Nov. 13, 2024
Giving circle’s first grants target children’s needs, housing and mental health
The Generosity Collective, a high impact giving circle for Springfield supported by the Community Foundation of the Ozarks, has awarded $144,580 to four nonprofits in its inaugural grant round. The total is more than $16,000 more than originally announced when applications opened last summer.
The grants were awarded at a presentation on Tuesday, Nov. 12, culminating the Generosity Collective’s first year. This year’s recipients, each receiving $36,145, are:
- CASA of Southwest Missouri: To support training and operational costs of an early childhood specialist and to enhance the responsibilities and capacity of an existing advocate supervisor.
- Drew Lewis Foundation: To support the construction budget of a complete home renovation in the Grant Beach neighborhood as part of the Blue House Project, which provides affordable, quality home-ownership options for low- to moderate-income individuals.
- OTC Foundation: To offset the costs of the full-time site coordinator/family advocate at Study Nursery to transition from a pilot project funded by the Jeannette L. Musgrave Foundation to a long-term partnership with Springfield Public Schools.
- Victim Center: To support salaries of staff, including advocates and clinicians, as well as the operational costs and overhead of the counseling program.
“The idea behind the Generosity Collective is to bring together a next generation of philanthropists to collectively make a significant impact,” said Winter Kinne, president and CEO of the Community Foundation of the Ozarks. “When everybody's gifts are added up, it results in larger grants than those individuals could make alone.”
Grant recipients and Generosity Collective members celebrated the high-impact giving circle’s first grants during a presentation on Nov. 12 at Ocean Zen.
The grant recipients were selected by the Generosity Collective’s membership from a pool of 26 initial applications, narrowed to two finalists in each category by the group’s advisory board. Each finalist submitted a short video describing their grant requests.
The grant categories were selected from Blue Ribbons and Red Flags identified in the 2023 edition of the Community Focus Report for Springfield & Greene County, and included:
- Child Abuse and Neglect
- Shortage of Safe, Affordable Housing
- Economic Disparities Impacting Early Childhood Development
- Mental Health and Substance-use Problems
Membership for the Generosity Collective is currently open for 2025. Learn more at cfozarks.org/genco.
What is a giving circle?
A giving circle allows like-minded individuals to pool donations, learn about community needs and collectively determine grant recipients best suited to address those needs. The charitable “dues” for membership and grantmaking focus vary with each giving circle. According to a 2023 report by the Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy, Colmena Consulting and Philanthropy Together, about 4,000 giving circles are active in the U.S. The CFO supports about three dozen active giving circles across its service area.
