NEWS RELEASE 

The Indian River Community Foundation awarded this month over $180,000 to six local nonprofit organizations for programs to support education and the environment as well as vulnerable individuals and families.

Grants were made through the Community Enrichment Fund, a new field of interest fund established by an anonymous couple who wanted the benefit of Indian River Community Foundation’s grant making expertise to support their own broad philanthropic interests.

Following a competitive grants process, including a comprehensive review of 31 proposals, the successful applicants were Environmental Learning Center, Gifford Youth Activity Center, Indian River Habitat For Humanity, McKee Botanical Garden, Sebastian Charter Junior High School and The Learning Alliance. Programs funded include:

• Phase one of Livin’ for the Lagoon, an environmental awareness campaign led by the Environmental Learning Center to promote landscape management best practices that will reduce nutrient and sediment pollution in the Indian River Lagoon. The grant award is $32,287.
• From Boys to Men to Greatness! a holistic mentoring program being developed by Gifford Youth Activity Center for hard-to-reach, at-risk 13-18 year old black males in the Gifford community. The grant award is $50,000.
• Rock the Block, spearheaded by Indian River Habitat for Humanity, a focused housing outreach program that provides a path for volunteers to assist low income Gifford residents with needed home repairs, maintenance, weatherization, safety, accessibility and beautification. A grant of $25,000 will support revitalization efforts for 50 homes.
• Interpretative Signage at McKee Botanical Garden. A $25,000 grant will be devoted to installing new signage throughout the 18-acre campus to enrich the interaction, education and experience for visitors of all ages.
• Sebastian Charter Junior High School’s Leveraging Laptops for Learning in Language Arts. A $6,476 grant will purchase internet-enabled laptop computers designated for the language arts classroom.
• A $47,835 grant to The Learning Alliance to expand Conscious Discipline at Highlands Elementary by training and supporting an additional 25 teachers in this comprehensive social-emotional learning and classroom management program based on brain research.

Kerry Bartlett, Executive Director of the Indian River Community Foundation, led the process with the support of a voluntary Grants Committee. The process included a formal request for proposals, program site visits and meetings with the applicants.

“The donors who established the Community Enrichment Fund had very specific ideas about the characteristics of the programs and organizations they wanted to support,” Bartlett said. “We worked with them to define parameters that helped the Grants Committee find the right programs that would match their interests.”

Some of those interests included organizations that operate with a high degree of volunteer support, incorporate specific benchmarks to measure success, impact broad sub-populations and have well-defined plans for sustainability. Bartlett said Grants Committee members spent many hours reading, evaluating, meeting and deliberating about the proposals that aligned most closely with the donors’ wishes.

“A field of interest fund is an excellent way for a donor to connect his or her personal values to high-impact opportunities,” Bartlett said. “The couple who established the Community Enrichment Fund developed goals that have been important to their family for many years.”

The Indian River Community Foundation was founded in 2005 to promote donor-driven philanthropy and has since grown to manage over $20 million in charitable assets, the majority of which are held in donor-advised funds. For more information visit www.ircommunityfoundation.com or contact Bartlett at kerry@ircommunityfoundation.com.