Applying for school related grants: YSEE now part of YSCF

The Yellow Springs Community Foundation (YSCF) and the Yellow Springs Endowment for Education (YSEE) are pleased to announce their collaboration to pool volunteer resources by forming an Advised Field of Interest Endowment within the Foundation. This agreement, effective July 1, 2009, represents a solution to the growing national trend of a shrinking volunteer pool. By dissolving its corporation, YSEE eliminated escalating administrative costs and the need for a volunteer board of trustees, but ensured that its mission to support the excellence and diversity of Yellow Springs Schools will continue. That was the purpose of the YSEE endowment, established at the foundation in 1996 by parents and teachers. Now, instead of a separate nonprofit organization, a five- to seven-member advisory committee will review grant applications to support curricular and extracurricular activities in the Yellow Springs Schools and present its recommendations to the foundation trustees for approval. Two recent grants have funded a Lego League team and D.E.A.L. (Drop Everything and Logic), a program to involve students, administrators, and teachers in solving weekly logic problems.

The Community Foundation’s mission is to enhance community life in Yellow Springs and Miami Township by providing means for charitable giving and grant making that fund a broad range of activities. Among its goals are serving as a catalyst and resource for philanthropy, stewardship of endowments to address the community’s evolving needs, and providing flexible and cost-effective ways for donors to improve our community. “This collaboration is an excellent example of how we can achieve several goals at once,” said YSCF Board President Bruce Bradtmiller. “We encourage other nonprofits who may be struggling with similar issues to contact the foundation about ways in which we might help them.”

All members of the school community—students, teachers, parents, administrators, and interested citizens—are encouraged to apply for school-related grants that may be eligible for funding from YSCF funds, including the YSEE Field of Interest Fund. Applications and grant guidelines are available at http://www.yscf.org/app4grnt.html.