The Longmont Community Foundation is accepting applications for its Live & Give Longmont grants program, which awards money to nonprofits and other community-serving organizations that benefit residents of the St. Vrain Valley.
Nonprofits and other institutions administering community programs, such as city agencies, churches or schools, are welcome to apply through Jan. 15, said Eric Hozempa, executive director of Longmont Community Foundation.
Grants will be awarded to support general operations for nonprofits working in the areas of animals, arts, civic, education, environment, health and human services, Hozempa said.
“The program is broad because the community has broad interests and issues,” he said. “It’s probably the most important funding that a nonprofit can get, something that is unrestricted and that they can use immediately toward what they feel is necessary and not dictated by what we think they should spend the money on.”
About $100,000 is awarded each year and 75 grants averaging $2,500 were awarded in 2019, Hozempa said.
“The nice thing about it is that we use community members to review the applications, so we really like the fact that volunteers are looking at the applications and also learning a little bit more about what is out there,” he said. “We’re just in the business of making sure that we can provide funding to various nonprofits.”
One of the 2020 recipients was Rise Against Suicide, formerly Second Wind Fund of Boulder County, an organization that provides access to counseling services for at-risk youth, which received $1,000 in grant money.
“As we were getting our Live &Give grant, the pandemic started,” said Jenna Clinchard, Rise Against Suicide executive director. “We used the (grant money) to fund mental health therapy sessions for uninsured or underinsured at-risk youth struggling with suicidal thoughts and ideation.”
The mission of the organization is singular — helping children in the area that cannot afford mental health therapy, Clinchard said. “An important thing to know is that the money stays in our community, it really helps the kids directly in Longmont.”
The Community Foundation has managed the Live &Give grant program since its inception in 1994, Hozempa said.
“The Live &Give program fund was set up as a way to provide grants to the community … kind of like the community savings account,” he said.
This year, the application process is providing additional focus on equity and accessibility, Hozempa said.
“One of the things we have in the application this year (is) we asked about DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion). We want to see how other nonprofits are responding to that question and how they’re integrating that in their work,” he said, adding grant review will rely heavily on Zoom as the process will largely be done remotely.
Final grant decisions will be made during the first week of March. To apply, click here.
