Graham Jaehnig/Daily Mining Gazette The Keweenaw Community Foundation’s Youth Advisory Council (YAC) began the Kellogg Youth Endowment Spring grant applications on Wednesday.

HANCOCK — The Keweenaw Community Foundation’s Youth Advisory Council began the process of reviewing Kellogg Youth Endowment Fund’s Spring 2024 scholarship and grant applications during its March meeting Wednesday. The deadline for nonprofit organizations to submit applications was March 16.

Twenty-three applications were submitted, with requests for funding ranging from infant/toddler swing sets to daycare projects desiring equipment for special needs children.

In 1991, the Keweenaw Community Foundation for Houghton and Keweenaw counties established the Youth Advisory Council in response to a challenge from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. The Kellogg Foundation contributed $500,000 to the KCF to create an endowment to be managed for and by youth in Houghton and Keweenaw counties. YAC was established to identify needs, solicit grant proposals and make funding recommendations to the Foundation’s Board of Advisers. Thousands of dollars have been granted to local youth projects from the interest generated from the Kellogg Youth Endowment Fund. The purpose of the March 20 meeting was to begin reviewing the Spring cycle proposals to make recommendations to the KCF Board of Directors.

At last month’s meeting, YAC President, Alethea Oakley, a senior at Houghton High School, said $13,000 is available for the spring grant round.

During Wednesday’s meeting, the YAC Student Board discussed about half of the applications and will review and discuss the remaining applications at next week’s meeting.

The applications were presented to the students, which were identified and discussed. The name of the organization and the object of the fund request were mentioned. Then, each of the applications was discussed one at a time, including the grant amount requested, what the funding, if approved, and what the funding would be used for.

Each of the student members then discussed the potential benefits of each proposed project in comparison to the others. Because the Kellogg Youth Endowment funds during each cycle are not unlimited, the grants could be considered competitive, although there is, as a rule, no match required of the organization making the request. When discussing each of the requests in comparison to the others, the YAC Board may recommend full, partial or no funding for the project. While YAC members make recommendations, which influence final decisions, the final decisions are made by the Board of KCF.

The deadline for organizations to submit applications was March 16. YAC met to begin reviewing them four days later.

KCF Director Robin Meneguzzo, who was present at the meeting, said the review process will continue at next week’s meeting. When the reviews are complete, the next step will be final discussion and record YAC recommendations to forward to the KCF Board.

Grant awards and recipient notifications will be announced in mid-May.