As needs and opportunities arise in Monroe County, the Community Foundation is poised to help our community respond to its most pressing needs and seize its most compelling opportunities through partnerships, convenings, and leadership activities. Currently, the Community Foundation is providing focused leadership and strategic investment in the following areas:
Monroe Smart Start
A leadership initiative of the Community Foundation, Monroe Smart Start promotes local early childhood education through high-quality early learning experiences, professional development for educators, family engagement, community partnerships, and advocacy.
Uplands Smart Start
With funding support from the Lilly Endowment, Uplands Smart Start is an initiative aimed at expanding access to high-quality childcare and early learning in the Indiana Uplands through programs and partnerships with community foundations, care providers, employers, and stakeholders across the region.
Reducing Unsheltered Homelessness
With funding support from the Lilly Endowment, this initiative, in collaboration with Heading Home of South Central Indiana, is focusing on reducing unsheltered homelessness in Monroe County through increased case management, street outreach, landlord engagement, and other efforts aimed at homelessness diversion and prevention.
Local News & Press Forward
Our region has experienced a significant decline in local news, raising concerns about transparency, accountability, and civic engagement. With an understanding of the essential role that local news and information play in growing and sustaining a community, the Foundation is partnering with Press Forward and exploring how to address these challenges as a community organizer, convener, funder, and partner.
100+ Women Who Care
This local giving circle supports local nonprofits through collective giving. Members of 100+ Women Who Care commit to attending four one-hour meetings per year at which they pledge to financially support a mutually selected organization to multiply impact for the nonprofit.
Place-Based Impact Investing
This initiative has expanded the Community Foundation’s toolbox of impact strategies. Unlike traditional grantmaking, place-based impact investing generates both social and financial returns. These investments (such as loans and guarantees) are intended to be repaid and recycled back into the community for future community investments.