The DuPage Foundation has announced its volunteer grant committee has been able to review and make 80 grants for a total of $763,192 to not-for-profit organizations from two DuPage Foundation grant programs. Being disbursed before the end of the year, the funds have come from either the DuPage Foundation COVID-19 Response Fund or the Community Needs Grant Program. Grants were approved at the recent November meeting of the Foundation Board of Trustees.
Forty-four grants were awarded totaling $400,000 from the DuPage Foundation COVID-19 Response Fund, making the total grant amount awarded from this fund $1,400,000 since April of 2020 in four rounds of grantmaking.
In addition, 36 organizations received grants from the Foundation’s signature grant program, the Community Needs Grant Program (CNGP). Those grants totaled $363,192 and were awarded to organizations with programs that fell into the categories of Education, Arts & Culture, Environment and Animal Welfare.
More than 130 grant applications were reviewed during the process and of those, 80 grants were awarded to 73 organizations based on the qualifications and needs of the grantees and the money available.
“The pain people are experiencing during this pandemic has really ramped up the need in our community,” said Megan Shebik, who chaired both grant committees. “Researching so many worthy applications and making decisions on what we could fund was extremely challenging for our volunteer committee, but they rallied, read through every application submitted, asked great questions, sought answers and I’m very proud of the decisions they made. I wish we could have funded every single qualifying application.”
Area grant recipients include:
Elmhurst Art Museum – $20,000
Funded by JCS Arts, Health and Education Fund
To support community engagement and free programming around the Chicago Freedom Movement exhibit about housing inequalities.
Spirito Singers – $5,000
To improve online education/programming capability and increase digital marketing and recruitment presence.
United Community Concerns Assn. – $10,000
To provide emergency food relief throughout the pandemic.
Ray Graham Association – $10,000
To purchase technology for the Virtual Day Services Program to reduce isolation and provide activities for people with disabilities.
DuPage P.A.D.S. – $10,000
To prevent homelessness for people seeking emergency shelter by providing intensive support and critical diversion to help identify alternative housing arrangements
DuPage Senior Citizens Council – $10,000
To provide home delivered meals (Meals on Wheels) service and well-being checks.
For the full list in each category and more information, visit dupagefoundation.org.
