Community Foundation of Grundy County

11/13/2025

CCPLD 17th Annual Veterans Day 2025 Video of photo gallery from event. Thank Veterans!

11/07/2025

Year-end reminder:

If you are age 70-1/2 or older and have not yet drawn down your entire IRA RMD, you can gift it to charity as a QCD (qualified charitable distribution).

In order to do this, you need your favorite charity's legal name and EIN.

Ours is "Morris Community Foundation dba Community Foundation of Grundy County"

EIN #36-4299824

Bridging people who care with causes that matter

11/06/2025

In the spirit of the upcoming National Philanthropy Day, we wanted to share an example of a donor giving back to their community. Thank you to Jerry Hill for setting up the MVK Fund to support charitable organizations in the Mazon, Verona, Kinsman areas. In a small community these funds can make a huge difference! If you would like to donate to this fund you can do in-person, by mail, or online https://cfgrundycounty.fcsuite.com/erp/donate/create/fund?funit_id=1759

We would like to give a special thank you to the Community Foundation of Grundy County for providing us with funds to install an asphalt pad at the middle school for our new Gaga Ball pits. This project was made possible by a grant from the MVK Community Fund held at the Community Foundation of Grundy County. The MVK Community Fund was established by Gerald (Jerry) Hill to support the charitable organizations and local units of government in the Mazon, Verona, and Kinsman areas.

11/06/2025

Last call! If you know of a Senior in Grundy County who can use some Christmas cheer (low income or lives alone or family out of town, or ill, etc.) please submit their name by Friday night.

If you're going to be shopping for Seniors, the trees should be up and ready on the 14th for you to get cards.

Details and link to submit names here:

Beginning October 1, the community can begin submitting the name of a Grundy senior age 60+ who can use some Christmas cheer! Please click here to submit a senior name 2025 schedule: October 1 - begin name submissions November 7 - deadline for submissions November 14 - names on trees…

11/06/2025

Another fun (?) yet necessary grant - new AEDs for Saratoga School District 60C!

The old AEDs were no longer able to be serviced.

We hope they are never needed, but it brings comfort to know they are available!

11/01/2025

One of our impact grant focus areas is non-school hour activities. Kids spend 1,500 hours/year in school and 4,700 hours/year with family (not including sleep), so providing non-school hour activities is important.

We've been funding this after-school activity at Morris Area Public Library for a few years now. The National Lights on After School annual event always coincides with downtown Morris Trick or Treat, so we partnered with the library to host youth-serving organizations in their parking lot during downtown Trick or Treat.

This is a way for youth-serving organizations without offices in downtown to introduce themselves to kids and parents, with the goal of getting signed up for non-school programs.

The library serves hot dogs rather than candy, which is a huge hit!

Volunteers ran the clicker Thursday evening - over 1,500 visitors!

10/29/2025

Thank you to the business community for participating in yesterday's 8th Grade Career Fair! As always, we are happy to partner with Grundy Area Vocational Center to give local students an opportunity to explore careers in and around Grundy County.

10/21/2025

We are once again sponsoring our essay contest to celebrate National Philanthropy Month!

Students are invited to submit essays. Winning authors get to choose a Grundy charity to receive a grant in their name.

Please use the online submission forms on our website.

Thank you and please share with 3-12th graders in Grundy County!

Grundy students, including home school, are invited to submit an essay in celebration of November's National Philanthropy Month. Students in grades 3-5 are asked to submit an essay of 100 words on the theme of "Things I like to do to be helpful to others." Students in grades 6-8 are…

10/20/2025

Happy National Estate Planning Week!

If you have a particular charity or cause that you love, please update your estate documents to leave a part of your estate to them!

Easy ways to do this:
• Beneficiaries: If you have insurance, annuities, and other accounts where you name beneficiaries, you can change the beneficiary to be your favorite charity;
• Last will & testament: Update your will to include your favorite charities; if you think you might out-live your money, you can name a percent rather than dollar amount;
• Charitable Gift Annuity: a charitable tool that pays an income to the donor during their lifetime, then the remaining money goes to the charity – ask us for an illustration!
• Create a fund at CFGC that you design that will be the recipient of your estate. This fund can focus on a particular issue that you care about – we’ll make grants from your fund on your behalf!
• By the way, IRA accounts are highly taxable to your heirs, so please consider leaving your IRA to charity and different assets to your children.

If you want to learn more about how to give and how the Community Foundation of Grundy County can assist, please visit our website at

Philanthropists Anyone can be a philanthropist - let us show you how It isn't about the size of your donation...it's about creating a strategy to use your assets to meet your charitable goals Thinking about starting a donor-designed Fund? Click here to complete a "New Fund" questionnaire Already hav...

10/20/2025

This grant is especially fun!

Give you. Give rhythm. .

Illinois Valley Industries

Community Foundation of Grundy County’s Julie Buck stopped by our WCSJ studio to provide the latest foundation updates and events of local interest to listeners.

10/15/2025

Teaser: I'll be announcing an incredibly fun grant on Friday morning with Kevin - tune in from wherever you are in the world!

Friday, October 17th, at 9:10 am Central time!

Listen to our station on your computer or mobile device!

10/15/2025