WINSTON-SALEM, NC (August 31, 2018) — Truliant Federal Credit Union is awarding a total of $18,000 in Community Mini Grant funds to 18 nonprofit organizations to enhance and grow their life-improving outreach efforts in local communities.
The program accepts and considers proposals annually that support operating, programming or capacity-building needs. Each group submitted a grant proposal for a project focusing on one of the following areas: arts and culture; employment and income generation; financial education; or food insecurity.
Truliant chose proposals as semifinalists. To win, nonprofits used social media to encourage their followers to vote for their favorite projects.
“We’re proud to offer support for local nonprofit projects that engage the communities where our members live and serve the common good,” said Renee Shipko, community engagement supervisor for Truliant. “It’s amazing to see the high-quality programming that these grants provide along with crucial resources to local organizations.”
The grant program, now in its 10th year, has awarded more than $230,000. Truliant accepts applications from regions where the credit union offers membership in the Carolinas and Virginia. This year’s winners were from: Alamance, Guilford, Forsyth, Mecklenburg and Randolph counties in North Carolina; and Greenville, South Carolina.
Qualifying organizations that are interested in applying must have tax-exempt status under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and be in existence for at least three years.
Please see below for a full list of winners and their submitted projects:
2018 Mini Grant Winners
Alamance County
Alamance Arts (Graham) – $1,000: To provide a year-long, multicultural opportunity for students enrolled in the After School Program and the Summer Enrichment Program, in conjunction with Burlington Housing Authority. Twice a week each student will learn how to play the steel drums. The program will be taught by Wilton Dubois, a steel-drum musician who has experience teaching children through musical instruction.
Women’s Resource Center in Alamance County (Burlington) – $1,000: The program provides services to women in transition. It empowers them to take the next step toward their future, focusing on a person-centered plan that they couple with networking, wrap-around services and accountability. Resources include career exploration, writing a resume and cover letters, improving their interview skills and networking with community partners.
Asheboro/Randolph County
Randolph County Partnership for Children (Asheboro) – $1,000: To provide funds for emergency diapers for newborns, infants and toddlers who live in poverty in Randolph County.
Guilford County
Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Central Piedmont (Greensboro/High Point) – $1,000: To assist in developing positive relationships through meaningful, monitored matches between adult volunteers and children facing adversity.
Caring Services, Inc. (High Point) – $1,000: To provide funds for Project Toothache. The program provides oral-hygiene care that includes extractions, cleanings and treating abscesses.
Open Door Ministries of High Point, Inc. (High Point) – $1,000: To provide a new washer and dryer for the 68 men who live in the men’s shelter.
United Way of Greater High Point (High Point) – $1,000: To provide food for food-insecure children through its BackPack Program. The BackPack goes home each weekend with a child. It contains four meals and a snack. The contents of each BackPack costs $5.
Mecklenburg County/Greater Charlotte-Area
Above and Beyond Students (Charlotte) – $1,000: To supplement the purchase of a nationally accredited financial-literacy program that teaches financial literacy to both students and adult family members. The program builds knowledge, empowers participants to make informed decisions, teaches life-long habits that lead to wealth building and breaks cycles of poverty.
Bright Blessings (Matthews) – $1,000: To provide additional healthy snack packs to schools for disadvantaged children through the agency’s The Gift of Care program. The program provides items to support health, nutrition and comfort by making available hygiene kits, blankets, stuffed animals and healthy snack bags.
Caterpillar Ministries (Huntersville) – $1,000: To purchase afterschool snacks for the children’s programs in the Huntington Green neighborhood.
Winston-Salem/Forsyth County
Bookmarks (Winston-Salem) – $1,000: To provide customized home-library packages – bestsellers, award-winners, books for children and financial-literacy books – for families who have a Habitat for Humanity house in Winston-Salem. The packages are a tool to inspire a love of reading and increase reading scores for children. Studies have shown a direct correlation between reading scores and the number of books in a home.
H.O.P.E. of Winston-Salem (Winston-Salem) – $1,000: To provide direct support to this program by covering a portion of the costs for ingredients of lunches for people with food insecurity throughout Winston-Salem and Forsyth County.
Horizons Residential Care Center (Rural Hall) – $1,000: To provide support to a visual-arts program that allows people with developmental disabilities to create art and be part of roving art displays that can be viewed by the public. This project will promote social capital and expose the community at area venues to the artistic capabilities of people facing challenges.
LEAD Girls of NC Inc. (Winston-Salem) – $1,000: To provide support for program and general operating costs, including supplies for weekly LEAD workshops and special enrichment field trips once each session.
Outreach Alliance for Babies, Inc. (Winston-Salem) – $1,000: To provide about 150 one-piece, two-pack pacifiers and four to six “Pack ‘N Plays” for safe-sleep kits for infants.
W.O.W. Women of Wisdom (Germanton) – $1,000: To provide renovations to its transitional home to ensure that residents have a safe, warm and pest-free environment to live and learn. Renovations will include replacing windows, doors and the current insulation at the transitional home.
Whole Man Ministries (Winston-Salem) – $1,000: To provide fresh meat, vegetables and a supply of baby products.
South Carolina
Greer Community Ministries (Greer) – $1,000: To provide nutritious meals and a wellness check-up to more than 300 clients in the Greater Greer Area through Meals on Wheels.
Truliant is a mission-driven, not-for-profit financial institution that improves lives by providing great service and straightforward financial solutions. Truliant was chartered in 1952 and now serves 316,000+ members. Truliant has more than 35 Member Financial Centers in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia.
Heath Combs
Public Relations
Truliant Federal Credit Union
