Non-Profit Spotlight: Horizon Funds
We are excited to feature Horizon Funds as a Non-Profit Spotlight. Nancy Grayson, President, explains the organization’s mission and how it serves the community.
Mission
Creative problem solving on behalf of nonprofits and small businesses.
When did the organization start and by whom?
Horizon Community Funds was formed and launched in 2017 with the guidance of longtime Northern Kentucky leaders Bill Butler, Will Ziegler, Bob Zapp, Chuck Scheper and others who sought a proactive focus on building philanthropy in Northern Kentucky.
What makes your organization stand out among others?
Horizon Community Funds is deeply committed to Northern Kentucky. Our main focus for funding and building philanthropy is in Boone, Campbell, and Kenton counties. The relationships of our leadership team and our board are embedded throughout these communities, which allows us to have genuine, impactful conversations about the needs of these communities.
What are the greatest needs of the organization?
Who do you assist? Why?
We primarily assist nonprofits serving Boone, Campbell, and Kenton counties, as these counties are our focus for most of our flexible grant funds.
How can people get involved with the organization?
We are a younger community foundation, yet we have quickly become deeply rooted in Northern Kentucky. This has enabled us to activate our community in myriad ways.
Aside from engaging our community through traditional outreach for donations and fund partnerships, we have introduced more involved philanthropy through giving circles. Giving circles bring like-minded people together as a group to combine their donations as one lump sum to a nonprofit selected by members.
We launched two giving circles Give Where You Live NKY and The 410, in 2019 with great success.
Give Where You Live NKY is a joint initiative presented by Horizon Community Funds of Northern Kentucky and Mueller Financial, Inc., and its format lends itself to busy community members who are looking for an easy way to give back to nonprofits that serve Boone, Campbell, and Kenton counties.
The giving circle runs on a tight, yet informal schedule at each meeting. Participating members nominate a nonprofit of their choice, and three names are randomly selected and briefly discussed by the group. The members then vote on their favorite of the three organizations, and each member contributes $100 for the grant to the winning organization. All takes place in under an hour, just four times per year.
In 2019, the more than 60 members of Give Where You Live NKY granted $25,000 to five nonprofits that serve Boone, Campbell, and Kenton counties: The Bill & Betsy Scheben Care Center in Florence, The Gateway Foundation for their free child care center for students in Erlanger, Dolly Parton Imagination Library in Covington, Lucky Tales Animal Rescue in Ft. Thomas, and Northern Kentucky Children’s Advocacy Center in Florence.
We also created The 410 to celebrate the one number that ties us together across zip codes as Northern Kentuckians: 410.
The 410 connects the new generation of civic and charitable leadership in Northern Kentucky. Pooled with your fellow 410 members, your commitment of $410 creates a powerful grant-making engine for Northern Kentucky nonprofits and civic projects. For its first year in 2019, the more than 30 members were able to pool their $410 commitments together to present a check of more than $13,000 to Southbank Partners for a new mural project they will soon launch to commemorate the City of Newport’s 225th anniversary.
We also know how important it is to show our community that everyone has a gift to give, and that their gift has immeasurable value. Our volunteer leadership initiative, the Horizon Community Accelerator, launched in 2018 with a group of approximately 40 passionate citizens from across Northern Kentucky.
If you’re interested in joining us for one or both of these exciting, impactful giving circles or the thought leadership in the Horizon Community Accelerator, reach out to Tess Brown at [email protected].
Anything else you would like to include.
Horizon Community Funds is dedicated to building philanthropy at all levels in Northern Kentucky. Whether you’re just getting started in your journey of giving back to your community, looking to plan your family’s wealth with an eye on charitable giving, planning your business’ financial transition, or are just otherwise interested in committing yourself to Northern Kentucky, reach out to Horizon Community Funds. Our doors and our phone lines are open. President Nancy Grayson can be reached at [email protected] or by phone at 859.757.1552 (office) or 859.468.4665 (mobile).
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