SUMMIT FOUNDATION
Where the giving goes, and who decides
The Summit Foundation is funded by the credit union and by member donations. It gives to organizations working on housing, food, and money skills in the counties we serve.
This year in giving
What went out the door
Every dollar granted is reported to members. Administration is covered by the credit union, not by the grant pool.
$2.4M
Granted this year
148
Organizations funded
92
Student scholarships
11,200
Employee volunteer hours
The Summit Foundation is a separate charitable entity supported by Summit Federal Credit Union. Grants are not deposits and are not insured by NCUA. This is a demonstration website; figures and programs shown are illustrative only.
Grant categories
Three things we fund, and one we do not
Narrow beats broad. A small foundation that funds everything funds nothing well.
Housing stability
Emergency rent and utility assistance, eviction defense clinics, and repair grants that keep older homeowners in place. Grants in this category range from $5,000 to $75,000 and made up 41% of what the foundation gave this year.
Money skills and schools
Classroom personal finance programs, teacher stipends, and scholarships for graduating seniors in our service area. Scholarships are $5,000 each and are judged on an essay and a counselor reference, not on grade point average alone.
Food access
Food banks, school weekend meal programs, and mobile pantries that reach rural parts of the service area. The foundation also funds cold storage and delivery vans, which are unglamorous and chronically underfunded.
The foundation does not fund political campaigns, individual fundraising pages, religious instruction, or organizations outside the counties Summit serves. It also does not fund an organization in the same category two years running unless the grant panel votes unanimously.
Nominate a cause
How a nomination becomes a grant
Any Summit member can nominate an organization. You do not need a connection to it.
Send the nomination
Tell us the organization's name, what it does, and why it matters where you live. Two paragraphs is plenty. Nominations open twice a year, in February and in August.
We verify the organization
Foundation staff confirm charitable status, check that the work happens in our service area, and request the most recent financial statement. This takes about three weeks.
The grant panel reviews
A panel of five, including two board directors and two frontline employees, scores each request on need, reach, and whether the money changes an outcome rather than covering overhead.
Funds go out and results come back
Approved grants are paid within 30 days. Recipients report back after twelve months with what the money did, and those reports are summarized for members.
Funded this year
Four grants, and what they paid for
Specific projects rather than general support, because specific projects can be measured.
$75,000 to a countywide eviction defense clinic
Paid for two staff attorneys for a year. The clinic represented 340 households facing eviction and kept 71% of them housed. Summit employees also staffed the intake desk on Saturdays.
$120,000 for a refrigerated food bank truck
One vehicle, replacing a 19-year-old van that failed inspection twice. The truck runs four rural routes a week and moved 218,000 pounds of produce in its first nine months.
$460,000 in scholarships to 92 students
Awarded at $5,000 each to graduating seniors across the service area. Thirty-one of the recipients were the first in their family to attend college, and the award can be used for trade programs as well.
$88,000 for personal finance in 24 classrooms
Covered curriculum licensing and a stipend for teachers who ran the semester-long course outside their normal load. Roughly 1,900 students took the class, and Summit staff taught 40 guest sessions.
Know an organization that should be on this list?
Nominations take about ten minutes and members send in most of the good ones.