Variety and value of grants growing:

This article is a reprint from the January 2020 Spirit of 7600, just in case you missed reading it there.

Each year since the 2013-2014 new grant process began, the grant funds available have grown as have the size and variety of district grants. District grant policies have fostered multi-club grants, regularized the grant application process, and auditing procedures have improved the stewardship of district grant funds.

In the 2019-2020 Grant year, District 7600 had almost $153,500 in designated funds to dispense and hosted two rounds of grant applications. The second round of grant applications allowed the District Grants Team to award almost all of the district designated funds (DDF) available. With clubs joining each other on grant projects and partnering with other nonprofits and governmental agencies the total financial impact of this year’s district grants totals $263,364. This represents a significant and lasting impact for the communities in central and southeast Virginia.

In total there were 20 district grants awarded. But three clubs double dipped in interesting ways.  South Hill came back in Round Two to purchase more benches for its project and the clubs of Warwick at City Center Newport News and Virginia Peninsula joined together in two separate district grants. Double dipping is possible, though any given club may not be awarded more than a total of $5000 DDF.

There were 13 multi-club grants in five of the Areas of Focus. There were ten  grant applications which listed Economic & Community Development as the area focus.  One club listed both Economic & Community Development as well as Maternal & Child Health as its area of focus.  There were seven grants in the Maternal & Child Health Area of focus, and one each in Basic Education & Literacy, Peace & Conflict Resolution, and Disease Prevention/Treatment.  There were not grant projects in the Water & Sanitation Area of Focus. In the early days of “Future Vision” the marketing description of our current grant module most of the district grants clustered in the Maternal & Child Health and Basic Education & Literacy Area of Focus.

If you would like to delve more into the District 7600 grants you can visit dacdb.com. After logging in, click on the District Tab and then click on the Grants icon. Your club may come up with some super ideas for your grant projects next year.