Shop at big box stores? Buy for food banks too

March 30, 2020

Get a case or two of food for the Food Bank with every visit. If you garden, add a row of potatoes, squash, cabbage, peas. 

Salad garden at Bridgewater Bistro 2016

Shelf-stable food is key. At the top of the list are canned and boxed foods. Think about buying a case or two every time you shop. In times of great need, while cash donations are great, food banks have to stop and go buy food. If you also donate the right foods, food banks keep on filling orders for their clients. 

Canned fruit 

Canned vegetables 

Canned beans and chili 

Canned meals: Ravioli, pasta in sauce, stew, etc

Canned fish and meat:  tuna, salmon, chicken, etc

Canned soup

Spaghetti sauce

Peanut butter 

Pasta 

Cereal

Boxed meals—macaroni and cheese, and similar

In the past couple of weeks with so many people involuntarily at home, food bank visits have gone up by more than 25%, a trend that will continue for some time. 

For donations, link to our Community Food Fund: https://spccf.fcsuite.com/erp/donate/create?funit_id=1126

Be well. 

Responding to COVID-19

March 22, 2020

Spotted Towhee keeping an eye on a nearby gardener

The board of Pacific Community Foundation has conferred via email and phone, deciding how to respond to the eminent threat of COVID-19. 

Here’s where we are: PCF is not going to offer our usual spring catalog this season. 

Thank you to all the organizations who put together their proposals. We will save your content, and let you know when the next grants catalog is open. 

We have created a Critical category for key funds to support organizations that help people shelter in place and provide food. These funds will stay at the top of the list for the foreseeable future. We may add other funds as we see new critical needs arise. 

Grants will go out biweekly to monthly, depending on the rate of donation to each of them. We will distribute grants across several organizations in each category.

URL:  https://spccf.fcsuite.com/erp/donate/list

To make a donation, click on the fund, and you will go to that fund’s donation page. You may donate to more than one fund in each session by going back to the main list and selecting another fund. 

Consider making monthly donations. This will provide important support in the months to come. 

Critical Funds:

Community Emergency Relief Fund supports rent, utilities, and other needs for vulnerable families. 

Community Food Fund supports local food banks and other food providers. Food banks are now seeing significant increases in the number of families needing basic foods and supplies, due to furloughs. 

White-crowned Sparrow

Food 4 Kids Fund supports the weekend food programs for schoolchildren; weekly backpacks are being distributed by school buses on regular routes. Busses are also delivering assignments and daily meals during the week. 

Pacific County Immigrant Support Fund provides support for immigrant families, including rent, utilities and other needs. 

As with grant catalogs, the Foundation will cover credit card and admin fees through our Cornerstone Fund, so that every dollar raised goes to local nonprofit organizations. 

URL:  https://spccf.fcsuite.com/erp/donate/list

Our Community’s COVID-19 Preparedness Needs

March 14, 2020

With the rise of a novel virus, COVID-19, and worldwide actions to slow its spread to keep from overwhelming medical services, there are new unexpected impacts—people out of work and running out of money to get through the next few weeks and months. This is overwhelming local support organizations. 

Pacific Community Foundation has opened an emergency relief fund to help those organizations that are not yet able to take donations on line. 

This emergency fund makes grants every week or so to local organizations that help people, especially families, while this health crisis impacts our communities. 

URL:  https://spccf.fcsuite.com/erp/donate/create?funit_id=1093

Your donation may be directed to a specific area (food banks, for example) or a specific organization; please say so in the note box. 

You may also send a note with a check, made out to Pacific Community Foundation,  PO Box 75, Nahcotta WA 98637.

Donations can be made directly to local organizations. We aren't ignoring north county--if you live in north county, think about direct donations to those food banks, etc. 

Food banks:  Ocean Park, Ilwaco, Chinook and Naselle food banks

Important South County Nonprofit Organizations:

Peninsula Poverty Response (PPR)

St Vincent de Paul

PUD’s Warm Heart Program:  http://www.pacificpud.org/assistance.html for donation form

Coastal Community Action Partners (CCAP);  http://coastalcap.org/ and scroll down to the donation email link, bottom right 

Other organizations are preparing for the impacts of this pandemic, and may already have shortages in some supplies:

Ocean Beach Hospital Foundation, https://www.oceanbeachhospital.com/foundation/

Ilwaco Fire Department, https://ilwaco-wa.gov/fire/

Long Beach Fire Department, http://www.longbeach.gov/fire/

Naselle Volunteer Fire Department, 360-484-3498
Peninsula Fire District #1, https://pcfd1.org/ 

Peninsula Fire District #2—Chinook, 360-777-0085

Pacific County Emergency Management, https://www.pacificcountysheriff.com/emergency-management.html 

We will continue to reach out to local organizations during this crisis. 

Grant Writing Workshop cancelled—Here’s an alternative

Kathleen Sayce, March 12, 2020

The Foundation has cancelled the grant writing class that was scheduled for March 27, 2020 at the Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum. 

We did this not because COVID-19 is rampaging in our community—it is not yet active here, so far as we know—but because we want to proactively slow down the rate of spread. 

As you already know, many large group events have been cancelled for this spring. Classes in most universities are digital for the next term. Computer access at libraries is cancelled. 

These actions help slow the spread to reduce the height of the infection curve. Note this will not stop it. Slowing it down helps reduce the impact on medical services, and that will save lives. 

On the nonprofit side, digital content is being ramped up.  

The Foundation has a grants catalog in the request stage that will be open for donations in May. You can participate from your own computer, no need to meet anyone face to face to post proposals now, promote it on social media, or to make donations during the month of May. 

A presenter for Washington Nonprofits classes, Maryn Boess, is doing an 8-week, on-demand grant writing course that starts Monday, March 16th. 

Members can sign up three people for the price of one (team work is always better) and members of Washington Nonprofits get a discounted price, $197 for up to 3 members, everyone else, $297.

https://go.grantsmagic.org/blueprint-wn

So sign up, join Washington Nonprofits, sit back, remember to wash your hands frequently, bump elbows with friends when you meet (no hand shaking, no hugs, sorry), and buckle down. 

We are going to get through this. 

Spring 2020 Grants Catalog

Ceanothus, California Lilacs, flower in May

Each May, the foundation hosts a community grants catalog, where local organizations propose grant requests and the foundation hosts those requests for them. 

Daffodils, February

As in past years, the request proposal site is open for the month of March 2020. 

In April, the foundation reviews all the proposals and decides which ones to offer. [Most of the time we say yes to every proposal—don’t worry.] 

Flowering plums, March

To get started, contact the foundation (info@spccf.org) to see if your organization is on our list of nonprofit and grantee organizations. 

If it is, we will send you the link to the request proposal page, and you can get started. 

Crocus Dutch Purple Giant, Feb.

If not, we will create a profile for your organization, and then send you the link. For this, we will need the organization’s name, address, contact person, phone number, email, and the organization’s EIN (federal employer identification number). 

Once your organization is on the list, then you can start adding your proposal. 

The request period is open March 1-31, 2020. We review proposals in April, and the catalog is open for donations May 1-31, 2020.

The foundation waives its admin fee and pays the credit card fees for all donations to this catalog. This way, every dollar donated goes to participating organizations. 

Sitka mist maidens, April

Your part is to help promote the catalog to your members, their friends, and outward, to increase the reach for everyone. 

We will host a social media seminar, April 17, 2020, 10 a.m. to noon, Ilwaco Community Meeting Room, next to the library, to teach you how to do use social media effectively and efficiently to promote your organization. 

Please RSVP so we know how many handouts to print, info@spccf.org. 

For the month of May, the grant request list is open to the public for donations. The foundation helps promote this catalog to the community. You help too.

Camas, May

Last year, the grant catalog raised more than $15k through dozens of small donations. 

Our goal for 2020 is to raise more than $20k for nonprofit organizations in our community.