The Yampa Valley Community Foundation announced a record-setting community grant cycle this year with total awards jumping by 22% compared to 2023.

From funding a solar array installation to supporting a river restoration project and free lunches for local students, the record $661,068 in funding was directed to 80 different nonprofits in Routt and Moffat counties, according to a news release from the Yampa Valley Community Foundation.

The annual grant cycle sees the foundation award funding across three categories:

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Unrestricted general operating grants, which allow grantees the ability to decide where the grant dollars are most needed; program grants, which are awarded to nonprofits for specific programming; and impact grants, which provide up to $30,000 to projects identified as “making a significant difference in the region.”

The foundation said the annual grant program puts an emphasis on the unrestricted, general operating grant category with half of its funding, or $340,325, allocated this year to a range of organizations from Mountain Valley Horse Rescue to the Steamboat Art Museum, the Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust and Special Olympics Steamboat & Yampa Valley.

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Candice Bannister, executive director of the Tread of Pioneers Museum, which received an unrestricted operating grant this year, said the museum was grateful to the Yampa Valley Community Foundation for its support.

“There is so much work to be done to accomplish the mission and vision of our organization, and the flexible support helps us direct those dollars where they are needed most,” Bannister said in a statement.

On the program grant side of the grant cycle this year, the Yampa Valley Community Foundation directed $270,743, or 41% of its 2024 grant award total, to support 33 applicants including funding for a Yampa River restoration project led by the Colorado Water Trust.

Program funds were also awarded to increase health equity through The Health Partnership’s Community Impact Program and to support youth programming for the Rocky Mountain Youth Corps.

Totaling $50,000, the foundation awarded two impact grants. One went to BookTrails, a Steamboat Springs-based nonprofit that promotes literacy and a love of reading in children, for the installation of a solar array at its Reading Ranch facility. The other impact grant was awarded to Steamboat Montessori in support of the school’s universal free lunch program.

The total amount of grant money awarded this year jumped from just over $500,000 in 2023 and 2022 and from the nearly $300,000 dispersed in 2020, according to data provided by the Yampa Valley Community Foundation.

The overall increase was due, in part, to the organization’s maximum possible grant award being raised to $10,000 this year from $7,500, according to the foundation, with the higher limit prompting the foundation to process its highest-ever total requested grant funding amount, resulting in 78% of the total demand being met.

The list of 2024 grantees shows the Yampa Valley Community Foundation distributed 27% of its grant money to the health and human services sector this year, with 20% of the money dispersed to education organizations and 15% allocated to organizations in the realm of arts and culture.

Fifteen percent of the grant money awarded went to nonprofits working in the environmental space, 11% was dedicated to organizations with a recreational focus, 7% went to support youth programming and 4% was allocated for nonprofits that deal with animals.

According to the foundation, grant applications are reviewed by a volunteer committee consisting of community members and Yampa Valley Community Foundation staff who also review each organization’s finances and perform in-person site visits.

The meticulous process is designed to promote “a fair and objective allocation of funding” and helps the foundation engage with and understand the various needs of local nonprofits.

“The review process is definitely time-consuming but worth the effort as these organizations are doing such good work and they deserve time being reviewed,” said Heidi Shurtleff, a member of the foundation’s review committee.

Donations from community members and donor fund advisors help support the Yampa Valley Community Foundation’s annual grant cycle, along with the foundation’s granting endowments and its longstanding partnership with the Steamboat Ski Resort.