IN MONEY
‘A Community Thrives’ benefits nonprofits.
The Gannett Foundation awarded
$600,000 in grant money, along with
$945,000 in fundraising, to local nonprofits across the country Wednesday as part of a program to empower communities and share their challenges on a national platform.
The program, a USA TODAY NETWORK initiative called A Community Thrives, selected 12 grant recipients “based on viability of the (organization’s) project and opportunity to improve the community centered around one of the three focus categories – wellness, education or arts & culture.” Additionally, four nonprofits that raised the most money were deemed “fan favorites” and allotted a portion of the grant.
“I cried. I started crying. My arms broke out in chill bumps,” Andrea Shelton, president of HeartBound Ministries, said upon learning her nonprofit had received $50,000 to help prison inmates read to their children over video.
More than 500 organizations from 40 states applied and raised a required
$3,000 or $6,000 in online donations, depending on their annual operating budgets. The 500 nonprofits went well beyond the amount required, raising more than $945,000 through the online crowdfunding site Crowdrise.
Overall, ACT contributed $1.5 million to local nonprofits nationwide.
Upward Intuition in Pensacola, Florida, will receive $100,000 to build a multipurpose community skateboarding plaza in downtown Pensacola in an effort to teach life skills through skateboarding. Upward’s mission, called “More Than Just a Skate Park,” seeks to address crime prevention, drug prevention and the creation of a safer neighborhood by providing an active outdoor space for the entire community.
In Georgia, there are an estimated 75,000 children with incarcerated parents. A local Atlanta nonprofit, HeartBound, is working to connect children and parents while fostering literacy skills by filming parents reading a children’s book on video. That video and book are then sent to the child, who can watch his or her parent, see that they’re OK and improve reading skills by following along.
In some of the 33 prisons across Georgia, parents haven’t seen their children in months or years.
“Some parents in prison never dreamed they would have the opportunity to read to their child,” Shelton said. “They want children to be able to see them, to be able to tell their child they love them.”
HeartBound Ministries will use the $50,000 grant to expand the “Little Readers” program and set up reading stations with new books that kids can read with their parents during visitation and then take home.
For CrossPurpose, a nonprofit in Denver, $25,000 will go toward providing career development services for women and their children in order to break the poverty cycle.
Walnut Hills Redevelopment Foundation in Ohio will receive $100,000 to build a small grocery store for perishables in a food desert neighborhood – an urban area where affordable fresh food is scarce. The organization also will use the grant for nutrition education classes and to establish a community garden.
To check out the missions of the other grant recipients, go to: act.usatoday.com/thrive.