North Missoula Community Development Corporation Receives $12,000 Capacity Building Grant
The Missoula Community Foundation awarded a $12,000 Capacity Building Grant to the North Missoula Community Development Corporation (NMCDC) to support their strategic goals and expand their community impact.
Founded in 1996, the NMCDC advocates for policy that supports equity among neighborhoods and builds and stewards permanently affordable homeownership opportunities using the community land trust model. In 2022 they partnered with NeighborWorks Montana to build a limited equity housing cooperative model for Montana – a new tool that transitions natural occurring affordable housing to long-term affordable housing. In this model, neighbors in multi-family buildings form a cooperative and purchase their buildings together, and the NMCDC brings the land underneath into trust, held on behalf of the community and preserving the affordable homes in perpetuity.
The NMCDC completed a strategic planning process in 2023 and subsequently established a new three-year plan. They aim to serve 100 new homeowners or shareholders with their homeownership models, advocate for equitable development policy, and support healthy and stable neighborhoods by connecting and empowering residents.
Branding is one of the key capacity building strategies they will employ to realize their long-term goals. A strong brand that is visible, well-known, and reflective of their new service area will recognize and highlight NMCDC’s housing innovation, responsiveness to community needs, and collaborative approach. The $12,000 grant from the Missoula Community Foundation will support the rebranding portion of NMCDC’s capacity building plan.
The Missoula Community Foundation envisions a thriving, unique and engaged community – and strengthening nonprofits is an important part of their mission. Amid growing community needs, resilient nonprofits are crucial, and the foundation recognizes that organizations need strong leadership, financial management, technology, and communication skills to drive positive change in the community.
More capacity building initiatives are underway at the Missoula Community Foundation. If you would like to learn more about how you can support this work, please reach out – [email protected].
2022 LoLA Grantees
2022 LoLA Grants Support Healing and Wellbeing
The Legacy of Living Art (LoLA) Fund supports projects that use the arts to nurture and support healing. LoLA grants are awarded yearly to artists and organizations that seek to engage creativity for the benefits of wellness and wellbeing. The fund has granted out $30,000 since 2020 and this year is lifting up Missoula Community Free Fridge, SPARK! Arts and Red Willow Learning Center.
Missoula Community Free Fridge works to expand equitable food access through a network of 24/7 accessible fridges & pantries. They will use LoLA funds to paint the fridges and pantries with colorful, beautiful art to demonstrate their communal nature and expand engagement with the community.
SPARK! Arts Ignite Learning is a collective-impact and national partner of the Kennedy Center’s Any Given Child. Their LoLA funded project will provide professional development for twenty MCPS teaching artists to increase social-emotional learning support and mental health and well-being through arts integration in our schools.
Red Willow Learning Center will use their grant award to offer a four-part Transformational Self-Portrait workshop series. This project will benefit people at any stage of recovery from Substance Use Disorder – encouraging participants to imagine the potential for transformation. The series aims to help participants envision a hopeful future of sobriety, effective coping skills and improved mental health.
Women's Giving Circle 2021 Grantee
The Women's Giving Circle awards $10,000 to Mountain Home for their efforts to combat housing and homelessness in Missoula County.
The Women’s Giving Circle of Missoula County (WGC) is proud to announce its 2021 grant recipient for a program or organization focusing on Housing and Homelessness. The WGC members voted to award $10,000 to Mountain Home Montana, which provides housing for at-risk moms and kids, to help fund staff salaries and training there.
Originally established in 2000, Mountain Home is a non-profit organization located in Missoula whose mission is to provide a safe home and nurturing community where young mothers discover their strengths, and children thrive. The group home allows housing for 12 families at a time, serving over 80 families a year through residential and follow-along support. Services include an evidence-based education/employment program; onsite mental health care for both parents and children; a community center offering parenting and life-skills classes; and the state’s first trauma-informed child care.
“Mountain Home is honored and very grateful to receive the generous $10,000 grant from the Women’s Giving Circle of Missoula County. We deeply appreciate their support of the young moms and kids we serve and all the good they make possible,” said Mountain Home Montana’s Executive Director Steph Goble. “Our locally developed, two-generational approach mirrors cutting-edge best practices for preventing future homelessness, poverty, and trauma.” The pandemic, Goble added, has only reaffirmed the important role Mountain Home staff play in families’ stability and success. “This strategic and timely funding will help counter global staffing challenges with additional training, competitive salaries, and additional staffing to ensure the families we serve can thrive.”
The Women’s Giving Circle of Missoula County aims to amplify the power of women and nonbinary individuals by allowing them to pool their donations, and then, through a voting process, make collective choices for how best to serve the greater Missoula area. The WGC’s collaborative, member-led model promotes philanthropy and equity among its 100 members from diverse backgrounds and varying degrees of wealth. Each member, no matter whether they contribute the minimum $120 annual donation ($60 for students), or choose to give more, has an equal voice in deciding who receives the grants.
The $10,000 award to Mountain Home Montana is the WGC’s fifth grant since its inception in 2018, and brings the total amount it’s granted to $40,000. Past recipients include, the Missoula Food Bank’s Lived Experience Voices and Leaders (LEVL) program, a leadership and empowerment program for women who have experienced poverty; Free Cycles Missoula, which provides free bicycles and bicycle maintenance workshops to the public. In 2020, the WGC also granted two separate $5,000 awards, the first to YWCA Missoula’s emergency housing program, the second to EmpowerMT to support its BIPOC (black, indigenous, people of color) afterschool youth group.
The WGC is a program of your Missoula Community Foundation. The Missoula Community Foundation (MslaCF) enhances community vitality by inspiring community giving and strengthening nonprofits. Since 2001, MslaCF has awarded more than $1.7 million to create a thriving, unique and engaged community.
2021 Small Grant Announcement
2021 Small Grant Focus
The Missoula Forever Fund at Missoula Community Foundation is offering grant money for Missoula County nonprofits focused on youth and/or providing social services in our community. This year’s grants will award applicants through anti-racism, justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion training. There are three different training opportunities, nonprofit applicants can choose from. One of the most powerful ways Missoula Community Foundation can help organizations accomplish their mission-based work is by building their capacity. Offering training around Justice, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion is a great way to help organizations build their capacity.
The Women’s Giving Circle of Missoula County announces its 2021 grant focus on Housing and/or Homelessness
The Women’s Giving Circle of Missoula County (WGC) is pleased to invite all non-profit organizations addressing issues of housing and/or homelessness in our community to apply for its 2021 grant award, worth $10,000. Applications will be accepted from September 6th through October 11th, 2021, with the winner announced in mid-December.
“Each grant cycle, WGC members vote to determine what critical need they want to focus on, “ said Nikki Robb, Program Manager at the Missoula Community Foundation, which administers the WGC program. “Since its inception in 2018, we’ve given a total of $30,000 to four different organizations dealing with racial/social justice, COVID-19 relief, environmental concerns, as well as the needs of women and children. This year, with the skyrocketing cost of real estate and the scarcity of rentals, the overwhelming majority of our members felt that housing and homelessness was where they wanted to put their resources. We are looking forward to learning about and supporting the efforts of deserving organizations that are working to come up with creative, effective solutions to this enormous challenge.”
The Women’s Giving Circle of Missoula County, a program of the Missoula Community Foundation, has grown to include nearly 100 women and non-binary philanthropists of all ages and backgrounds who pool their resources and collaborate to support the community. Membership dues start at $120/year ($60 for students), and while many members contribute more than that, all members get the satisfaction of knowing that they are part of a larger community effort that works to improve the life of Missoula area residents. They leverage their resources while at the same time gaining opportunities to learn about community needs and the organizations addressing them. We give together, we decide together, we benefit together.
The mission of the Women’s Giving Circle is to inspire collaborative giving to strengthen our community. We envision a community where all gifts have value, all members have a voice, and all Missoula County benefits.
Last year, the Women’s Giving Circle awarded two separate $5,000 grants: one to YWCA Missoula to help address emergency housing needs exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic; the other to EmpowerMT to fund its BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) youth group. Other past recipients of WGC grants have been the Build A Bike program at Free Cycles, and the LEVL Program of the Missoula Food Bank & Community Center.
“I love being connected to so many smart, generous women and non-binary folks who share my passion for our community and understand that you don’t have to be wealthy to be an effective philanthropist. By working together, our small donations can make an enormous difference.”
–Kathy Witkowsky, Giving Circle Steering Committee Member
Requests for the 2021 grant should clearly demonstrate how funds will be used to address issues of housing and/or homelessness. The WGC evaluates applicants on the Circle’s core values: community, equity, and opportunity
Learn more about being a part of the Women’s Giving Circle Missoula at Womensgivingcirclemissoula.org, via our Facebook Page or Instagram Page, or by contacting [email protected] or 406-926-2846.
About the Women’s Giving Circle of Missoula County
The Women’s Giving Circle of Missoula County empowers women and non-binary people to be leaders in philanthropy and inspires collaborative giving to create positive change in our community. Every member, whether they give $10 per month or $1,000, has the opportunity to learn about community needs, hear how nonprofit organizations address those needs, and make decisions on how to give collective funds for maximum community impact. Our voices, too often muted in traditional philanthropy, are amplified by working together, so we can invest collective dollars for change. The WGC of Missoula County is a program of the Missoula Community Foundation.
About Missoula Community Foundation
The mission of the Missoula Community Foundation is to enhance community vitality through inspiring community giving and strengthening nonprofits in the focus areas of education, arts and culture, and community care. We do this work through our programs, services and fund management. We envision a thriving inclusive community.
Technology Grants awarded to 16 nonprofits, focused on connecting community during COVID-19.
Dec. 17, 2020, Missoula, Mont. — The Missoula Community Foundation (Msla CF) recently awarded $27k in technology grants to 16 Missoula nonprofits. This year, the Msla CF tailored these grants to benefit local nonprofits in need of technology education, hardware or software so they can continue to keep our community connected during the pandemic.
These grants will help connect children for educational purposes, connect people for health reasons, and allow organizations to provide their services while reducing risk for clients and staff.
“The Missoula Community Foundation aimed to provide some relief for what we’ve all been dealing with,” said Marcy Allen, Msla CF Executive Director. “Technology has allowed us to stay connected to our jobs, healthcare, friends, family and school. We hope these grants will allow organizations to continue to provide essential services to Missoula.”
For instance, The Poverello Center received a grant to utilize a scanning system for clients accessing meals,
“Receiving the Missoula Community Foundation’s technology grant will have a tremendous impact in allowing us to more safely and efficiently serve those experiencing homelessness in our community during the COVID-19 pandemic.’ said Jesse Jaeger, Poverello Center Director of Development and Advocacy. “The guest scan card system will speed up our check-in systems for accessing food and shelter, creating better social distancing, while at the same time making our program data collection much more accurate.”
The Fourth D Club, which provides a safe place for 12 step programs to meet, received funding for a 360 conferencing camera to allow virtual attendees to feel like they are part of the in person meetings.
The Watershed Education Network received funding for their staff to get education on creating videos and materials to provide virtual curriculum to local schools.
The Msla CF had an unprecedented number of applications and decided to call on their partners to help them fund more of the grants than they could have otherwise. ATG/Cognizant, First Security Bank, United Way of Missoula County, and Sunrise Rotary all pitched in to meet this significant community need.
“This collaborative work to address community needs during the pandemic has really been a bright light for me, it says so much about our community”, said Marcy Allen Executive Director of Missoula Community Foundation.
The Missoula Community Foundation is proud to support these great organizations. To learn more about future funding opportunities and the Community Foundation, https://missoulacommunityfoundation.org/ or follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
Technology Grant Recipients:
- C.S. Porter Middle School
- Fourth D Inc.
- Franklin Elementary PTA
- Home Resource
- Impact Montana
- Missoula Interfaith Collaborative
- Moving Mountains Foundation
- Partnership for Children
- Poverello Center
- Recycling Works
- Soft Landing
- Tamarack Grief Resource Center
- The Greater Missoula Family YMCA
- Watershed Education Network
- Youth Homes
- YWCA Missoula
