United States—are operating in a new world, requiring them to weather ever-evolving funding challenges while also anticipating and changing to meet the needs of communities in the future.

The Quad Cities Community Foundation is here to celebrate and encourage their resilience.

Made possible by the generosity of donors in the community, the Quad Cities Community Foundation proudly announces the 2017 Community Impact Fund Challenge Grants, which will focus on ensuring that nonprofits in Scott County, Iowa, and Rock Island County, Illinois, are resilient and adaptive to the change happening in this moment. 

Honoring the urgent nature of the initiative, the Community Foundation has announced a quicker-than-usual timeline for grant awards. Applications are available for just 30 days, opening August 1 and due September 1, 2017.

Applications may be submitted online here. Five organizations will be notified by September 15 that they have been selected to take on the challenge. Each will earn a $10,000 grant by raising an additional $10,000 in a 1:1 match through new or increased giving from other sources by December 31, 2017.

“The funding and operational landscape in our community has shifted considerably over the past few years—even in the past six months,” explains Kelly Thompson, vice president of grantmaking and community initiatives at the Community Foundation. “As we are out in the community, on-the-ground with nonprofits and donors alike, we are seeing a situation where uncertainty in funding is permanent. But we also see nonprofits thriving—making changes today to be better in the future. This challenge grant opportunity celebrates that.”

For nonprofits able to successfully navigate change, diversifying their sources of support and obtaining flexible funding have been critical success factors. This grant will help them successfully do so.

“At the Community Foundation, our challenge grants have historically focused on endowment building—an important source of support for the stability and longevity of a nonprofit’s mission. But at this time, our board of directors believes a broader purpose is warranted. Through this grant opportunity, we will be able to leverage greater stability, resilience and adaptation for organizations in the Quad Cities by providing them with the option to raise current resources or resources for the future,” Thompson noted.

Grants awarded through this program are made possible by the Community Impact Fund, a fund that has grown to over $11 million that allows the Community Foundation flexibility to respond to unmet needs in the community, as they arise and vary from year to year. Anne Calder, vice president of development, said that through challenges like this, the Community Foundation is able to continue to align with the interests and passion of philanthropists in the community.

“As we visit with donors in our community, we continue to hear their concerns about the future of the nonprofits and causes they care about in their community,” Calder said. “This effort is another way in which we can align our donors’ interests with the unrestricted resources made possible through their gifts. It is the heart of our Community Impact Fund: to yield greater community impact.”

Full details about the 2017 Community Impact Fund Challenge Grant are available online here.