Recent Community Impact Grants
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| Sector67 is home to the startup company Fractal, where children laugh and learn computer skills through STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) education. |
Madison Community Foundation awarded 29 grants to area nonprofits in fall 2016. Grants include gifts from the Community Impact Fund and Field of Interest funds.
The grants are listed in alphabetical order by grant recipient.
Aldo Leopold Foundation, Inc.
$100,000 challenge grant to endow the fellowship program of the Future Leaders Campaign. Key components of the campaign are expanding and sustaining the environmental conservation fellowship program and building a Future Leaders Center, which will house up to 10 fellows at a time and provide meeting spaces, technology, kitchen, gear room and a research greenhouse.
Bayview Community Center
$10,000 to support a new outdoor area and playground that creates a recreation and community gathering place for families. The space will include an outdoor classroom, play structure, sculpture and mural.
Boys and Girls Club of Dane County
$2,500 challenge grant for the Boys and Girls Club bike ride, the nonprofit's major annual fundraising event. Funds leveraged an additional $2,500 from the Madison Community Foundation staff riding team and helped purchase six new vans for the Club.
Chrysalis
$10,000 to fund Chrysalis PopWorks, a new program designed to build a bridge between mental health, employment and independence. Partnering with FEED Kitchens, PopWorks provides jobs for Chrysalis clients through an entrepreneurial food business, Chrysalis Frozen Fruit Pops.
Community Coordinated Child Care
$20,000 for 4C’s Resources on the Road project, which will equip a customized van with children’s books, themed toy kits and backpacks, adult educational resources, bilingual materials, a die cut machine, two laminators, math and science activities as well as resources for those with special needs. The initiative will expand outreach efforts and better meet the needs of child care professionals and families in Dane County by enabling them to check out age-appropriate and educational items relevant to early childhood at convenient locations. The materials will reach over 8,000 children each year.
DANEnet
$30,000 to the Digital Inclusion and Broadband Adoption project, which will provide low-income households with affordable internet access, free and low-cost computers, digital literacy workshops and drop-in technology support. By combining connectivity, equipment and training, DANEnet will increase access to education, employment opportunities, social networks, health information, financial and banking services, leisure pursuits and civic participation.
East Madison Community Center
$16,000 to expand the Minority Academic Proficiency Program (MAPP), which focuses on increasing high graduation rates for elementary and middle school youth of color. MAPP confronts educational obstacles by providing students with structured, supervised support from trained staff and teachers of color. MAPP also introduces students to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math), critical thinking, stress reduction and behavior management.
First Tee of South Central Wisconsin
$50,000 endowment challenge grant to scale First Tee’s two Learning Centers, improve youth reading scores, enhance partnerships with the school district and youth agency partners, increase overall participation, and hire and retain quality staff. The challenge grant will also expand First Tee’s overall fundraising capabilities, enhancing the sophistication and sustainability of their development program so that they can increase from academic year tutoring to year-round programming.
Friends of Schumacher Farm
$25,000 to help complete the Schumacher Farm Park Center for Rural History, one of only a few living history museums still in operation in southern Wisconsin. The center will serve as a teaching and gathering space, expanding educational programming for school-aged children to over 1,500 annually, offering environmental awareness programming and doubling the size of the naturalist education program. The facility will serve as a unique community resource, offering music, farm-to-table events, multi-age programming, and expanded K-12 curriculum and services.
Gio's Garden
$12,500 challenge grant to fund transportation in Dane County for families with children with special needs who have little access to quality respite care from birth through six years old. Acquiring two minivans and the needed equipment to safely transport children with special needs to Gio’s Garden and provide field trips throughout the area will facilitate new and different experiences for the children.
Housing Initiatives
$25,000 to support a $3 million capital campaign to serve homeless veterans. The campaign will facilitate the purchase of buildings, create 60 apartment units, and provide shelter and services to help homeless veterans find a path to long-term recovery.
Kennedy Heights Community Center
$25,000 to build and accelerate the center’s development plan, including fundraising, communications and development training for staff, board members and key volunteers. The effort builds on the center’s 30th anniversary, developing a Community Ambassador Team to cultivate relationships and further the impact of this major north side asset.
Li Chiao-Ping Dance
$5,000 toward the creation of a consortium to improve Dane County's dance environment and build a more dance-conducive culture through the development and retention of excellent artists.
Literacy Network
$50,000 toward the Literacy Network’s $3 million campaign to build a new building, expand programming and endow services. MCF funds will establish a computer lab, enabling adults to improve their basic reading and writing skills, English language skills, employability skills, use the public library system, check status updates on their children’s schooling, and more. The grant includes a $15,000, two-to-one challenge match to create a permanent lab maintenance endowment.
Madison Area Rehabilitation Centers
$33,500 to build the entrepreneurial initiative CyclePoint, a partnership with a national electronics recycling network to increase employment outcomes for persons with significant disabilities. MARC CyclePoint accepts commercial and residential electronics, disassembles them, and recycles in an eco-friendly manner. The project will create employment opportunities and increase earnings for individuals with significant disabilities, create a diversified revenue stream for MARC, and reduce dangerous electronics in landfills through recycling and education.
Madison-Area Urban Ministry
$25,000 to build the development capacity of MUM. The grant will increase development staff time and capacity, implement a long range development plan, enhance donor relationships and increase funding from individual, corporate and foundation sources. Grant funds will also purchase a donor database and software to enhance tracking, trends and donor relationships.
Madison Community Policing Foundation
$12,500 challenge grant to support the foundation’s work in the community. The grant will help police officers and neighborhood residents in community building activities to build trust and communication.
Madison Area Concert Handbells
$2,800 to provide free concerts to senior centers at 7 sites. In keeping with MACH’s mission, the performances will include audience interaction, education and participation.
Madison Music Makers
$2,600 in funding for string instruments, bows and cases for students who can least afford them. This program expansion will serve new students at the south side and east side locations, and at both Lakeview and Whitehorse schools.
Meadowood Neighborhood Association
$2,500 to help provide community meals throughout the year. These events build neighborhood bridges by bringing together residents, landlords, owners and agencies for free meals.
Neighborhood House
$2,000 to help fund the 100th anniversary celebration of Madison's oldest community center.
Operation Fresh Start, Inc.
$50,000 toward the Building Futures Campaign, which will establish a dynamic, cost effective learning and training center for disconnected youth (ages 16-24) in Dane County. Youth construction crews will help renovate their own building, which will serve both housing and conservation crews in their classroom and outreach work. The facility will double the amount of space and increase the number of youth served to over 400 within three years. OFS offers a transformative experience for youth who would not have ordinarily graduated from high school, helping students graduate from high school while building practical skills and serving the community.
Pinney Public Library
$3,300 for the Pinney Library capital campaign, which will build a new space at the Royster Corners development, doubling the library’s size and services.
Rhapsody Arts Center
$3,000 for Classical Conversations, a collaboration with the Verona Senior Center to create a program of musical education and performance, educating seniors about concert programs and then bringing them to Madison Symphony Orchestra concerts.
Sector67
$50,000 to build Sector67, Madison’s premier maker space, a permanent home. The campaign will dramatically increase Sector67’s physical and organizational capacity to develop and deliver youth STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) programming and to better support entrepreneurs. The stability will grow programs and partnerships, doubling the number of youth served annually to over 1,000. A permanent home will also increase creator-minded, creator-supported and creator-capable youth in our community, and greatly increase the number of individuals inspired and enabled to attempt entrepreneurial ventures.
TAPIT/New Works Ensemble Theater
$5,500 to fund TAPIT, in conjunction with St. Mary's Care Center and Verona School District's Functional Vocational Program, to use the tools of the arts to address loneliness in older adults. A play will be co-created with participants and performed at a variety of public spaces.
Theatre LILA
$10,000 for Theatre LILA's Racial Equity Initiative to expand opportunities for culturally and racially diverse artists, and for audiences to experience live professional theater, gain access to plays and participate in theatrical artistic residencies. Theatre LILA will hire and develop artists of color to work on-stage and off-stage as actors, musicians, dancers, writers and designers. They will also provide resources to attract and bring diverse groups of people to the theater. Through workshops and in-school artist residencies, they will bring LILA theater classes into MMSD classrooms to supplement and enhance current curriculum.
Urban Tree Alliance
$7,000 to expand the free outreach and tree planting program in 10 Madison neighborhoods, including Monona Bay, Greenbush and Bay Creek, and renew planting in the Allied and Leopold neighborhoods.
Vera Court Neighborhood Center
$50,000 for Vera Vision 2020, a capital campaign to double the size of the center, renovate current space, provide intensified academic support to youth and families, and build an endowment to sustain programs for the long term. The center will support programs for 5,000 residents and focus on strong partnerships with neighborhood families to incorporate learning in the household and bring academics to the forefront in the school, community center and home.