A total of $1.6 million granted in just six years by generous Beaches families
JACKSONVILLE, FL — June 1, 2021 — The Beaches Community Fund, an initiative of The Community Foundation for Northeast Florida, recently made more than $355,000 in grants to 17 Beaches-serving nonprofits that tackle the difficult issues facing their Beaches-area neighbors. The three dozen Beaches-area families who make up this collective giving effort encountered a record setting number of applications in 2021 and responded enthusiastically by making grants to address issues in key areas. These latest grants bring the Fund’s Beaches-area investments to more than $1.6 million since the Fund was established in 2015.
This year, the members of the Beaches Community Fund set their sights on providing financial assistance and food assistance at a high level because many residents are still struggling to recover financially from the past year; data shows that more people need assistance, and more people are needing assistance at a higher level and for longer periods than expected. The Fund also continued its focus on providing educational and emotional support for students, who have had a tumultuous year. In addition to these two primary goals, they also made grants to support transportation to jobs, housing for seniors, and suicide prevention.
“All the applicants had compelling stories about their organizations and such heartfelt desire to better our community by helping those in need,” noted Melissa Rowland, a member of the Beaches Community Fund. “We focused our 2021 grantmaking on nonprofits with an excellent path to sustainability and the opportunity to have a long-term impact to the Beaches area.”
Seventeen local Beaches-area nonprofits received this year’s grants to improve the lives of residents living between Mayport and Guana:
$177,500 TO BASIC NEEDS: Food, emergency financial assistance, shelter, health care, and mental/behavioral health support, especially those needs created or exacerbated by the pandemic.
• $50,000 to Beaches Emergency Assistance Ministry (BEAM) for general operating support
• $50,000 to Feeding Northeast Florida to support distribution of food via Beaches nonprofit and faith partners
• $15,000 to First Coast Blessings in a Backpack to provide weekend food for low-income Beaches students
• $10,000 to Here Tomorrow to help with the launch of their suicide prevention efforts
• $2,500 to Safe Future Foundation for mobile food pantries at Portside Mobile Home Community and in Mayport.
• $30,000 to United Service Organizations, Inc. (the USO) to enhance the Healthy Military Families Initiative at Mayport USO
• $20,000 to We Care Jacksonville, Inc. to fund a Community Health Worker to complement the Beaches Health & Wellness Collaboration
• $70,000 TO STUDENT SUPPORTS: Supports for K-12 students, including school-based supports, afterschool and out-of-school programs, and enrichment for low-income students
• $25,000 to Baptist Health Foundation for Tipping the Scales program at Baptist Beaches
• $20,000 to Communities in Schools (CIS) to continue providing an embedded case manager/site coordinator at Mayport Coastal Sciences Middle School
• $5,000 to Fitness and Character Education to support the FACE4Kids program for at-risk students at Seabreeze Elementary School and Atlantic Beach Elementary School
• $20,000 to READ USA for book fairs at the Rhoda Martin Center and the Back to School with BEAM event and supporting book fairs and literacy programming at all Beaches elementary schools
• $26,348 TO EARLY LEARNING & LITERACY: Helping more Beaches children enter kindergarten ready to learn by improving access to high-quality early learning programs and increasing learning opportunities for young children at home and in community settings.
• $16,348 to Episcopal Children’s Services for new technology to encourage language development in young children at the Rhoda Martin Early Head Start Center
• $10,000 to Girl Scouts to promote kindergarten readiness in Beaches-area VPK programs and elementary schools
• $22,500 TO TRANSPORTATION: Improving access to transportation for Beaches residents, especially to enable access to employment and essential services.
• $7,500 to Beaches Council on Aging (Dial-A-Ride) to add Saturday transportation services
• $15,000 to Goodwill Industries to provide transportation for Goodwill’s Beaches clients to employment sites in Duval, Flagler, and St. Johns counties and for A-STEP program participants to FSCJ for education and training
• $20,000 TO AFFORDABLE HOUSING: Improving and preserving access to affordable workforce housing
• $20,000 to Beaches Habitat for Humanity to assist low-income seniors with home repair and rehabilitation that will enable them to stay safely in their homes
• $14,000 TO NONPROFIT CAPACITY: To strengthen Beaches-area nonprofits so they will be effective and efficient at addressing the needs of Beaches communities, and to foster collaboration among Beaches nonprofits and other stakeholders.
• $14,000 to the Nonprofit Center for Northeast Florida for the Eleanor Ashby Leadership Series to help Beaches nonprofits grow their skills, promote collaboration and peer learning members
PREVIOUSLY AWARDED GRANTS: These time-sensitive grants were awarded in the fall of 2020 to help organizations address pandemic-related needs.
• $7,500 to Beaches Emergency Assistance Ministry (BEAM) to hire temporary staff for five months to assist with client intake, enabling current staff to focus on case management for BEAM’s extraordinarily high caseload due to financial hardships associated with the pandemic
• $17,880 to Duval County Public Schools to provide internet access via hotspot devices to DCPS students living at the Beaches
The grants made by the Beaches Community Fund this year reflect what the Fund families have been doing since 2015—pooling their charitable giving dollars to tackle community issues such as transportation to jobs, food, medical care, and essential services; early childhood literacy and development; affordable housing; and helping Beaches nonprofits grow stronger and be more collaborative.
To learn more: www.jaxcf.org/learn/beaches-community-fund
About The Community Foundation for Northeast Florida
The Community Foundation for Northeast Florida (www.jaxcf.org), Florida’s oldest and largest community foundation, works to stimulate philanthropy to build a better community. The Foundation helps donors invest their philanthropic gifts wisely, helps nonprofits serve the region effectively, and helps people come together to make the community a better place. Created in 1964, the Foundation has assets of $548 million and has made approximately $600 million in grants since inception.
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Contact: Susan Datz Edelman
VP, Strategic Communications
904-356-4483 | sedelman@jaxcf.org