Voting will close on February 17th for community members to select from a list of local non-profit organizations who will receive $1,000 grants made possible by RAGBRAI revenue made at the overnight stop this past July.
13 non-profit organizations have applied for the grants, and Knoxville residents are asked to help decide which organizations will receive the funding. The 13 non-profits that have applied for the community grants include:
- Freedom for Youth – Knoxville
- Good Shepherd Lutheran Church
- Graceful Horizon
- Habitat for Humanity of Marion County
- Heart of Transit
- Helping Hands Food Pantry
- Iowa Bicycle Coalition
- Knoxville Alumni Association
- Knoxville Federated Garden Club
- Knoxville Youth Activities Alliance
- Marion County United Way
- Short Years Partnership
- Stepping Stones Early Learning Center
Each non-profit has submitted a description of their proposed project and the total cost of its implementation, and those details are included on the ballot. Residents can vote using this link and can select five projects they believe are the most deserving of the grants and will have the greatest impact in Knoxville. Voters must choose exactly five projects. Knoxville Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Nathan Sage says he wanted the RAGBRAI revenue to benefit the community in the best way possible.
“We made it a goal of ours to come out positive with the amount of money we had coming in from RAGBRAI and we were able to do that and since we were able to do that we thought we had this surplus amount of money and we wondered what we could do to give back to the volunteers and all the people who made RAGBRAI possible.
Hear more from Sage on an upcoming Let’s Talk Knoxville.