CFO announces nine new COVID-19 grants, surpasses $1 million in total support

The Community Foundation of the Ozarks awarded nine new COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund grants today, surpassing $1.23 million in total grants made for pandemic-related needs.

Today’s grants bring the total competitive grantmaking among the CFO, its affiliate foundations and the Coover Charitable Grantmaking Program to $467,250. Donors who hold funds at the CFO have advised another $726,650 in grants to nonprofits working on or affected by the coronavirus. Employers that have established benevolence funds to assist employees have granted $39,370.

The CFO also received a major gift this week — $100,000 from the Sunderland Foundation, based in Kansas City and founded by the prior owners of the Ash Grove Cement Company. This generous gift increases to $300,630 the amount raised over and above the CFO’s initial commitment of $1 million, made possible by CFO and Affiliate discretionary funds, the Missouri Foundation for Health, and the Louis L. and Julia Dorothy Coover Charitable Foundation, managed by Commerce Trust Company.

The needs in the nonprofit sector continue to outpace available funding with more than $4.1 million in grant requests from across the region. The CFO encourages those able to make a charitable gift with a portion of their Stimulus relief checks to consider donating to a nonprofit in need or the CFO’s COVID-19 Fund. Gifts can be made at cfozarks.org/donate. The CFO is covering processing fees for gifts made by credit card through June 30, 2020.

The COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund grants are supporting nonprofit agencies directly involved in addressing regional needs, particularly for vulnerable citizens, such as seniors, those with food insecurity or health needs. This week’s grants were awarded to:

• Boys & Girls Club of Springfield: $15,000 to support food, supplies and virtual programming opportunities for Club members.

• Children’s Smile Center: $5,000 to safely provide emergency dental support in Christian County, which is served by the Finley River Community Foundation and the Nixa Community Foundation.

• Ministerial Alliance of the Hermann Area: $5,000 to assist low-income families with COVID-19 emergency circumstances; the Alliance is supported by the Community Foundation of the Hermann Area Inc.

• Isabel’s House Crisis Nursery: $7,000 for food programs, cleaning supplies and program materials for children staying at the house.

• Mountain Grove Love Center Food Pantry: $5,000 to support food distribution in this community served by the Mountain Grove Area Community Foundation.

• NAMI: $15,000 for virtual support-group expenses and “warmline” mental-health responders.

• O-STEAM: $19,500 to support makers who are using 3D printers to make face shields for emergency workers.

• People Helping People: $3,000, with half of the funding from the Republic Community Foundation, for food pantry unmet expenses due to cancelled food drives and fundraisers.

• Shepherd’s Nook Food Pantry: $5,000 to support increased food pantry expenses in Dent County, which is served by the Dent County Community Foundation.

In addition, the CFO awarded the annual Coover Charitable Foundation Regional Grants this week. A number of these grants are focused on COVID-related issues. For more information on these grants, visit: https://www.cfozarks.org/coover2020

Grant applications are accepted on a rolling basis with announcements anticipated weekly for the near future. The application process is open to nonprofits and IRS-equivalent organizations like faith and civic agencies. The CFO does not make grants directly to individuals.