We work with our nonprofit partners in a variety of ways to positively impact the Holland/Zeeland community.
Recent grants and impact
Recently Funded Grants
Scroll below to see the listings
of our recent responsive and proactive grants.
- 2023 Responsive Recipients
- 2023 Proactive Recipients
- 2022 Responsive Recipients
- 2022 Proactive Recipients
Grantee / Project Name
Issue Area
Amount
Purpose
Grantee / Project Name
Hand2Hand - Nutrition Packs and Backpacks
Issue Area
Youth
Amount
$9,800
Purpose
To supply 1,857 Holland/Zeeland area students ages 3-18, with a backpack and a nutrition pack containing nutrition information, a water bottle, and healthy snacks. This approach removes barriers and puts tools directly in families’ hands to build healthy eating habits.
Grantee / Project Name
Lakeshore Habitat for Humanity - Critical Home Repair Program
Issue Area
Housing
Amount
$60,000 over 2 years
Purpose
To help homeowners in the ALICE population complete repairs to make their home a safe and stable place to live. This addresses the affordable housing crisis by keeping people in their homes.
Grantee / Project Name
Benjamin's Hope - This Is Home
Issue Area
Human Services/Housing
Amount
$40,000
Purpose
To assist Benjamin’s Hope in building two additional homes on its 53-acre campus to welcome and serve 12 new adults affected by autism.
Grantee / Project Name
Grant Me Hope - The Rock
Issue Area
Human Services/Housing
Amount
$40,000
Purpose
To launch services for male former foster youth at the old Rock Island Restaurant that has been remodeled into a dormitory style home. Providing safe and supportive transitional housing with programs to meet the needs of former foster youth will assist these young adults with learning the skills and saving the money they need to transition to successful independent living.
Grantee / Project Name
LAUP - Community Center Development
Issue Area
Community and Economic Development
Amount
$40,000
Purpose
To develop an empty warehouse connected to the LAUP office into a center for community development, events, and increased program offerings. The space will serve as a safe, trusted gathering place to give current and future generations of the Hispanic/Latino community opportunities to socialize, learn, and access resources and opportunities to thrive.
Grantee / Project Name
3Sixty - Place Based Leadership
Issue Area
Human Services/Education
Amount
$35,000 over 2 years
Purpose
To support the launch of a leadership program in Holland’s Eastcore neighborhood that equips residents with processes and tools they can use to continue making sustainable change for themselves and their community.
Grantee / Project Name
The Rink Fund - City of Holland Ice Skating Park
Issue Area
Community and Economic Development
Amount
$33,000
Purpose
To construct an outdoor ice-skating park that will serve as a space for collective joy for all residents, while also creating a space that invites additional tourism and business to the area.
Grantee / Project Name
Empowering Youth Global Connection - Expanding Cultural Programming
Issue Area
Youth
Amount
$32,900 over 2 years
Purpose
To expand capacity to grow cultural appreciation classes and add a new life-skills class for teens coming from immigrant or adoptive families. Immigrant teens are vulnerable to additional stress and anxiety during adolescence and are often relied heavily upon by their parents and younger siblings.
Grantee / Project Name
Great Lakes Urban Restoration Network - Cultivating Connection & Change in Southwestern Holland
Issue Area
Human Services
Amount
$30,000 over two years
Purpose
To significantly expand the Cultivating Connection & Change in South Holland initiative. This initiative replicates the successful community connector model used elsewhere in Holland to achieve better outcomes for residents living in the distressed southwestern quadrant of the city.
Grantee / Project Name
The Lucas Project – Respite Farm Days
Issue Area
Youth
Amount
$30,000 over two years
Purpose
To renovate a large barn into a respite program for individuals with disabilities and their caregivers. The Lucas Project intends to meet the needs of families with children who have high support needs by providing program participants opportunities for growth and development and their caregivers some much-needed respite.
Grantee / Project Name
Kids’ Food Basket – Ottawa and Allegan County Farm Initiative Greenhouse and Learning Barn
Issue Area
Youth
Amount
$25,000
Purpose
To support the construction of a Learning Barn and Greenhouse to enhance operations of the Ottawa County Farm, increasing learning opportunities for children and extending food production year-round.
Grantee / Project Name
Holland Museum - Addressing Accessibility
Issue Area
Arts & Culture
Amount
$23,733
Purpose
To increase accessibility in the Museum’s spaces through the installation of a hearing loop system, addition of headsets for guided tours, updated wayfinding signage, and installation of ADA power door operators.
Grantee / Project Name
Boys & Girls Club of Greater Holland - Southside Entrance and Safety Improvements
Issue Area
Youth
Amount
$20,000
Purpose
To provide student members and their families utilizing the southside facility with a safer and more dignified arrival and departure experience.
Grantee / Project Name
Environmental Law & Policy Center of the Midwest – Michigan Power Plants to Parklands (P2P)
Issue Area
Environment
Amount
$15,000
Purpose
To assist in an opportunity that has emerged with the closure of Consumer Energy’s J.H. Campbell coal plants in West Olive. ELPC will clean up and transition the retired coal plants to expand nearby public parklands and beaches for outdoor recreational uses; protect safe, clean healthy water resources; and provide grid-connected large-scale solar energy generation and energy storage resources that produce clean power, job creation and property tax revenues.
Grantee / Project Name
Issue Area
Amount
Purpose
Grantee / Project Name
West Ottawa Public Schools - Project Panther
Issue Area
Education Opportunity Gap
Amount
$60,000 over 2 years
Purpose
To help address learning loss and mitigate gaps at the pivotal third grade year by providing three, free, six-week after school program sessions during the academic year that include supports for students who have fallen behind or experienced learning loss in math.
Grantee / Project Name
MomsBloom - Ottawa County Postpartum Support Program
Issue Area
Healthy Parent/Caring Adult Relationship in a Child's Life
Amount
$60,000 over 2 years
Purpose
To support MomsBloom's expansion of services into Ottawa County. MomsBloom serves families in the immediate weeks and months after a child is born using evidence-based practices to screen for post-partum depression, provide referrals to community resources, and give direct assistance to the household. They prioritize serving single mothers, new parents who don’t have family or friends nearby, and others who lack support systems.
Grantee / Project Name
Mosaic Counseling – Increasing Capacity of Mosaic’s School Outreach Program in SW Ottawa County
Issue Area
Mental Health
Amount
$60,000 over 2 years
Purpose
To increase Mosaic’s capacity to effectively implement their School Outreach Program by helping to fund the School Outreach Coordinator position and increasing the hours of their six therapists in existing partner schools that currently have a waitlist for students to be seen.
Grantee / Project Name
Hope College CASA and Step Up - Academic Intervention Specialist
Issue Area
Education Opportunity Gap
Amount
$50,000 over two years
Purpose
To assist Step Up and CASA in hiring an academic intervention specialist to implement personalized academic support during academic year and summer out-of-school time programming. These funds will help increase capacity by bringing a new position to support both students and tutors in math and general study skills.
Grantee / Project Name
Corewell Health – School Telemedicine Program
Issue Area
Mental Health
Amount
$46,900 over two years.
Purpose
To connect Zeeland East and Zeeland West High School students with mental health services embedded within the school setting. Virtual mental health services are offered by appointment, five days a week throughout the school year.
Grantee / Project Name
West Michigan Marriage Center - Marriage Restoration Track Program
Issue Area
Healthy Parent/Caring Adult Relationship in a Child's Life
Amount
$40,000
Purpose
To support the development and implementation of the Marriage Restoration Track program and extend scholarship opportunities for those facing financial barriers to participation. West Michigan Marriage Center (WMMC) works with couples whose marriage is in crisis, often on the brink of divorce.
Grantee / Project Name
Movement West Michigan - Laying the Foundations for Comprehensive Support for Single Moms Program
Issue Area
Healthy Parent/Caring Adult Relationship in a Child's Life
Amount
$30,000
Purpose
To help pilot a program for single mothers in the Holland/Zeeland area that addresses the core issues of single motherhood and provides innovative and diverse solutions for families desiring to reach self-sufficiency.
Grantee / Project Name
Treetops Collective - Circles of Support and Facilitation Training and Coaching
Issue Area
Mental Health
Amount
$23,100
Purpose
To help identify and train local facilitators for the expansion of the Circles of Support program to Ottawa County. Treetops works with individuals that have been through immigration processes, and the Circles program is a peer support group model that addresses gaps in local mental health support resources in culturally appropriate ways.
Grantee / Project Name
ODC Network - Summer Program
Issue Area
Education Opportunity Gap
Amount
$20,000
Purpose
To help fund a six-week summer program that combines outdoor education with academic interventions for K-5 students in the greater Holland area, prioritizing students from economically disadvantaged households who are behind in grade-level reading/math expectations.
Grantee / Project Name
Issue Area
Amount
Purpose
Grantee / Project Name
Harbor Humane - Community Outreach
Issue Area
Human Services/Animal Welfare
Amount
$40,000 over 2 years
Purpose
To support a new team member leading community outreach for individuals in crisis and their companion animals. The new team member will manage intake diversion, emergency medical care for pets, temporary foster, food and supply needs, and domestic and other socio-economic circumstances. This initiative reflects a shift in animal welfare programming and is built around a national model committed to community collaboration.
Grantee / Project Name
Gateway Mission - Gateway Spoon
Issue Area
Human Services
Amount
$30,000
Purpose
To expand and further develop additional vocational training in a real-life business setting at Gateway Mission’s new restaurant, Gateway Spoon Cafe & Grill. These new hospitality focused opportunities will offer greater choice and alignment of gifts and interests for different Gateway participants, along with developing local talent for an industry currently facing worker shortages.
Grantee / Project Name
Opportunity Thrive - New Teacher Series
Issue Area
Human Services/Education
Amount
$30,000
Purpose
To launch a program that centers on supporting, developing, and retaining new educators. The costs to replace an educator, including all of the rehiring and retraining costs, is estimated to be between $10,500 for a rural district and $21,000 for an urban district.
Grantee / Project Name
Ready for School - Expansion of Kindergarten Readiness Camp
Issue Area
Youth
Amount
$22,800
Purpose
To increase capacity to address the gap in summer education experiences and child school readiness ensuring families are strengthened and the highest risk children are ready for school. Kindergarten Readiness Camp delivers academic and social-emotional instruction that is especially important.
Grantee / Project Name
Disability Network Lakeshore - Youth Advocacy and Leadership
Issue Area
Youth
Amount
$22,000 over 2 years
Purpose
To educate and train the next generation of leaders with disabilities. This program directly invests in teens with disabilities to help them discover their voices individually and collectively to ensure that decisions that will impact their lives—school, housing, employment, and government—include their lived experiences.
Grantee / Project Name
Issue Area
Amount
Purpose
Grantee / Project Name
City on a Hill Ministries Health Clinic – Behavioral Health Integration
Issue Area
Mental Health
Amount
$50,000 over two years
Purpose
To increase access to mental health counseling and mental health medication management for the uninsured and underinsured. City on a Hill Ministries Health Clinic will pursue a multilayered approach to serving some of the most vulnerable community members..
Grantee / Project Name
Bethany Christian Services of Michigan – Expanding Affordable Mental Health Services to Uninsured and Underinsured Hispanic/Latinx Community Members
Issue Area
Mental Health
Amount
$30,000
Purpose
To provide bilingual, culturally sensitive mental health services and clinical trauma assessments to the Hispanic/Latinx population in the greater Holland/Zeeland Area. This includes providing co-located services to reduce the stigma and barriers of accessing mental health services within the Latinx community, offering therapy services in Spanish, and hiring an additional therapist.
Grantee / Project Name
Ladder Homes – Ladder Home 6
Issue Area
Mental Health
Amount
$30,000
Purpose
To add a home to house 3-4 unsheltered community members with mental illness. Ladder Homes’ Supported Independent Living Program offers a level of security over a sustained period while working with residents to set and meet goals, navigate community resources available to them, and move on to more independent living environments.
Grantee / Project Name
Arbor Circle – Children and Family Outpatient Counseling Services
Issue Area
Mental Health
Amount
$20,000
Purpose
To strengthen outpatient counseling services for children and their families through the Holland office. Arbor Circle has experienced an increased frequency of youth seeking services for anxiety, depression, and trauma. They are one of few organizations that provides services to individuals who use Medicaid, helping fill a gap for vulnerable populations.
Grantee / Project Name
Evergreen Commons – PEARLS Mental Health Program for Seniors
Issue Area
Mental Health
Amount
$20,000
Purpose
To provide mental health services with local partners and to provide access to an evidence-based program that improves the quality of life for older adults by addressing mental health problems. With existing relationships, trust, and infrastructure, the PEARLS program will provide new tools and pathways to meet the mental health care needs of seniors in our community.
Strengthening the Nonprofit Sector
In addition to directly investing in projects and programs that benefit area residents through competitive grants, we also channel a portion of our Community’s Endowment funding to efforts that strengthen our local nonprofit sector. Within this space, we support the Lakeshore Nonprofit Alliance which serves area nonprofits by facilitating collaboration, leveraging resources, and providing professional and organizational development opportunities. We also support Community SPOKE, which fosters cross-sector collaboration around our community’s human service systems.
We also invest in collaborative efforts to gather robust local data that provide critical insights into new and changing needs in our community. These include the Greater Ottawa County United Way Community Assessment and the Ottawa County Youth Assessment Survey. These tools help all of us to make well-informed, strategic choices about how to make the greatest difference with our available resources.
Have Questions?
For more information or questions about grants, contact Yadah V. Ramirez, Director of Community Impact.