The Bessie Minor Swift Foundation is accepting grant applications from Pitkin County and area nonprofits that promote literacy, reading and writing skills and programs in the languages, sciences and interdisciplinary areas.
The fund will consider applications for grants from $500 to $3,000. Applications will be accepted through Feb. 15 and recipients will be announced May 1.
The Bessie Minor Swift Foundation awards grants to organizations that provide direct service to help with the implementation or expansion of literacy programs for children who are below grade-level or experiencing difficulty reading, and also to develop reading and writing skills at all age levels. The foundation supports STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) and STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics), and occasionally supports programs for adults.
More than $530,000 in grants has been awarded since 2008. Last year, 36 organizations were awarded a total of $80,986.
The foundation prefers to consider grants for programs instead of grants strictly for purchase of technology. It also favors awarding grants to organizations that do not have access to large fundraising budgets and are local in nature. Grants are made only to nonprofit organizations certified as tax exempt.
The Bessie Minor Swift Foundation was formed by the owners and founder of Swift Communications, which owns and operates The Aspen Times and http://www.aspentimes.com.
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Bessie Minor Swift was mother of Philip Swift, the founder of Swift Communications. Bessie was born in Onaga, Kansas, on June 29, 1887. She was raised in Kansas City, Missouri, and then moved to Blackburn, Missouri, where she taught school in a one-room schoolhouse.
Phil Swift said the importance of education was reinforced throughout his upbringing not so much through statements or concrete expectations, but more through the example of his mother’s interest in English, reading, history and music.
For more information, go to bessieminorswift.org or send an email to grants@bessieminor swift.org.
