NOVEMBER newsLETTER
From the Community Foundation’s Program Team
Dear friends,
As I reflect on the last several months, I think about the times together with many of you – our friends and partners in the nonprofit sector.
In September, we gathered with some of you at our annual CEO Retreat. The time together at Oakwood Retreat had great input from Coach Coffee, but as we know, the real benefit of a retreat is the chance to spend time together as peers.
In late September, our staff took a daylong bus trip to visit six nonprofits in Elkhart County. Our entire Community Foundation team spent the day learning about the amazing work being done in this community by you. It was a rich day. Your program officer has the privilege of seeing your impact regularly, but the rest of the staff only hear about your work. The passion and dedication of each organization was contagious. We are so grateful for the work you are doing in this community.
We hope you will enjoy this newsletter.
Sincerely,
Candy Yoder
Chief Program Officer
GRANT PROCESS CONTINUES
In October, our committees and board awarded $2.2 million in Community Investment Grants from the Fund for Elkhart County to nonprofits. The committees wrestled with strong applications and how to respond to them with wisdom and generosity. The board approved the grant awards at its October meeting.
The next deadline for grant applications of $25,000 and above is February 15. It’s not too early to start the process to apply for one of the grants in that cycle. The best way to do that is by having a conversation with a program officer. That helps shape successful applications. Feel free to reach out to any of us about how to get started.
Saying goodbye to Amanda Jamison
After nearly 11 years at the Community Foundation, Amanda Jamison is leaving us for another opportunity. Amanda will be joining a private family foundation in Fort Wayne.
“I am grateful for the opportunity to work with nonprofits in this community for more than a decade,” she says.
Amanda has been integral in leading efforts to pave career pathways for young people in Elkhart County and the South Bend-Elkhart Region. She has been passionate about helping students access educational opportunities and scholarships. She has been a fierce advocate for them.
We are in the process of hiring a new program officer. Until we do so, Candy Yoder can field questions in the career pathways area.
We will miss Amanda and wish her well!
Welcoming Jackie Rodriguez
We are delighted to welcome Jackie Rodriguez to our team.
Jackie is a graduate of Goshen High School and Indiana University. She then earned a law degree from Mitchell Hamline School of Law and worked in the Elkhart County Public Defender’s Office and St. Joseph County Prosecutor’s Office.
As an Associate Program Officer at the Community Foundation, Jackie will help administer our scholarship program, which awards roughly $2.5 million annually. Since starting in mid-October, she has been working closely with Amanda Jamison to learn as much as possible.
We are delighted to have Jackie with us. You can reach her at [email protected].
Building Strong Brains gets a big boost
Building Strong Brains, Elkhart County’s coalition to build a system supporting Elkhart County children under age 6, is receiving a $400,000 grant from Early Learning Indiana.
This will boost the efforts of the five agencies collaborating to help every child be prepared to thrive when they enter kindergarten.
The Community Foundation is the fiscal agent for the grant and is working with the four other agencies — Horizon Education Alliance, Child and Parent Services, Crossroads United Way, and The SOURCE — to move forward with it.
Early Learning Indiana, with generous support from Lilly Endowment Inc., awarded the grant to Building Strong Brains. Funding will support:
- Parent Cafés for parents of young children (CAPS)
- Triple P for Baby (HEA)
- Bright By Text, a free texting service with information for parents of young children (Crossroads United Way)
- Data dashboard focused on early childhood (University of Notre Dame’s Lucy Family Institute for Data and Society)
- Website and marketing for Building Strong Brains (CFEC)
Celebrating the Pumpkinvine completion
We are thrilled to be able to walk and ride a new stretch of the Pumpkinvine Nature Trail between C.R. 35 and C.R. 20.
The final 2,900 feet of the trail allows people to ride the trail without using county roads. It was many years in the making and finishing that final piece completes this long, beautiful trail in our community.
The Community Foundation has been an ardent supporter of this effort. Brittany Short, the director of the Connect in Elkhart County initiative, has worked alongside others to make this a reality and is now focused on the long game of what we can do together on trails in this community.
Join us in The Learning Center
We have one more TLC event before the holiday season and then we’ll take a break until February.
Tuesday’s workshop “Fundraising Your Way to Nonprofit Success” is full. We look forward to seeing many of you.
The next event will be “Time Management and Organizational Skills in Nonprofit Event Management.” Registration for that event on February 8 will open in December.