Blue River Community Foundation

Are you ready to go on a bear hunt in Shelby County? 🐻 The 'Goin' on a Bear Hunt' is a public art project that is a part of our Pride In Place Initiative. It is designed to highlight different parts of Shelby County. There are 7 bears in total—each painted by a different Indiana artist and placed across the county. All ages will enjoy them! 📸 Grab your friends, snap a pic, and try to find them all. All of the bears are outside and open to the public to view. Bear Locations: 📍Shelby Mills River Deck *behind the Porter Center (Shelbyville) 📍Meltzer Woods - Liberty Township Schoolhouse No. 2 (Shelbyville) 📍Blue River Memorial Park *behind the Cross Country Course (Shelbyville) 📍Morristown Community Park *near the basketball courts (Morristown) 📍Fairland Community Park (Fairland) 📍Geneva UMC (Flat Rock) 📍Flat Rock Community Park (Flat Rock) Online Map: https://lnkd.in/gE7HBzFA We thank MIBOR Realtor Association and Shelby County Tourism & Visitor's Bureau for their generous support toward this project.

If you live in Shelby County please take a few moments to complete this survey. This is not a questionnaire about the services of MHP but rather a way to gauge the overall health of our communities. MHP shares the results with their partners, like us, and the information helps guide all of our efforts in creating a healthier Shelby County.

Blue River Community Foundation (BRCF) is collecting donations to support flood relief efforts in Kerr County, Texas. Donations will be directed to the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country, which serves the affected areas. Donations will be used to support nonprofit organizations, first responders agencies, and local governments actively involved in response, relief, and recovery efforts, according to the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country's website. BRCF will collect donations to the Shelby County Disaster Relief Fund through July 31st and then forward all funds to the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country to aid in recovery efforts. To donate online through BRCF, click the following link: https://lnkd.in/gBgAsZ4C . Donations can also be mailed or dropped off at the BRCF office 54 W. Broadway St., Suite 1, Shelbyville, IN .

BRCF would like to recognize Julie Alvis for her 18 years of service at BRCF! Julie is the Scholarship and Communications Director at the Foundation. To recognize this milestone, Julie was given $100 to donate to a charitable purpose of her choice in Shelby County. She chose the BRCF Scholar Alumni Alliance Scholarship Fund. Julie shares: "With so many important causes in Shelby County to consider, the decision on where to direct this special $100 gift might seem difficult. But for me, the choice was clear. I’ve selected the BRCF Scholar Alumni Alliance Scholarship Fund. This fund is especially meaningful to me because it represents both the past and future of our scholarship program. Established by and for our outstanding scholarship recipients, the fund supports juniors or seniors in college who are working hard to complete their undergraduate degrees, which is often during some of the most challenging years of their academic journey. I have had the privilege of witnessing the determination, resilience, and commitment of these students. While the monetary award amount may not seem impactful, it is often exactly the encouragement they need, reminding them that someone believes in their ability to succeed. This form of reassurance is truly priceless."

*YOUR VOICE MATTERS* Blue River Community Foundation (BRCF) is starting the process of updating our strategic plan and we need your help and recommendations. We value your input to help guide BRCF's future direction. Your responses on the following survey will ensure the BRCF Board pursues an appropriate strategy. We appreciate your candid answers to assist our efforts as well as your time and opinions. Survey link: https://lnkd.in/gv5ktHrD *Survey responses are anonymous.

*YOUR VOICE MATTERS* Blue River Community Foundation (BRCF) is starting the process of updating our strategic plan and we need your help and recommendations. We value your input to help guide BRCF's future direction. Your responses on the following survey will ensure the BRCF Board pursues an appropriate strategy. We appreciate your candid answers to assist our efforts as well as your time and opinions. Survey link: https://lnkd.in/gv5ktHrD *Survey responses are anonymous.

Blue River Community Foundation joined the City of Shelbyville Indiana of Shelbyville - Government and Intend Indiana for a groundbreaking ceremony of the first of four new construction homes in Shelbyville as part of Intend’s Affordable HomeMatters initiative. The program is designed to provide affordable housing options for low-to-moderate-income families. Blue River Community Foundation is accelerating our impact in Shelby County by making our first investment to Intend Indiana through the newly established Impact Investing program. Impact Investing is an additional tool to help BRCF achieve measurable community impact along with financial returns that enable the Foundation to continue making investments in the communities of Shelby County. Although similar to our grantmaking program, Impact Investing varies from the distribution of grants as the Foundation intends for these investments to create a social impact in addition to a financial return. In recent years, BRCF has demonstrated its ability to identify and support impactful quality-of-life projects. Our leadership and financial contributions to the Blue River Trail Head, the warm-water pool at the Shelby County YMCA, the Julia and Nicholas Runnebohm Early Learning Center, the Wortman Family Civic Theatre, and upcoming Nonprofit Center are evidence of this. We are very proud to be an investor and partner in this project, alongside the City of Shelbyville, to help bridge the funding gap to provide affordable and attainable homeownership to local residents who otherwise might find it difficult to become homeowners.

We have some extremely exciting news to share! Blue River Community Foundation has received a grant of $5,000,000 from Lilly Endowment Inc. through the Community Leadership Implementation Grants component of the eighth phase of its Giving Indiana Funds for Tomorrow (GIFT VIII) initiative. This is one of 30 implementation grants being awarded through GIFT VIII, a statewide Lilly Endowment initiative designed to support the efforts of community foundations and their partners to strengthen quality of life for the people in the towns, cities, counties and regions they serve. With the grant, Blue River Community Foundation will develop a Nonprofit Center to serve Shelby County that will be nothing short of transformative for our neighbors and nonprofit organizations that serve the community. The nonprofit center will allow both collocation and collaboration of our local nonprofit organizations that have made it their mission to improve the well-being of our most vulnerable community members. The center will also provide a space for incubation, a centralized food pantry operation, and navigator services for case management. Healthy Shelby County will own and operate the new Nonprofit Center. This award is a testament to the incredible teamwork of BRCF, MHP, Healthy Shelby County and local government and the importance of cross-sector collaboration to build a stronger, more resilient community for everyone. The future site of the center was a generous donation from the Reed Family: Pamela DePrez, Garry Reed, Jeffrey Reed, and Bobbi Conner. We extend our gratitude to the family for playing a crucial role by giving the center a home. In 1990, Lilly Endowment launched the Giving Indiana Funds for Tomorrow (GIFT) initiative to help establish and further develop community foundations throughout Indiana. Lilly Endowment hoped that Indiana’s community foundations could enhance the quality of life in their communities by convening conversations among people of diverse ages, socioeconomic backgrounds, occupations, races and cultural traditions about their communities’ most compelling needs and opportunities as well as the best ways to address them. Read more: https://lnkd.in/gu66CK8i

In recognition of National Education Week, we're celebrating the diverse pathways students can take to achieve success! At BRCF, we’re all about supporting students on every career path! We are excited to collaborate with Blue River Career Programs to promote scholarships for those pursuing nontraditional fields. Check out our latest video featuring the Blue River Career Programs team, showcasing the exciting opportunities in fields like machine trades, welding, auto mechanics, computer science, and more. Whether you’re into robotics, agriculture, fire science, or health sciences, there’s a scholarship waiting for you! Don’t miss out on your chance to advance your education and career with these incredible opportunities. 👉 Apply today and take the next step toward your future! For details, visit blueriverfoundation.com and click on the scholarships tab.

Waiting in line at the polls? Then you have a few mintues to read through the November BRCF enewsletter! It's full of good news! In this issue we have: -Information about our annual Together We Give Campaign. This year's match opportunity is for the BRCF Scholar Alumni Alliance Scholarship. If you are a BRCF scholarship recipient, this is a great way to give back and double your donation! - Results of the 2024 Progress Grant cycle -Winter scholarship cycle information for students graduating in 2025 -A thank you to our Pillar Society members -Another fun, family public art project! -Serve Shelby Day details - 4 new funds established to support Shelby County Click here to read the full stories ➡️ https://lnkd.in/gAPW8mTp