contender
Ruger Guru
Well, today was the day our FoNRA Field Rep had the annual FoNRA Grant Fund Committee meeting. It's where we get to see how much our district raised,,,, and to review & distribute the monies to deserving groups.
NC is split into two districts,, Western half, & the Eastern half. I'm of course in the western half. In our area we had $368,000.00 to give away,,, (THANKS TO ALL WHO HELPED!) from 27 events. We were up 16% over last year in our district,, while nationally, the FoNRA program is up an average of only 3%. We had $730,000.00 in grant requests,,, so we had to review 106 grants, cut out the ones that didn't qualify, or meet our needs. Then we had to cut out portions of most grants to where we were able to help as many people as possible,, all while trying to be fair to everyone.
The committee is made up of a Chairman, a Secretary, & one rep from each of the 27 committees. Unfortunately, not all committees were able to send a rep. Each committee rep SHOULD know details of any grants in his/her area so he can help us know how we can (or can not,) help each grant request.
In 3 hours,,, we were done.
It goes MUCH easier when we can discount grants that don't qualify. It goes MUCH easier when a grant request is reasonable in actual needs, size of affected people, and the amount requested. Some requests ask for the moon, while others ask for bare bones needs.
So, to all of the good folks here who attend events,,, buy tickets, play the games etc,, know this; We work HARD to help as many people as we can & try to spread the funds as best we can. But the more we have to give away,, the less we have to cut.
NC is split into two districts,, Western half, & the Eastern half. I'm of course in the western half. In our area we had $368,000.00 to give away,,, (THANKS TO ALL WHO HELPED!) from 27 events. We were up 16% over last year in our district,, while nationally, the FoNRA program is up an average of only 3%. We had $730,000.00 in grant requests,,, so we had to review 106 grants, cut out the ones that didn't qualify, or meet our needs. Then we had to cut out portions of most grants to where we were able to help as many people as possible,, all while trying to be fair to everyone.
The committee is made up of a Chairman, a Secretary, & one rep from each of the 27 committees. Unfortunately, not all committees were able to send a rep. Each committee rep SHOULD know details of any grants in his/her area so he can help us know how we can (or can not,) help each grant request.
In 3 hours,,, we were done.
It goes MUCH easier when we can discount grants that don't qualify. It goes MUCH easier when a grant request is reasonable in actual needs, size of affected people, and the amount requested. Some requests ask for the moon, while others ask for bare bones needs.
So, to all of the good folks here who attend events,,, buy tickets, play the games etc,, know this; We work HARD to help as many people as we can & try to spread the funds as best we can. But the more we have to give away,, the less we have to cut.
