SOMETHING NEW IN GRANTS TO NONPROFITS

SOMETHING NEW IN GRANTS TO NONPROFITS

Small non-profit organizations in Portland have a new friend among the funding sources.

The Advantis Credit Union, one of many entities that provide grants to help meet community needs in their service area. Hopefully, thousands of other funders who give money to nonprofits will duplicate their process when determining who should receive tens of thousands of dollars. Communities WILL benefit.

Advantis calls the program GROW began with a $50,000 donation by the credit union. They announced that the fund was founded to assist small and moderate sized community organizations with one-time grants up to $10,000 grants. Of course, numerous proposals were submitted.

Instead of making grants based on one decision maker, or a committee of decision-makers, Advantis’ GROW sifted through the requests and submitted 13 of them to the voting public. Yes, the Credit Union asked for public input to determine which of the proposals would be funded; yes, actually funded, not just “recommended.”

During the voting period, 12,700 people voted. They evaluated the need, the proposed actions, the possible result and related concerns and selected the winning proposals.

Eight nonprofit organizations were selected to receive from $3,741 to $10,000 to fund their proposed project. All projects were “seed projects that can be nurtured by the community to GROW and benefit many people far longer than the money would last.

What a creative way to determine the value of proposed projects. The interested public, the community itself, proved to know better than one or more funder employees who may not have lived in the area. Oh, that all grants funding organization would find a similar way to determine who receives the limited funds available to nonprofits.