The Chaffee County Community Foundation (CCCF) today announced it has awarded $50,000 to four local nonprofit organizations from the Impact Grant Program designed to inspire community-wide innovation on two important issues: Housing & Environmental Sustainability. Awardees include:
Housing Impact Grant:
Chaffee Housing Trust: $15,000
Chaffee Hospitality: $20,000
The Housing Innovation Grant includes innovative housing approaches that will facilitate measurable change on housing accessibility in Chaffee County.
Chaffee Housing Trust will use the award to support the construction of 12 new homes in the Two Rivers Phase II development in Salida, including providing housing counseling and coaching services to homebuyers to get them ready for home ownership.
Chaffee County Hospitality will use the award to provide emergency motel stays for unsheltered people that are referred by medical providers, mental health providers, and community partners.
Environmental Impact Grant:
The Greater Arkansas River Nature Association (GARNA): $7,500
Friends of Brown Canyon: $7,500
The Environmental Innovation Grant, funded in part by CCCF’s partnership with event production company Bonfire Entertainment, hosts of the Renewal Festival featuring Billy Strings in Buena Vista, centers on innovative projects or programs focused on clean water, environmental stewardship, and recycling or waste reduction efforts.
This partnership is specifically designed both to encourage environmental innovation within the county and to provide widespread support for local nonprofit organizations by helping to fund their capacity building efforts.
The Greater Arkansas River Nature Association (GARNA), in collaboration with several community partners, seeks to use the funds to contribute to ambitious carbon-emission reduction targets across Chaffee County through two separate initiatives. The initiatives are in the realm of keeping waste (and associated climate change pollutants) out of the landfill, and replacing coal- and gas-fired electricity on our local electric grid with sustainably generated solar power.
Friends of Brown Canyon will use the funds for the multi faceted Dark Sky Initiative designed to sustain the environmental protections afforded by an International Dark-Sky Association (IDSA) Dark Sky Park (DSP) designation for Browns Canyon National Monument. Friends of Browns Canyon endeavors to educate and inform Chaffee County residents about the Dark Sky environmental benefits, and increase awareness of how energy use associated with excessive lighting negatively impacts the environment by exacerbating climate change.
To conduct a community reviewed process, CCCF convened volunteer review committees for each of the grant opportunities consisting of community members from across Chaffee County with expertise in housing and the environment. In all of the grantmaking CCCF undertakes with its partners, it is committed to a transparent, non-biased grant process that is focused on high-impact grant making that increases the capacity of our hard working local nonprofit organizations.
The grant application questions and evaluation rubric were shared with applicants while they developed their applications. The review process incorporated follow-up interviews to clarify aspects of the application, and a combined scoring and discussion approach to ensure good projects, not just good grant writers, are recommended for funding. In recognizing that Chaffee County is a very interconnected community, a recusal process is used to ensure there are no conflicts of interest in the review process.
“As a Community Foundation, we are committed to creating lasting change in our communities. By supporting innovative housing solutions and environmental initiatives, we aim to improve the quality of life for residents, protect our natural resources, and build a more resilient future.” shared Betsy Dittenber, Executive Director, CCCF. “These grants are an investment in our community’s well-being and a testament to our belief in the power of collective action.”
Donors interested in contributing to housing and environmental solutions across our community can make a tax deductible gift at https://www.chaffeecommunity.org/invest-now.
About Chaffee County Community Foundation
Founded in 2018, Chaffee County Community Foundation is a public, nonprofit organization established to promote and facilitate philanthropy in Chaffee County, created by and for the people in that area. CCCF acts as a catalyst to inspire positive change through the power of philanthropy to enrich the lives of all people within the county. Its goals are to make informed philanthropy accessible to all, build local nonprofit capacity, and enable community conversations. Since 2018, CCCF has actively supported nonprofit organizations for the betterment of Chaffee County and the local communities. To learn more, visit www.chaffeecommunity.org.
