The Greene County Community Foundation will award 23 grants totaling $179,500 Monday, March 20, at the Fellowship Hall at the First Presbyterian Church in Jefferson. The presentations will begin at 7 pm. Representatives of all groups receiving grants have been asked to attend. The public is welcome.
The 2017 grants will bring the total awarded since the Community Foundation was organized in 2005 to $1.2 million. The Foundation has awarded funds to 231 projects.
The funds awarded this year come through Grow Greene County Gaming Corporation from gaming proceeds at Wild Rose Jefferson. Prior to the opening of Wild Rose in 2015, funds came from gaming revenue designated for non-gaming counties. In those years, the Foundation typically distributed $100,000 to $120,000.
“We’re grateful to be able to help fund many worthwhile community projects,” said Tom Wind, president of the Community Foundation board. “The Foundation board reviewed 29 applications for funding, and after lengthy discussion funded those that best met our purpose of creating opportunities for quality of life improvement and economic development.”
The Community Foundation also conducts a fund drive every fall to raise funds for a permanent endowment. That endowment will assure the Foundation’s future should gaming laws in Iowa be changed.
