Foundation tries to make a difference throughout the Bluegrass
September 24, 2015
By Cheyenne Abrams
C.W. and Irene Sulier founded the Blue Grass Community Foundation in 1967, and have been using it as a way to help some of the poorest parts of Kentucky for decades.
According to Laurie Preston, BGCF’s manager of community philanthropy, the organization specializes in making a difference in giving funds to central and eastern Kentucky — with a passion to help families, individuals, communities and non-profit organizations.
“It’s an organization for people who really want to make a difference in their community,” Preston said. For example, the Knight Cities Challenge is another program BGCF offers. The program helps fund innovators who want to give something back to the community through improving city blocks to entire metropolitan areas.
Innovators submit an idea to better the future of their city, then submit the idea in hopes on winning $5 million to execute their idea.
“We also offer numerous scholarships for people in the community, anyone from high school students to graduate students are eligible,” Preston said. “Anyone can set up their own scholarship, control the requirements and who receives what grant.”
The Kitchen-Challis Scholarship provides $2,000 annually to a graduating senior from Harrison County High School in Cynthiana, Ky. who wants to major in science, math, engineering, pre-med, business or education. The Jennifer Leigh Soper Scholarship gives $500 to a student with cystic fibrosis.
Preston said BGCF looks for anyone who can donate their time to help out the organization. BGCF has $75 million in assets, which they give out though a number of different events. One event is the Good Giving Guide Challenge, which raises more than $1.7 million for central and eastern Kentucky.
Preston said the challenge allows anybody to champion a cause they feel passionate about. According to the website, goodgiving.net, the initiative helps people connect to nonprofits and leaders in their communities.
The website said “to date 370 Kentucky nonprofits committed to transparency, accountability and best practices.” Last year BGCF had over 4,600 people from Kentucky and other places around the world participate in the event. The challenge begins Nov. 13 and ends Dec. 31 this year.
