$150,000 In Grants Awarded For Winter Quarter 
 

The Middletown Community Foundation in November completed its competitive grants process for the year, but the percentage of applicants who were successful in receiving funding from the Foundation decreased slightly from the previous year from three-quarters of organizations to just over two-thirds.

In 2011, a total of 144 requests were considered for possible funding totaling $1.26 million, said Executive Director T. Duane Gordon. Of these applicants, nearly 100 grants were approved for a combined sum of $560,000.

Just 20 percent of applicants received the full amount of funding they had requested, he added, down from 25 percent in 2010. A total of 45 percent received something less than what they had requested, down from 50 percent last year, and a full 35 percent were denied funding, up from 25 percent the previous year.

“In the present economy, the needs that our funded organizations are meeting have continued to increase,” Gordon explained. “However, the amount of funding we have available to support those needs has remained steady. In other words, we’ve received more requests for more money than in the past, so we end up turning more people down than in the past.”

The Community Foundation takes applications four times per year from charities, schools, governmental entities and churches in Middletown, Monroe, Trenton, Franklin, Madison Township and Lemon Township. Requests in the areas of the arts, community development, festivals and recreation are accepted March 1 and Sept. 1, while those for education and human needs are due June 1 and Dec. 1. Capital expenditure requests such as equipment purchases or building renovations are asked to be submitted for the Sept. 1 deadline regardless of subject area.

Grants awarded in the final quarter of the year totaled nearly $150,000 and were as follow:

·         Abilities First $19,127 for an energy conservation lighting retrofit throughout its facilities

·         Art Central Foundation $5,000 toward classroom renovations at its new location

·         Big Brothers Big Sisters $8,000 for expansion to Middletown of a new project to get parents more engaged in an attempt to keep little brothers and little sisters in the program

·         Bull’s Run Nature Sanctuary $1,500 for design services to replace two failed bridges       

·         Butler County Warbirds $1,000 for display case alterations for a military history memorabilia museum at the Middletown Airport

·         First United Methodist Church $5,000 to sponsor the 2012 First Fridays Downtown Concert Series

·         Franklin Area Historical Society $3,250 for museum repair

·         Miami University Middletown $50,000 (the third year of a $150,000 three-year grant) to support the Community Building Institute and its work in the Douglass Park, Damon Park, and Downtown neighborhoods

·         Middletown Arts Center $15,000 challenge grant to renovate the kitchen/library area into a café

·         City of Middletown Div. of Fire $21,503.24 over four years to lease three new air monitors to protect our firemen from deadly gasses

·         Monroe Civil War Days $1,000 to support a Civil War re-enactment           

·         City of Trenton $1,000 for stage rental and coupon book printing for Christmas in Trenton

·         TV Middletown $13,220 for new equipment and $2,000 to sponsor the 2011 Santa Parade

·         We Can Business Incubator $4,000 for the 2012 Broad Street Bash concert series

·         Woodside Cemetery and Arboretum $1,100 to provide for replacement of damaged trees

The grants were announced at the Middletown Community Foundation’s 2011 Annual Meeting, which celebrated the 25th anniversary of its separation from the Middletown Area United Way. In honor of that milestone, the more than 200 attendees completed ballots to vote for their favorite charity of the year that had received support from the Foundation.

The winning organization, the Middletown Arts Center with 12 percent of the total vote, received a $2,500 grant in honor of the anniversary and in the names of all attendees who voted for the organization.

Originally created in 1976 as a component of the Middletown United Way, the Middletown Community Foundation remained a relatively dormant entity for its first 10 years. It split into a stand-alone organization in 1986 and began its work at that time raising endowment and using those funds to provide grants to benefit the community in perpetuity. Today, it holds $25 million in charitable assets and has distributed grants and scholarships in excess of $31 million over the past 25 years.

Applications are not considered for grants for individuals, general operating support, non 501(c)(3) organizations, national organizations, religious purposes, political groups, endowments or medical organizations. Complete guidelines and application materials are available here.