The North Georgia Community Foundation awarded $135,000 in emergency grants this week to a dozen local non-profits; these non-profits are focused on helping those who have been greatly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The foundation also announced that their entire 2020 grant funding will go to supporting local non-profits helping their communities during the pandemic.
The dozen non-profits that received these grants include Caring Hands Ministry, Community Helping Place, Family Connection of Rabun, Family Promise, Georgia Mountain Food Bank, Good News Clinics, Salvation Army, St. Vincent de Paul, United Way of Forsyth County, White County Caring and Sharing, White County Food Pantry and Georgia Mountains YMCA.
Michelle Prater, NGCF President and CEO, explained that this round of grants went to these non-profits because their purpose is to meet basic needs.
“So when you think of basic needs, people who are needing food, they’re needing financial assistance to help pay for things, they’re needing shelter, all of those important, critical basic needs…that to us is what we wanted to target in this first round,” said Prater.
Prater said the grants help both the community and the local non-profits.
“For me it’s really two-fold: it’s helping those people that are so critically impacted and then long-term helping those non-profits get back on their feet,” said Prater.
The NGCF Coronavirus (COVID-19) Relief Fund has also led to several collaboration efforts between NGCF and other local organizations. The foundation provided a 100% match to donations from the Sunrise Rotary Club in Lumpkin County and the Lake Rabun Association in Rabun County, who donated to the fund. The foundation also matched the grant to the United Way of Forsyth County.
Prater said this group of grants is the first in what the foundation plans to be several rounds.
“Our intent is to continue this,” said Prater. “We’ve got a long process to go before we’re back to normal in so many different ways and so we need the community’s support to help us do that. We’re going to continue that focus and we’re going to make sure that this community is back to a place where everyone is thriving.”
Community members can donate to the NGCF Coronavirus (COVID-19) Relief Fund here. A list of the non-profits who received the grants and the purpose can be found on the NGCF website here.
