The Greenbelt Community Foundation (GCF) was established to help worthwhile projects in Greenbelt. Since its founding, it has reinvested over $150,000 into 50 projects in the community. Projects include helping organizations such as the Greenbelt Farmers Market, the Lady Angels Basketball team, Our Ladies of Chariy Food Bank, and many more. Their vision is “for a thriving, engaged community that is socially responsible, environmentally conscious and supports education, the arts and sciences.” Their vision is achieved by providing support to local community organizations around Greenbelt- through financial assistance and providing other resources.
The GCF provides grants for community organizations twice a year and its fall deadline for applying is October 15, 2016. Its spring deadline is April 15, 2016. The GCF also provides non-monetary resources throughout the year to help organizations reach their goals. On their website, you can find diverse resources. One tool is their proposal writing guidelines; it is designed to help organizations with the grant application process. The GCF also provides a list of meeting venues in Greenbelt. This can be particularly helpful if an organization does not have a central headquarter that they can readily meet at. An updated press list is also available on the GCF website as well and this can help organizations easily reach out to the press to publicize their upcoming events and doings around the Greenbelt community.
The newest resource that the GCF is excited to share with the community is a video teaching organizations how to use Facebook to market an event. Users can watch the video and follow along on their Facebook page in order to make an effective Facebook event that will encourage the public to attend. During the early phases of the “Explore Your Greenbelt” campaign, the GCF noticed many of their partner organizations were not on Facebook engaging with their audience. As a response, the GCF thought it would help organizations get over the technology barrier by making a step-by-step video on how to make a Facebook event but more importantly– how to market it.
The GCF has been actively working on engaging with the community and has seen success through increased “likes” on Facebook. Throughout their “Explore Your Greenbelt” campaign, they have found success through their Trivia Tuesdays. Every Tuesday, the GCF will post a photograph of a place somewhere in Greenbelt and users have a week to guess where the photograph was taken. The GCF wants to encourage other community organizations to engage with their Facebook following in order to garner support for their mission.
Sponsored by Paradyme Management, Beltway Plaza, and Greenbelt News Review, the Explore Your Greenbelt campaign is hosted by the Greenbelt Community Foundation to celebrate its 10th anniversary. This is series of 14 monthly events and activities that will feature organizations that have received GCF funding. All are invited to attend to learn about these organizations and how GCF lives out its mission of “nourishing all of Greenbelt’s Neighborhoods”.