More than $50,000 was donated to the Starke County Community Foundation as a result of this week’s Giving Tuesday event!
Giving Tuesday, the global generosity movement that was first launched in 2012, helps provide local people and organizations with the power to transform their communities. It was started with the simple idea of creating a day that encourages people to do good.
Many of the contributions that were provided on Giving Tuesday were specifically donated to Community Funds, which are eligible for the Lilly Endowment Inc. Matching Opportunity. That opportunity matches $2 to every $1 donated, with a total of $250,000 of matching funds available.
Throughout the span of this opportunity $246,000 of the matching money has been utilized, with only $4,000 remaining following the Giving Tuesday event.
SCCF Community Funds allow the organization to provide grants to various community resources. This year alone, more than $55,000 grant dollars have been funneled into the community for a variety of reasons.
Those funding opportunities range from larger amounts such as the $10,100 that was provided to Community Services of Starke County for a transportation van to smaller, but still impactful ones, such as the $600 grant that was awarded to Starke County WIC for a lactation station.
In addition to collecting donations and providing community members with an opportunity to gather in their North Judson office on Giving Tuesday, the Community Foundation also recognized the Constellation of Starke Executive Committee as the winners of the 2019 James R. Hardesty Leadership in Philanthropy Award.
The award honors of the achievements of an outstanding individual philanthropist or an effective and worthwhile organization that makes an impact on the community. The COS Exec Committee was selected for the work they’ve done to unify the region this year.
It was established to honor James “Jim” Hardesty’s legacy of giving back to the community. A resident of Hamlet who genuinely loved Starke County, Hardesty stated his philosophy of giving simply and poignantly, he would say “If you can’t do a lot, do what you can do.”
To learn more about a number of different ways you can play a role in assisting the community, visit nicf.org and click on the Starke County tab.
