Grundy County nonprofits outline programs and request $95,834 in county contributions for FY26

Dozens of local nonprofit and community organizations presented program updates and funding requests to the Grundy County Finance Committee on Aug. 25 as part of the committeeannual contributions review.

Why it matters: the county allocates limited discretionary funds to community organizations each year; presenters asked the committee to include their requests in the FY26 budget process. Finance staff told the committee total requests for contributions this year equal $95,834, compared with $63,334 provided last year.

What presenters asked and highlighted (selected details): - Grundy County Chamber (Christina Van Eypen, President & CEO) said the chamber is a countywide membership organization and reported about 573 members (printed) and a retention rate of about 97%; she said the chamber helped lead the Advancing Grundy plan (funded in part by a $600,000 federal grant) and is running a countywide shop-local passport connected to the corn festival and leads a certificate-in-employability program in Coal City and Morris high schools. - Heritage Corridor (Nikki Roberts, Marketing Manager; Debbie Jo Erickson, Sales/Tourism Coordinator) requested $10,000 annually (quarterly $2,500) for tourism marketing tied to Route 66 centennial promotions. They reported nearly 90,000 website page views in the most recent month, a newsletter with ~6,000 subscribers and social followers totaling about 40,000; they cited visitor spending of roughly $120,000,000 with state taxes of about $10,000,000 and local taxes about $3,300,000 (figures supplied by the presenter). - United Way of Grundy County (Karen Nall, Executive Director) requested the same funding as last year for the countywide 2-1-1 information and referral service. She said the 2-1-1 program (activated locally in August 2021) is available 24/7, offers warm transfers to partner agencies and supports text-by-ZIP; from Jan. 1to July 31 this year the 2-1-1 call center logged 214 direct contacts and made 363 referrals; housing/shelter remains the highest call category and information services represented about 20% of calls. - University of Illinois Extension (Mary Louwenden, County Director; Anthony Wermack, Communications & Marketing Coordinator) requested $45,000 for FY26 (an increase from $30,000 last year). Extension said it now serves about one in five young people in Grundy County, reported 2,564 program participants and more than 1,000 4-H fair projects (a 20% increase), and described staffing increases and classroom embryology, 4-H, horticulture and small-farms programming. Extension said county funds are matched under the county board funding-matching law (presenter cited a 70% match rate). - Santa community events (presenter identified as Santa Claus, local volunteer organizer) requested $2,500 (up from $1,000 last year) to support free family events and a future-first-responder scholarship program; the presenter said the group awarded $41,000 in scholarships across 2023 and 2024 and does not charge families for events. - Carbon Hill Historical Society / Carbon Hill School Museum (Michelle Mystic, President) requested $3,000 to cover operating costs including insurance (presenter said insurance is about $2,600); the society described archival and genealogical work and its role as a county coal-repository for historical maps and documents. - Grundy County Historical Society Museum (Kirk Houchin, President) requested $15,000 (a match to the city contribution) to support operations, exhibits, digitization projects and a planned capital campaign; the museum reported expanded open hours and education programming.

Finance staff summary and process: Finance Director Matt summarized the total ask of $95,834 and compared it with $63,334 in contributions last year; he identified the largest requested increases as University of Illinois Extension (+$15,000 ask increase), the Grundy County Historical Society (+$10,000 increase), Heritage Corridor (+$6,000 increase), and Santa events (+$1,500 increase). Matt reminded the committee that department heads are working on budget reductions and that the tentative county budget will be presented in October.

Committee action: the committee heard the presentations and did not take funding decisions at the meeting. Committee members thanked presenters and directed staff to include the requests in the FY26 budget process for consideration.

Context and next steps: the Finance Committee will incorporate presentation requests into budget deliberations; final contribution amounts will be set with the countybudget process and appropriation decisions in the coming months.