$127,000 in Grantmaking ‘Impact’

In the fight against food insecurity, Amanda Reynolds’ tool of choice is a bicycle. Recognizing that there was nowhere to get a free meal in Dubuque on a Sunday evening, she joined the Urban Bicycle Food Mission as a way to reach them. Volunteers deliver meals often by bike.

“It started out small: 25 meals on the first night,” says Reynolds, who joined after Melinda Vize founded the organization. “As we made connections in the community and checked in with shelters, talked with police officers, we found out that the population that needed this was much larger. We’ve grown to over 200 meals every single week, and we find out that we’ve run out of food every single week.”

To grow this initiative, the Urban Bicycle Food Mission applied for and received a Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque Community Impact Grant. It is one of 11 local nonprofits receiving a total of $126,700 in funding through the grant program this year. Thanks to this grant and others, the Urban Bicycle Food Mission will be expanding its marketing to increase awareness and extending its services deeper into the North End of Dubuque. Beginning October 27, it will add a new stop on its route: The parking lot across from Taco Johns on Central Avenue, from 5 to 5:20 p.m.

“Strengthening nonprofits has always been and continues is core to our work. Each organization we funded this year is doing incredible work, and we are proud to support them and our community,” says Gretchen Corcoran, the Foundation’s grants manager.

The Community Impact Grants program builds the capacity of local nonprofits to make an impact by supporting training, collaboration, programming and operations. This year’s recipients are:

• Centrally Rooted, which will use its grant to support its brain health creativity programs, such as music therapy and workshops focused on art, dance and writing.
• Convivium Urban Farmstead, which has a mission to improve life through food, will apply its grant toward investigating and piloting a food mentorship, which will focus on women and minorities.
• Dubuque Pride, whose grant will help build its network by supporting monthly social events and social media outreach.
• Dubuque Rescue Mission, which will be able to provide space and supplies for a case manager, a position that has not been filled for two years.
• Families Helping Families of Iowa, whose grant will support its work to care for Iowa's children in foster care by funding its Spread Your Wings Scholarships, Haircut & Shoe Vouchers, and Birthday Bundles.
• Fountain of Youth Program, whose I.C.A.R.E. Ex-Offender ReEntry Program, which supports individuals recently released from jail or prison by providing pathways to housing and employment, will get a boost from its grant.
• Guttenberg Economic and Industrial Development, which will use its grant to help build out a new Community Resource Center that hosts resources like a food pantry, open closet, office space for social service agencies, and educational programming.
• Mt. Pleasant Home, whose grant will help the independent-living residence update its 1939 bathroom to make it ADA compliant.
• Tri-State VIATS, which will use its grant to provide leadership development opportunities for the Guatemalan women who serve on its board of directors, helping them learn skills that can enable the organization to serve the region’s growing Guatemalan community.
• Urban Bicycle Food Ministry, which will be able to provide more meals to those in need while also growing its network of volunteers through marketing and promotion.
• YWCA Clinton, which gets support for a new, 24-unit building in downtown Clinton that will help grow its supportive housing, rapid rehousing, and homelessness prevention program.

Community Impact Grants are open to nonprofits serving Dubuque, Clayton and Clinton counties. After narrowing down the pool of applicants in August, finalists were invited to make video pitches to the grant committee. The Foundation offered free one-on-one coaching to finalists to help them strengthen their videos and build skills to support all of their grant-seeking efforts.

This year, the Community Foundation received 45 applications – the most in the grant program’s history – totaling more than $720,000. As the Community Impact Endowment Fund grows, it pays out a greater amount each year to help address critical issues.

“Every request we received was for a worthy cause,” says Peter Supple, director of nonprofit relations for the Community Foundation. “This grant program is one of the ways we can help address an array of community issues, and through a number of other Foundation offerings, we can help close the funding gap and deepen our impact.”

To learn more about the Community Impact Grants program, visit dbqfoundation.org/communityimpact.