PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK
The Spur Community Foundation awarded $80,300 to eight Wood River Valley nonprofits in its final grant cycle of 2023.
These grants bring the total awarded through its biannual grant cycles to $343,000 for the year. Spur’s grant cycles are open to all nonprofits that actively serve the local community. Eighty percent of applicants in this recent cycle received at least partial funding.
The money awarded comes from donations made by people who rely on Spur to know the community's greatest needs in their areas of interest. Those donations are pooled together to be granted to nonprofit applicants. Applications are evaluated using a variety of considerations, such as alignment with community priorities, scope and scale of benefit to the community, and confidence in a grantee’s ability to operate strategically and effectively.
Spur’s granting is just one of four ways it helps local nonprofits. A second way involves helping individual donors discover the good work being done by organizations in the community. This year those matchmaking services resulted in $401,000 of contributions to local nonprofits.
A third method happens through the donor-advised funds Spur holds. Donor-advised funds are a type of charitable giving account, which allow people to make lump sum, tax-deductible donations to Spur, and then distribute the money to other organizations over time. As of December 8th, the total distributed to Wood River Valley nonprofits from these types of accounts in 2023 totals $1,178,000.
These donor-advised funds do not sit idle. Seventy percent of the money deposited into donor-advised funds since the first ones were opened 6 years ago have been distributed. The current balances in Spur’s donor-advised funds are from deposits made within the past 18 months.
Lastly, Spur makes in-kind contributions to local nonprofits through its free advisory services and professional development programs. The goal of this work is to support nonprofits with operating efficiently and effectively, and in accordance with best practices. Spur invests hundreds of hours, worth more than $150,000 per year, in these services.
“Spur is dedicated to ensuring local nonprofits have the tools, knowledge, and support necessary to be the best they can be," said Sally Gillespie, executive director of the Spur Community Foundation. “We help nonprofits to operate strategically and to be results oriented. This enables them to do more good with each dollar received and to use their resources wisely.”
Organizations that have benefited from Spur’s grants, professional development, or pro-bono advisory services in 2023 include: 5B Anglers, ARCH Community Housing Trust, Ballet Sun Valley, Blaine County Education Foundation, Blaine County Housing Foundation, Blaine County Recreation District, Blaine County School District Board, Body Traffic City of Ketchum, Far and Wise, Flourish Foundation, Girls on the Run of Southern Idaho and Hospice & Palliative Care of the Wood River Valley.
Also, Idaho BaseCamp, Lee Pesky Learning Center, Men's Second Chance Living, Mountain Humane, North Blaine County Fire District, Papoose Club, Pioneer Montessori, Project Big Wood, Pulaski Users Group, Rotarun Ski Club, St. Lukes's Wood River Foundation, Sun Valley Institute for Resilience and Sun Valley Museum of Art.
Still others include Sun Valley Playwright's Residency, The Alliance of Idaho, The Community Library, The Crisis Hotline Idaho, The Sawtooth Society, The Space, The Spot, Trailing of the Sheep Cultural Heritage Center, Wood River Community YMCA, Wood River Land Trust and Wood River Trails Coalition.
In the seven years since its inception, Spur has received $26.8 million in donations and distributed $21.6 million. The dollars have flowed to 93 nonprofits and projects benefiting the community. Spur Community Foundation, a nonprofit itself, believes impactful philanthropy helps ensure that the Wood River Valley is a robust, compassionate, and thriving community.
Want to know more? Visit https://www.spurfoundation.org/. Or, call 208-450-2600.