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East Alabama Community Foundation offers grants, partnership to Alexander City-area nonprofits
Summary
Representatives of the East Alabama Community Foundation told the Alexander City Council at a work session that the foundation will open a March 3 grant cycle and seeks to partner with local governments and nonprofits on scholarships, disaster relief and program support.
Representatives of the East Alabama Community Foundation urged the Alexander City Council at a work session to spread the word about an upcoming grant cycle and described ways the foundation can partner with local nonprofits and municipal services.
Burton Crenshaw, a representative of the East Alabama Community Foundation, said the foundation began serving this area in July and is part of the Central Alabama Community Foundation. “The bulk of our money goes to non profits,” Crenshaw said, adding the foundation also manages scholarships and responds to disaster relief needs.
The foundation plans to open a grant cycle on March 3. Crenshaw said the group granted more than $30,000 last December after expanding into four new counties and that the parent foundation typically awards about $7,000,000 across its service area each year. He asked city officials to help publicize the grant window so local nonprofits do not miss the opportunity to apply.
Crenshaw described the foundation’s priorities as education and social services: applicants choose a category on the foundation’s website and the foundation prefers program-specific requests rather than multiple small projects under one application. He said staff can help prospective applicants decide whether to submit separate applications and that the foundation often vets local nonprofits for municipalities as a community service at no charge.
He said the foundation has worked with emergency management agencies to distribute funds after storms, and has supported fire and police departments with training, peer support and short-term assistance for officers who lose income because of personal hardship.
A council member asked whether applicants should submit separate requests for multiple projects; Crenshaw advised limiting multiple projects within a single application and suggested submitting the strongest one or two proposals. A presiding official asked whether the March window would recur annually; Crenshaw said this is only the foundation’s second year serving the area and that the foundation expects the March window will likely be the regular annual cycle but could not guarantee a set schedule.
The presentation closed after a brief question-and-answer exchange; no council action or vote on the matter was recorded during the session.
The foundation listed Lynn Freeman among presenters but did not speak during the recorded portion. Contact or application details were not specified in the transcript.
