Betty Ann McCullough: Enrichment Project Grants Program

The Betty Ann McCullough Enrichment Project Grants Program, managed by the Community Foundation Alliance, provides funding and challenge grants to schools and educational organizations in Gibson County, Indiana. This initiative aims to enhance educational opportunities in mathematics, science, and language arts for both youth and adults. Proposals are reviewed by the McCullough Education Committee and must align with community needs to be considered for funding.

Overview
From the beginning, the Alliance was designed to be a regional structure serving counties throughout southwestern Indiana.
Alliance organizers believed that the regional structure would allow centralized, cost-effective administration and governance of the organization. Alliance leadership also believed that the best organization would serve willing partners. Rather than creating a separate charitable non-profit corporation, a county could choose to join the Alliance by becoming an affiliate, through the creation of a named Foundation fund to serve its community.
Under the Alliance by-laws, each county affiliate is, therefore, a “county services committee,” but is known locally as the “[Name of County] Community Foundation.”
The Alliance Board of Directors is the legal entity responsible for all aspects of Alliance oversight and operation: governance, policymaking, legal requirements, financial stewardship, and strategic plans for the Alliance as a whole.
Each affiliate has a volunteer County Advisory Board whose role and efforts are focused on asset development, learning about the community’s charitable needs and nonprofits working to meet them, and awarding grants and scholarships. The first 2 counties to organize their own County Advisory Boards were Posey and Vanderburgh, both of which held their first meetings in June 1992. In the next year, the Daviess, Perry, and Gibson County Community Foundations were formed. Spencer and Knox counties formed Foundations in 1996, followed by Warrick and Pike in 1998.
All recommendations made by the County Advisory Boards must be presented to the Alliance Board for final approval. At least one County Advisory Board member from each affiliate serves as a county representative on the Alliance Board of Directors.
Today, the Community Foundation Alliance holds more than 1,200 named funds established by individuals, families, businesses, civic groups, and agencies to improve the quality of life in their local communities, with charitable assets over $100 million. During fiscal year 2019, grants and scholarships awarded from all Alliance funds to benefit the programs, projects, and people in the nine affiliate counties totaled $3,323,968.
The Betty Ann McCullough Enrichment Project Grant, supported by a fund in the Gibson County Community Foundation, serves to provide funds and challenge grants to schools (including institutions of higher learning), libraries and other public education organizations based or having substantial programs in Gibson County, Indiana.
The McCullough Education Committee will review proposals and make its recommendations on funding to the Community Foundation Alliance Board of Directors.
Project Areas
The grant serves to provide funds for innovative projects, programs and equipment designed to enhance, at any level of instruction, mathematics, science and language arts education opportunities for youth and adult residents of Gibson County.

Eligibility

The Community Foundation welcomes funding requests from nonprofit organizations that are deemed tax-exempt under sections 501(c)(3) and 509(a) of the Internal Revenue Code and from governmental agencies serving the county. Funding requests from nonprofit organizations not classified as a 501(c)(3) public charity may be considered provided the project is charitable and supports a community need. In some cases, organizations without the 501(c)(3) designation may be required to obtain a fiscal sponsor.

Ineligibility

No lobbying or soliciting of McCullough Education Committee members will be permitted.