Masonry Foundation Board Grant Applications Set to Open

The Masonry Foundation Board has announced the grant requests for support and will open on June 15, 2020. They will remain open for one month and close on July 15, 2020. The Foundation Board will award grants for the 2020 period at the MCAA Mid-Year meeting the week of September 13th in French Lick, IN.  

Last year the Masonry Foundation gave out just over $47,000 in cash and also gave away in-kind contributions in excess of $12,000. 2019 was the first year the Masonry Foundation Board gave away grant funding. It was a little earlier than expected as the Foundation is still collecting funds for the first round of fundraising for the corpus. The goal for the Foundation is to be at 5 million in the corpus to close out the first round of fundraising.  

Mike Sutter, the Foundation President said the Board has a goal to give away anywhere between 2-4% of the corpus at the time grants are given out. The Foundation was having an excellent investment year until the recent Coronavirus hit. The final amount in the corpus will be determined at a later date and will be the basis for the dollars available.  

The Foundation will be looking for grants that are national in scope and focus but will have the greatest return for the masonry industry. To check out the types of programs funded in the past, go to the Masonry Foundation website masonryfoundation.org. The information on the grant process is on the site as well. It is very important for any submissions to follow and include all the required information requested for the grant to be considered.  

In addition to the website, you can check out the article in this issue on projects that were awarded grants in 2019. There is a short summary of each project and details on how much they received and reasons for the grant by the Board. In addition, if the Board had concerns about a grant it is expressed there as well. For more details on the process, feel free to call the MCAA office and ask to speak with Jeff.