QUINCY (WGEM) – The Community Foundation of West Central Illinois and Northeast Missouri handed out hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants Wednesday morning.
A total of $305,881. 67 were given to 90 nonprofit organizations at the 2025 Community Foundation Grant Awards, thanks to 70 endowment funds.
“It’s really the culmination of a process that takes funds that were established by donors to better our community and matches them up with nonprofits doing really amazing work in the community,” said Catherine Meckes, CEO of Community Foundation of Western Central Illinois and Northeast Missouri.
Nonprofits like the Salvation Army Kroc Center, Hannibal Arts Council and Connect Child and Family Solutions received grants.
“Individuals and families can work with us to create a fund that is going to be invested and then the earnings go back out towards grants. So, a donor may be really passionate about the arts or perhaps they want to ensure that educational opportunities always have funding, they can endow a fund for that and then we have a group of volunteers who work meticulously to evaluate applications and essentially play matchmaker between those funds and the applications that we receive,” Meckes said.
The Community Foundations grant program runs every year with applications being accepted from March 1 to May 1.
Since 1997, the Community Foundation has distributed more than twenty million dollars in grants.
“We are just humbled to play this role in connecting these resources to the opportunities that are happening and today is really a celebration of that work and a celebration of the legacies that are making this possible through the funds and the amazing work that our nonprofits are leading,” Meckes said.
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