The Community Foundation of St. Clair County hasn’t wasted any time beginning their grantmaking activities for 2025. By the end of January the Foundation had already awarded approximately $500,000 in grants.

“We have a very decentralized system of grantmaking throughout the Community Foundation,” said Randy Maiers, the Community Foundation’s President & CEO. “Our board delegates grantmaking decisions to a wide range of committees, staff and donor advised funds each year, so our grants start going out in early January.”

Several of the early grants are from endowment funds set up by donors who designate their favorite charities either here in this region, or other parts of the state or country. The Port Huron Museum’s are an annual beneficiary of funding from the Walter K. Brooks Fund and the John Dolan Fund. This year, the James C. Acheson Fund also added a grant, which brought the grant total to $153,000 for the Port Huron Museums.

Other examples of donor directed, or donor designated grants made so far this year include:

• $5,300 to the Athletic Factory, which came from the Marian Pollock Moore Fund. Her fund rotates each year among youth-serving organizations
• St. Edward on the Lake which received $3,500 from the Catholic Education Fund
• The International Symphony Orchestra received $14,900 from the Charles & Margaret Anderson Fund
• The People’s Clinic received $45,000 from the Helen David Fund

“A lot of people think that the Foundation Board approves a lot of grants,” Maiers added. “But they don’t. Out of about 900 grants we awarded last year, our Board only had a say in maybe a dozen.”  

Some early grants the Foundation Board did approve were:

• $30,000 to support the Blue Water River Walk
• $20,000 to the Friends of the St. Clair River
• $100,000 to SONS to support their general operations and programs

All of these early grants are called “unrestricted grants” which means the Foundation allows the charity to use the money as they feel is most appropriate.

Sheri Faust is the Executive Director of Friends of the St. Clair River and also a Foundation Board member. “Wearing both hats I can tell you how valuable unrestricted grants are,” she said. “And as a Foundation Board member we have been talking about how we can award more unrestricted funds and trust these local organizations to do what’s best with the funds.”

The Community Foundation manages over 300 different endowment funds which support an incredibly wide and diverse range of programs, projects and organizations. “We’re here to help our donors and committees make an impact on our region,” said Maiers. “And we do that on a monthly, weekly and daily basis.”

If you, your family or business are interested in setting up your own endowment fund at the Community Foundation, contact Jackie Hanton at the Community Foundation.