- The Dickinson Area Community Foundation in North Dakota is getting assistance to meet the current and future requests of local nonprofit organizations and projects.
- A $25,000 grant from Marathon Petroleum’s Dickinson renewable fuels facility will help address immediate needs and grow a permanent endowment fund to provide long-term support.
- The foundation annually provides financial assistance to various causes, which have ranged from mental health and public education to food insecurity and youth mentoring.
Nonprofits in Dickinson, North Dakota, are getting help for the present and the future through a recent grant from Marathon Petroleum Corporation’s (MPC) Dickinson renewable fuels facility. Most of the $25,000 grant to the Dickinson component of the North Dakota Community Foundation (NDCF) will go into the local component’s permanent endowment fund that remains in place to aid area nonprofit organizations and projects over time.
“About a third of the money will address immediate community needs and the other two-thirds will go into the community endowment fund, which is intended to serve as a permanent source of financial assistance well into the future,” said MPC Lead Human Resources Business Partner DeEll Jordre.
The NDCF administers charitable funds for 69 affiliated local foundations across the state, including the Dickinson Area Community Foundation. This allows each local foundation’s volunteer advisory committee to focus on fundraising efforts and assessing potential recipients of foundation grants through an annual application process. Jordre is part of the Dickinson foundation’s eight-member advisory committee.
“With an increase in population and activity in our region, the Dickinson foundation committee has seen grant requests that are four to five times the dollar amount of available funds in the past few years,” said NDCF’s Western North Dakota Development Director John Heinen. “Partnerships like the one with Marathon are essential for the foundation to grow and be able to meet annual requests to serve the marginalized and improve the community in the long term.”
In just the past three years, the Dickinson Area Community Foundation has awarded close to $65,000 to a variety of causes and organizations. Among the beneficiaries have been the Best Friends Mentoring Program, which matches adult role models with youth; Association to Meet Emergency Needs, a food pantry; BIO Girls, a preventive mental wellness program for adolescent girls; and the Dickinson Public School District.
MPC’s grant to the foundation was its first, however Jordre indicated this effort has already inspired discussions about possibly doing more.
“Some of our employees have a longer-range vision to convert a current employee engagement event into a wider community event to raise money for the foundation,” she said. “MPC strives to make lasting impacts on the communities we serve, and that’s exactly what we can do by partnering with the foundation.”
