Saint Anthony Park Community Foundation

Previous Grantees

SAPCF REACHES $300,000 MARK IN GRANTS AWARDED TO 

LOCAL NON-PROFITS

The Saint Anthony Park Community Foundation announced its Grant awards for 2010. Nine organizations received a total of $36,468 pushing the Foundation's financial support of St. Anthony Park past $300,000 in its 10-year history. 

"It really is an amazing figure," said current board chair, Greta Gauthier. "The generosity of neighbors and their commitment to St. Anthony Park's critical institutions are very inspiring. But the big story is the amount of money available through our endowed funds." In its first year, the Foundation gave $5,000. This year, thanks to its endowed funds, the Foundation was able to give its largest amount in grants ever. 

Those grants include support for established community organizations like our public schools, Block Nurse Program and Music in the Park Series but there were also grants awarded to new applicants like Joy of the People Soccer, the organization that is running the South St. Anthony Rec Center and EconoCulture, a group working with local leaders to host a "neighborhood open house" in the University & Raymond area. 

According to Jon Schumacher, the Foundation's Executive Director, the requests for this year's funding totaled just under $60,000. "With the tough economy, we expected there would be significantly increased need. We are very fortunate to have the endowment funds which guarantee a consistent source of funding every year. Without them, there would have been some tougher decisions to make for our grantees." 

The endowment stands at around $930,000 in pledges but Gauthier is confident their goal of $1M will be reached this year. "Hopefully, with the economy starting to come back, neighbors will feel better about committing to this important source of community support. It's such a statement about the values of St. Anthony Park that neighbors are willing to invest in our future to this extent."

The following is a list of grantees and grants:

Block Nurse Program - $3,600 for marketing/web development and the continuation of the Senior Exercise Program and Speaker Series.

Econoculture - $1,000 in support of a "neighborhood open house" event for the University & Raymond area of South St. Anthony Park.

Joy of the People Soccer - $2,000 for grant writing assistance. This organization runs its program out of the SSA rec center and also manages the building.

Keystone Community Services - $600 for general operating support. Keystone is the main agency in our area providing comprehensive services for families in poverty.

Murray Jr. High - $5,000 in support of the Pilot One-on-One Tutoring Program. This is the 2nd grant to this program helping students achieve. $2,000 in support of the Wolfridge Environmental Education program.

Music in the Park Series - $1,500 in support of their Family Music Series and outreach to the local schools.

Park Bugle - $5,000 in support of short-term operations and long range planning, web development, and a reader satisfaction survey.

D12 Community Council - $3,270 in continued support of their efforts to reduce energy consumption in St. Anthony Park through education and programming.

D12 Community Council - $2,000 in support of a visioning process for the development of the University & Raymond area.

St. Anthony Park Elementary School - $5,000 in support for arts programming, $2,025 in support of environmental education, $600 for Destination Imagination costs and $2,873 for music education.