News: VCF’s Stuart Comstock-Gay talks about the Post-Irene Landscape One Year Later
Common Good Vermont was thrilled to welcome the Vermont Community Foundation‘s Stuart Comstock-Gay into the studio yesterday to talk about how Vermont’s nonprofit landscape is fairing one year after Tropical Storm Irene.
To view this video in larger format, watch it here on CCTV’s website.
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One Comment
I listened to this broadcast with Stuart Comcast-Gay, and still do not have a clear understanding of what actual relief funds have been disbursed by the VCF to date, from the relief donations the VCF rec’d last fall—except for grants to farmers earning a minimum $20,000 (not mentioned) and small $5,000 grants to non-profit organizations that are assisting flood victims. Re farm grants: the $20,000 income criteria for farmers excluded many small family farms around the state who are still in great need. Many think that the VCF, as an organization that rec’d relief donations, did not respond to the flood relief effort in a timely or effective way. Many suspect that this is because the VCF is not in fact set up to distribute relief funding effectively through its current grant mechanism. Further, much time lapsed between the initial VCF farm grants and the next granting effort. As a member of a community-based relief fund committee in a small town of 1,000 that was greatly impacted by the flood, our organization began distributing funds early in the fall and continue to receive and distribute funds directly to flood victims, over $250,000 to date. We considered the VCF has a potential resource but were dismayed at the application process; that as an organization, we had to first apply to the VCF for a project-based grant (of no more than $5,000), be approved, and only then be only able to respond to the flood victim who was applying to us for assistance because the victim could not apply directly. This seemed a convoluted process with a funding outcome that fell way short of the need we were addressing in our community; therefore did not pursue the VCF as a funding source. I would suggest that the VCF consider partnering with community relief organizations in the communities hardest hit by the flood, and distribute their relief funds directly to these the organizations, that set up to receive and distribute funds directly to the flood victims.