HELENA — The Helena Area Community Foundation (HACF) and the City of Helena are partnering up to provide more than $19,000 in grants to local nonprofits.
For Family Promise, grant funding would give a boost to one of their most important programs.
"We can use it for a variety of initiatives. In our case, we will be using it for our Prevention and Diversion program,” said Renee Bauer, Director of Family Promise.
Through a new process, the Helena area community foundation is helping the city distribute a total of $19,000 in grants in up to $2,000 chunks.
“The nonprofit community is very important to the Helena Area Community Foundation. They are our central focus, so programs like this that address the needs of the current nonprofit population we are always eager to get out to as many people as possible,” said HACF Executive Director Emily Frazier.
This new process, according to Frazier, opens the possibility for more nonprofits to receive funding.
“The point of this new City of Helena grant is to take funding that the city normally used to give out to nonprofits on its own and make that a more transparent process that is available to more nonprofits in our community,” said Frazier.
Bauer says if they are awarded the grant, it will expand their ability to help families in financial distress find and keep stable housing.
The Prevention and Diversion Program does that through agency referrals, temporary financial assistance, and mediation services with landlords.
According to the Federal Reserve, more than one-fourth of adults are one surprise $400 expense away from not being able to pay their bills.
“What this grant does for us specifically is we can use it for matching funds for another grant that we received and literally triple the money that is available to contribute to these programs,” said Bauer.
Frazier says this partnership will provide vital nonprofits with more funding options.
"Having this additional partnership means there are more dollars available more opportunities to apply and hopefully we see more grants going out," said Frazier.
The grants for this first cycle will be awarded in April.
If you are a nonprofit organization and would like to apply you can visit HACF’s website here.
