(Jackson, Mn.)—A southwest Minnesota rural electric cooperative is once again offering a program through its membership designed to benefit non-profit groups within it’s service territory. Andrea Christoffer of Jackson-based Federated Rural Electric Association tells KUOO news they are now accepting applications from those organizations for an upcoming round of grants to be awarded through the utility’s “Operation Roundup” program…(click here for comment.) “Operation Roundup is where about 70 percent of our Federated members have their electric bill rounded up to the nearest dollar amount. So say my bill is $50.50, it would be rounded up to $51 and that extra 50 cents goes to the trust board. And what we do is there is an application process twice a year for local organizations to apply for funding. It consists of Federated members, seven people who serve on that board and make those decisions. So we just want to let everyone know that the deadline is coming September 30th so if you have a local organization that needs funding for a project it certainly would be worth checking into it on our website.”
Christoffer says a project needs to fit a certain criteria in order to qualify…(click here for comment.) “Areas for eligibility is if your project involves community service, disaster relief, youth education, community leadership programs, environmental programs or emergency energy assistance are the broad projects. And if you go to our website too the letter also says the type of things that are NOT eligible, because we certainly don’t want to waste anyone’s time. But it really is a short application front and back, so two pages for a grant is pretty good.”
Christoffer adds organizations that serve Federated REA’s members in Jackson or Martin counties can apply for the funds. She says the recipients will be announced in November.
More information can be found at www.federatedrea.coop.
The program has distributed more than $400,000 since getting its start back in 1995.
