Local Nonprofits Get Funding Boost To Help Them Offer Professional Development Opportunities
Seventeen Macon County Legacy nonprofit organizations were awarded a total of more than $28,800 in Microgrants from The Community Foundation of Macon County (CFMC). The grants are targeted to help fund training and professional development programs for staff and board members within this specific group of nonprofits. The amount of grants awarded this year is the highest total since the Foundation’s Microgrants program was founded in 2010.
“For nonprofit organizations, finding funding to invest in professional development can be difficult,” says CFMC Community Initiatives Manager Tony Holly. “These organizations are usually already juggling how to meet the challenges of rising expenses and shrinking budgets. And yet, offering staff and board development opportunities is critical in improving retention, engagement and productivity.
“Because of this shortage gap in funding for training and professional development, the Community Foundation felt it was critical to meet this need as much as possible. For this year, each organization that applied for a Microgrant received funding, a first in the history of our foundation’s 22-year history.”
This year’s Microgrant applications included funding requests for training in advocacy; diversity, equity and inclusion; fundraising; management; accounting; leadership; team building; or other specific field related to the organization’s mission.
The 2022 Microgrants recipients and individual grant awards are: The Boys and Girls Club of Decatur, $2,000 The Boy Scouts of America, Greater St. Louis Area Council, $1,900 CHELP, $2,000 Children’s Museum of Illinois, $1883 Decatur Day Care Center, $1,400 Decatur Family YMCA, $1,375 Decatur Memorial Foundation, $2,000 Energy Assistance Foundation, $800 The Good Samaritan Inn, $2,000 Heritage Behavioral Health Center, $1,500 Macon Resources Inc., $1,295 Millikin University, $2,000 PawPrint Ministries Comfort Dogs, $2,000 Prairieland Service Coordination, Inc., $1,520 The Salvation Army of Decatur and Macon County, $2,000 Scovill Zoo, $2,000 Webster Cantrell Youth Advocacy, $1,189
For more information about the Microgrants program or becoming a Macon County Legacy member, call Holly at 217.429.3000 or email tholly@maconcountygives.org.
