(Arnolds Park)– The Okoboji Foundation is now accepting applications for its 2025 grant cycle. Mindy Gress, the foundation’s President, tells KUOO news who’s eligible to apply…
“We look for grants to come in from any area nonprofit organization, but it can also be from city or government entities. But we also know that there are some organizations that don’t have their own 501c3 but are doing charitable projects and so if you fall under that category then we just ask you to find a sponsor, somebody that is a 501c3 who might want to partner with you to make this project happen for the lakes, to then submit your grant application. So as long as there’s charitable intent and there’s partnership with a 501c3 entity, then you can apply.”
Grant applications are available at okobojifoundation.org/grant application. Gress says the deadline to get them submitted is midnight March 1st…
“We have a grants committee made up of area citizens who go through and the read all of the grant applications that come in. They’re really viewing it from the lens of what is the greatest impact? How many people in the lakes region will this grant request impact? And as we narrow that lens down then we kind of look at what is the longevity of this grant, how is it going to impact the region for good? And so we look to our committee members to kind of really have a gauge on the community and how this is going to impact the greater good.”
Gress says the exact amount of funds they’ll be able to award in this round isn’t certain just yet…
“We are waiting to get our yearend numbers because the way that we decide how much we have available to give is based off of five percent of what we have available in our endowment. So we’re waiting for those final yearend numbers. We anticipate there to be between $300,000 and $350,000 that we’ll be able to grant.”
Gress adds they can help walk people through the grant application process.
The Okoboji Foundation has been in place since 1988. Since then, Gress says they’ve awarded over $5.8 million in grants…
“We’re so thrilled. We’re thrilled to be able to be a part of these projects. We’re always inspired by the variety of grant requests we receive. And I think the one thing that I would want to say, Steve, is, you know, no request is ever too small. I think sometimes people think of these grant requests and they have to be these big outrageous projects, which we encourage also, but really no grant request is too small. We’re really looking at the impact and not the dollar.”
Again more information is available at okobojifoundation.org or by calling 332-7177.
