The Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham

Birmingham Foundation Giving Out $800,000 to Local Nonprofits in Need of Help From the Pandemic

By Lauren Jackson: BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) - Grant money is available to area nonprofits in need help during the pandemic thanks to one local foundation.

Since March, The Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham has given grants to 150 non profits. They still have $800,000 to give out.

“It was definitely very easy," Local non profit Youth Talk United founder Erika Perry said. “The community foundation made it so great.”

Youth Talk United is a mentorship program that helps educate and empower young kids in the community.

“One of the things throughout COVID that we noticed, a lot of our kids had increased with depression, anxiety, and low self esteem," Perry said.

Perry said once the pandemic hit, the kids needed more help with mental health. She was awarded an $8,000 grant through The Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham to help provide the services they needed.

“We decided we must do more," Perry said. “We must go out and find more information about mental health and provide that to the youth.”

Perry said with the grant, the non profit will train three facilitators in mental health advocacy and mental health first aid.

“Through this, they will actually be able to identify any mental health awareness in themselves, as well as their peers,” Perry said.

The foundation has given out more than $2 million in grants since March, and is still giving out more.

“Organizations are struggling with the challenge of meeting the changing needs of the communities they serve," Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham Programs Vice President Gus Heard- Hughes said. “While also dealing with some of the revenue challenges that limit their ability to provide for those needs.”

The application is online and the foundation is looking for small non profits or people of color bled non profits.

“We really depend on them to provide those critical services," Heard- Hughes said. “We are thinking about how can we help them sustain the capacity to provide those services and to adapt during this crisis.”

The maximum grant is up to $50,000 for non profits with critical needs and $25,000 for operational support.

“We hope this makes a difference in people’s lives everyday and that is really what it comes down to," Heard- Hughes said.