The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Foundation provides college scholarships and local grants
After 25 years, Erie County Community Foundation exists to help folks in the county through grants and scholarships.
“We were founded around 25 years ago as a way to make grants and provide scholarships for higher education,” said Beth Maiden, executive director of the nonprofit headquartered in Sandusky. “Our mission also includes the collection of funds to help nonprofits do their good work throughout Erie County.”
Maiden said the scholarships provided a total of $130,000 annually for students in the county.
“We’ve been able to provide $1.1 million since we started,” she said. “The scholarships are for students’ higher education efforts. We work with local guidance counselors to help make students aware of the scholarship and to tell students how to apply. Our committee then gets together, looks at the applications and decides the scholarship recipients.”
Maiden said Erie County Community Foundation gave out 138 scholarships this year.
“The majority of the scholarships are for college,” she said. “We also offer the scholarship for some trade schools, as well. The scholarship is also renewable for current college students who keep their grades up.”
Maiden said facilitating grants is the other aspect of Erie County Community Foundation’s mission to provide opportunity for folks all over the county.
“Since our start, 25 years ago, we have facilitated $17 million in grants,” she said. “The grants are for any school or business that serves the residents of Erie County. The grant does not even need to be for a business/organization that is technically in Erie County. Just as long as the grant funds help the residents of Erie County.”
Maiden said the Community Foundation does a lot with the other nonprofits in Erie County.
“We have an emergency response fund for the county,” she said. “It has helped the nonprofits with increased expenses. For example, we have helped Ability Works, which provides services in people’s homes, by providing the funds to buy masks, which is an added expense for them.”
Maiden said the Erie County Community Foundation is able to pick certain areas to help communities in the county.
“We are a smaller foundation, so we focus on what we can do to provide support,” she said. “We have done some work to help out the Milan Historical Museum. We have also done a lot in Vermilion. This includes the putting in of handicap access to their pool.”
Maiden said Erie County also has the same problem as other areas.
“One of the issues we work to fight in the county is food insecurity,” she said. “Most don’t understand Erie County has a low (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) participation. We help the nonprofits deal with issues like that in the county.”
Maiden said Erie County Community Foundation is the only nonprofit in the county that has a full-time philanthropic staff.
“We serve as the boots on the ground for the funders,” she said. “We did a community-needs assessment recently. It was a good way for us to see what areas we need to focus. There are issues with the workforce and mental health, and we want to help Erie County in those areas.”
Maiden said transportation is also an issue in Erie County.
“If you don’t have transportation, you can’t get to your job, you can’t get to school,” she said. “So, we want to get back to focusing on those kinds of issues and seeing how progress can be made.
“Right now, everything is being geared toward what can be done about the pandemic and how folks are affected by that,” she added. “That’s where our aim should be, but I do look forward to the other projects we will be able to focus on once this subsides.”