May 22, 2024
The Mackinac Island Community Foundation has announced the recipients of its Spring 2025 Grant cycle.
This grant cycle provided a total of $127,975 in grant dollars to help support the Mackinac Island community, with 10 nonprofits receiving grants.
Some of the local nonprofits who received grants were Ste. Anne’s Catholic Church, which received $16,345 for their kitchen remodel, the Mackinac Island Medical Center, receiving $29,850 toward a forensic and medical documentation camera, and Mackinac Island Public School, which received $4,000 for its High Reliability Schools Institute. Some organizations, including both Ste. Anne’s Catholic Church and the Mackinac Island Medical Center, received multiple grants from different donor funds to support various projects and programs.
Stephanie McGreevy is the Executive Director and CEO of the Mackinac Island Community Foundation. She said that the foundation’s true goal is to provide this support for community nonprofits, so that they, in turn, can further support the community themselves.
“[This includes] all of our community and all of what that looks like,” McGreevy said. “Both our year-round residents, our summer workers, our seasonal workers who come from all over the world, and our tourists.”
The foundation uses funds provided by donors, and these funds are endowment funds. This means that the funds are initially invested by the foundation, allowing for additional money to be generated over time. With more money accumulated, more money can be granted to the community over time.
With over one hundred funds, there are different types of donor funds that are a part of the foundation, with some of these set to disperse funds to specific nonprofits annually. Decided by the donors of the funds themselves, these funds allow certain organizations the ability to rely on the grant funding every year. The foundation also has funds in which the donors determined that the money can only be used in regards to certain interests, such as preservation or sailing. This means that the funds will only be granted to nonprofits who are doing or pursuing work within the realm of those interests.
“But what we’ve recognized over the years, and most specifically in our community needs assessment, is what the community is craving is unrestricted dollars,” McGreevy said. “Those dollars where the needs can be met most.”
In response, the foundation created their own fund, called the Island Community Needs Fund. The foundation has also implemented more donor funds through campaigning, including the Mackinac Island Community Fund, created by the Timmons family and the heirs of the Timmons family, and the David and Janet Bell Fund for the Community.
Another aspect of the foundation is its Youth Advisory Committee, which consists of students who help to designate grant dollars to applications that relate back to the community’s youth. The committee also creates a Youth Community Needs Assessment survey to help guide their grant decisions, with the survey being completed periodically by students in seventh grade through twelfth grade
When completing grant applications, community nonprofits are required to provide certain information to the foundation. This includes information regarding what the grant funds will be used for, the amount of money being requested, and why the pursued project is important to Mackinac Island. They also ask who the target audience of the project will be, such as who it will serve, and they ask for evidence that supports the need for the project, which can include the nonprofit’s own needs assessment or strategic plan. The final questions cover the applicant’s overall goal for the project, the project timeline, and the full budget.
The foundation was first established in 1994, and since then, it has granted over seven million dollars to community nonprofits.
“The growth of the nonprofits in the community, it’s been staggering at times to see,” McGreevy said. “To see them taking steps to become leaders in our community has really been exciting to see.”
With grant cycles in both the fall and spring, the next competitive grant application deadline is on October 1 before noon. There is also a SUN (Support Us Now) Fund, which began in 2022. It can be applied for throughout the year, offering up to $5,000 in potential grant funding.