Community Impact Community Development Grant Examples

Madison Community Foundation awards Community Impact grants to fund programs that enhance the quality of life by strengthening the unique natural and cultural assets found in Dane County, investing in neighborhoods, enhancing equity and building bonds among residents. 

Free Bikes 4 Kidz Madison

$50,000 to help start a new agency that supports the annual collection, refurbishing, and donation of 2,000 free bikes to children and families.

Goodman Community Center

$100,000 for the Center’s major building and expansion project to increase programming and serve more people of all ages.

Habitat for Humanity of Dane County

$20,000 to expand a successful high school program that provides volunteer opportunities to build affordable housing and results in a dual high school/college credit.

Oregon-Brooklyn Optimist Club

$30,000 to help fund a community splash pad for area children and their families.

City of Middleton

$15,000 seed funding to develop programming for the new downtown plaza with a goal of building community and stemming social isolation. Programming will include multi-cultural and multigenerational activities and a farmer’s market.

Deerfield Community Center

$50,000 to build a new community center. Tripled the size of the old building, adding a senior lounge, youth area, commercial kitchen, solar power, outdoor space and multiple offices and meeting rooms.

Dane County Parks

$165,000 towards a bicycle trail from Elver Park to Verona Road, providing a pedestrian underpass allowing it to connect to the Military Ridge State Bicycle Pedestrian Trail, and an off-road bicycle/pedestrian connection to the City of Verona’s Hometown Park for bicyclists and hikers using the Ice Age National Scenic Trail.

Monona Terrace Community & Convention Center

$1 million to support the Monona Terrace project, featuring a building designed by Frank Lloyd Wright along Lake Monona, which includes multiple spaces for use by organizations and the community.

Madison Central Public Library

$500,000 to the capital campaign to build a new Madison Central Library. The new library will be 33% larger with a 250-seat auditorium, a 75-seat program room with after-hours access, and multiple smaller meeting rooms. Attendance is expected to double to 1 million in the first year after opening.

Velma Philips Sculpture

$50,000 to leverage further support in the creation and installation of a sculpture honoring Velvalea Hortense Rodgers - "Vel" Phillips - on the Wisconsin State Capitol grounds. Phillips (1925-2018) was an attorney, politician, jurist, and Civil Rights activist, who served as an alderperson and judge in Milwaukee and as Secretary of State for Wisconsin, often as the first woman and/or African American in her position.