The number of local nonprofits that received grants from the College Park Community Foundation increased by half this year.

In 2014, the organization awarded $4,007 to six nonprofits. This year, the foundation granted $6,450 to nine groups that serve the College Park community, said Tricia Homer, the foundation’s board chairwoman.

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The foundation awards up to $1,000 to charitable groups that positively impact College Park, Homer said, considering several guidelines and priorities, including sustainability, accountability, education, quality of life and community building.

Homer attributed this year’s success to the foundation’s community fundraisers and networking.

“People are getting to know us; we’ve made a strategic effort to get in front of people and to have one-on-one meetings with nonprofits in the area,” Homer said. “It’s like a snowball — we started small and just keep rolling and rolling. We have a good variety of events to target a lot of different people.”

This year’s grant recipients include the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, the College Park Aviation Museum and the César Chávez Elementary School Parent Teacher Organization.

College Park Grants

The foundation supported a number of projects that will enhance youth education within the community, said Cheryl Molinatto, a foundation board member and chairwoman of its Grants Review Committee.

“Many of the grant recipient organizations run on volunteers, so they need an additional funding,” Molinatto said. “These [organizations] are a great benefit to encourage capacity building towards making College Park a better place to live and increasing quality of life.”

Mayor-elect Patrick Wojahn, a District 1 councilman, is on the foundation’s board of directors but said he was not very involved with this year’s grant allocations because of his mayoral campaign. Despite this, Wojahn said he “supports the mission and the work of the foundation.”

“It’s projects like [these] really help bring the community together and help identify College Park as a community,” Wojahn said. “The amount of grant funding we do has increased every year; I hope to see it grow and thrive in the future.”

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The foundation’s board is a mix of College Park residents, including some University of Maryland staff and alumni, Homer said.

“The idea’s to get residents and other members of the community to support worthwhile things that better the community and that require charitable contributions,” Wojahn said. “A lot of people have put a lot of work into this, into forming the foundation since we hashed out the idea. It’s been a real community effort, and I’m really excited about where it’s gone.”

The foundation will be celebrating its grant recipients Dec. 5 at its annual awards gala, Homer said. The gala, which costs $50 to attend, is the foundation’s largest fundraiser of the year and supports the foundation’s grant-making, she said.

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This university donated several items to the gala’s silent auction last year, including a gift card to Mulligan’s Grill and Pub and a golf package for the university golf course.

“We like to provide this as a networking opportunity,” Molinatto said. “It’s a great place for individuals within the nonprofit community to interact with one another as we celebrate our grant recipients.”