How the Hamilton Community Foundation Helps Local Non-Profits Move Forward
In a beautiful octagonal building across from the Lane Public Library, the Hamilton Community Foundation has been faithfully serving our area of Butler County since 1951. Over the past few weeks and months, however, they’ve truly sprung into action with a specific response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on our city.
“As a county, we joined various partners looking for grant funding,” says John Guidugli, President and CEO of the Hamilton Community Foundation. “The Greater Cincinnati Foundation agreed to commit $150,000 of funds to Butler County, and then they agreed to match up to $150,000 for funds we raised. The Foundation and the United Way here in Butler County have $450,000 available to make grants to nonprofit organizations that are experiencing extraordinary needs as a result of the pandemic.”
For those who aren’t familiar, community foundations are tasked with being a hub where different non-profit organizations can maintain a fund and disburse money at planned-for times. In the meantime, the foundation invests those funds wisely so that they gain value over the years.
“Sometimes it’s easiest to think about the three main roles we have, though we have a lot,” says Guidugli. “Community foundations gather contributions in the community, then we grow those contributions through investing. Finally, we give those funds out in the form of grants.”
When COVID-19 hit, the HCF and the United Way of Butler County began offering quickly-accessible grant funding to make just-in-time grants to non-profits on the front lines of the crisis. The one-page application focuses on getting key information, and the grant review committee meets every day to read proposals quickly.
“The recipients range from food pantries whose needs have grown, to Primary Health Solutions and St. Vincent DePaul,” says Guidugli. “We’ve helped to provide diapers, and we’ve helped EasterSeals to help with housing and transportation in our area. The grant is designed to be for these extraordinary needs, beyond what their ordinary funding can do.”
The HCF has also modified how it will celebrate high school seniors here in town, to whom they will award over $1 million in scholarship funds for college in the fall.
“Usually we have a ceremony, but that can’t happen this year. We have to look at other ways to recognize these students,” says Guidugli. “We’re going to place yard signs for those recipients, to give some recognition for their scholarship awards.”
Guidugli wants non-profits to know that the Hamilton Community Foundation is already looking ahead from their focus on current emergency aid, since they also want to help local non-profit work to thrive in the months and years to come.
“We’re also having conversations about recovery funding,” he says. “We don’t have the answers yet, no plan in place, but we want to be prepared to be responsive, so that as emergent needs start to lessen, the ongoing needs will be something we can address.”
Guidugli and his team recognize that their work is one of the building blocks that, together with others in the community, make up our robust response to the struggles and needs in our neighborhoods.
“With something as disruptive as this pandemic is for our community, it’s an all-hands-on-deck approach,” says Guidugli. “I think that there’s certainly a role for governments, there’s a role for community groups to play, but there’s also a role for philanthropy to play. We’ve tried to be nimble in our approach so that we can be very expedient and responsive.”
To donate to a Hamilton Community Foundation fund, request a grant from the HCF, or learn more about their mission and methods, visit https://www.hamiltonfoundation.org/