ROBERT PIERCE
• Leader & Times
A total of 25 area non-profits received grants recently adding up to nearly $90,000 from the Western Kansas Community Foundation (WKCF), the Kansas Health Children’s Fund and various Fields of Interest and unrestricted funds.
All of this was part of WKCF’s March grant cycle, and Program and Marketing Director Stacie Hahn explained what the foundation’s portion of the funding comes from its Community Betterment Fund is.
“It’s an unrestricted fund that was set up with the community foundation for us to utilize in our community granting processes,” she said. “We can utilize it for any need in the community. It’s not restricted to causes or organizations.”
The deadline to apply for the March grant cycle was March 1. Hahn said this is one of three grant cycles the foundation has during the year, with July 1 and Nov. 1 being the deadlines for the other cycles. She added grants are open to any 501(c)3 non-profit or charitably-equivalent organization.
“Public schools or county-affiliated organizations can apply for that for whatever their needs are, whether they have some operating needs or if they want to put on a program for the community,” she said. “They can apply for any of those types of needs. On average, our funding is around $5,000 to $8,000 per award. It is focused on some smaller needs for some organizations.”
For the first cycle of 2024, Hahn said what were previously two grant opportunities – core and operating applications – have been combined into a single community grant application process.
This change will now allow organizations to continue to apply for their program needs, but also their operating needs in any of the three grant cycles, rather than during the first grant cycle alone.
“We also have the urgent needs grant opportunity, which is open all the time and intended for emergency needs they have,” Hahn said. “What we noticed was after we opened the operating grant opportunity, that was only available once per year in March. When we looked at the other times of the year where we were getting urgent needs applications, a lot of them were having to do with operating needs.”
So, Hahn said, WKCF leaders ultimately decided to combine the operating grant process to make operating requests available in all grant cycles as a means to alleviate strain on the emergency funding pool.
“That is a limited pool we have, and in general, those applications were virtually the same applications,” she said. “It just made sense to combine them into one rather than have two applications available at each deadline period.”
With every program, Hahn said there are inevitably going to be operating expenses intermingled with programmatic expenses.
“The two are not always mutually exclusive,” she said. “For the foundation, providing grants is not merely providing financial assistance, but rather seeding community resilience, sustainable development and growth. By allowing organizations to apply for their operating needs together with their programmatic needs, we hope to provide better support for the organizations than when the two parts were separated by different application opportunities.”
Area non-profits looking to apply for funding can go to www.wkcf.org and click on the “Grants & Scholarships” tab, where they will find information on how to apply for grants. To qualify, Hahn said organizations’ funding needs to be used to serve communities in one of the 15 counties WKCF serves.
“They also have to be a 501(c)3 non-profit verified by the IRS or the charitable equivalent,” she said. “That would include any government entities. If you have a public library that is a county public library but is not its own 501(c)3 organization, they would still qualify. Public schools qualify. Churches qualify.”
Hahn did say per IRS regulations, there are types of items and organizations the foundation can and cannot support.
The territory WKCF serves includes Scott County, Lane County, Wichita County and Greeley County and southward to the Oklahoma border, including Seward County.
Hahn said submitted applications are reviewed by the foundation’s grant committee comprised of WKCF’s board members.
“They review and evaluate the applications based on the information provided and any knowledge in general they have about the organizations or the programs and what the request is going to do with the grant funding,” she said. “They make their determinations, and that’s forwarded on to the full board to review their recommendations and fully approve.”
Hahn said she was unsure of how to measure the impact the grant money makes to the organizations and the communities they serve, but she said with organizations returning to the foundation for funding means what WKCF is doing is working in some fashion for the populations served by the organizations.
“We aren’t serving every population in all of these communities, but we’re being a vehicle through which the other non-profits can do that work by supporting them with the funding we have from all the generous donors in the area,” she said. “I can look around Garden City, and I can see the programs we fund and see the things we do and hear the stories of how it is making an impact. I can only assume that is true also for some of the other counties.”
In addition to the grants rewarded by WKCF in its grant cycles, the foundation likewise awards surprise Christmas grants in November.
“You don’t apply for them,” Hahn said. “Those get talked about regularly. We try to hit organizations in every county, and most of the time they’re organizations who’ve not applied to us before. Through that funding, they’re recognizing we’re here, we’re available, and we’re a resource to help them get through whatever stretches of additional funding they might need we can help provide and support.”
Hahn said the funding WKCF provides allows for more services such as educating more children and providing more funding to other agencies, and overall, this truly does make a difference to those who get the grants.
“They’re able to sustain and grow their programs and get to a point where they can be self-reliant with some of those programs and move on to start new programs, get those off the ground and have a wider client base, serve more people and figure out how to collaborate and work together with the other non-profits who are providing similar services,” she said.
During the March grant cycle, twenty-five Community Grants were awarded totaling $89,875.28. The awards are:
• ABC Pregnancy Care Center “Fatherhood Connect” – $5,000.
• Atletico Liberal Futbol Club “24/25 Season Operating Funds” – $1,500.
• Bluejay Education Foundation “Outdoor Play Area for Special Needs Students” – $4,500.
• Cimarron Community Development “Park Seating Project” – $2,500.
• Community Day Care Center “Summer Fun in the Sun” – $1,479.
• GCCC Endowment Association “Construction Trades Training Center” – $5,000.
• Garden City Ministerial Alliance “Community Cultural Days” – $2,500.
• Great Plains MakerSpace “Pivot Robotics Expansion” – $4,782.
• Greeley County Health Department “Parking Lot Accessibility” – $5,000.
• Greeley County Health Services “Improved Surgical Resources” – $5,000.
• Immigrant Connection “Immigrant Connection” – $1,500.
• Kansas Children’s Service League “Head Start and Early Head Start 2024” – $5,000.
• Kansas Legal Services “The Equal Justice Project” – $2,370.
• Magic’s HOPE “Community Outreach Program” – $1,500.
• Oral Health Kansas “Begin with a Grin” – $5,000.
• Real Men Real Leaders “Building Youth Into Leaders” – $2,500.
• Red Dog Children’s Museum “Ready to Roam” – $2,100.
• Satanta Aging Program “Replacing Heating & AC Units” – $6,994.28.
• Satanta High School FFA “Community Athletic Park” – $4,650.
• Seward County United Way “2024 Operating Funds” – $1,500.
• Southwest Health Transport “Southwest Health Transport” – $1,500.
• Southwest Kansas Community Concerts “Artist Fees 24/25” – $1,000.
• Tumbleweed Festival “Tumbleweed Festival 2024” – $1,000.
• USD No. 507 “High School Gym Renovation” – $1,000.
• Western Kansas Community Foundation “Jumpstart 2024” – $15,000.
Community Grants Total: $89,875.28
Additionally, one Urgent Needs Grant was awarded totaling $3,500 to:
• Western Kansas Child Advocacy Center “Scott City Mobile Therapy Unit” – $3,500
Urgent Needs Grants Total: $3,500
