By Haylee Pence
PIQUA – The Piqua Community Foundation recently hosted the first annual Pitch Piqua contest and event. The foundation disbursed more than $68,000 in grants and donations to the three finalists in early March.
“As for the foundation, leaders are continuing to support this year’s finalist organizations while also soliciting applications for the next round of Pitch Piqua,” Michelle Perry, executive director of the Piqua Community Foundation, stated.
Pitch Piqua is for nonprofit organizations to bring their ideas on how to enhance the Piqua community. With the second annual contest approaching, organizations who are interested in competing to receive a $50,000 grant can submit an application to the Piqua Community Foundation.
The application involves a narrative describing the community’s need and the project idea to resolve the need. The deadline for application submission is July 28, 2022 by midnight. Applications can be submitted to [email protected] and must be Microsoft Word or PDF with a two-page limit.
The project requirements include the project impacting Piqua residents through an organization, sustainability costs, and readiness to launch following the grant award. The judging criteria for the application is 30% impact on Piqua residents with 20% each for evidence of a demonstrated community need, readiness for launch, sustainability of the project, and 10% for the quality of the presentation.
The nonprofit organizations must be willing to attend the meeting dates that are available in the project application materials. During those meetings, the organization’s representatives should be participating in the meetings and training activities, including the executive director of the organization even if they are not presenting the project. The organization’s project will be tracked and publicized through the Piqua Community Foundation. The organization must provide the 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status and sign an agreement if selected as a finalist.
Semi-finalists will be selected and interviewed on Aug. 31 and finalists will be selected in early September. From October 2022 to March 2023, the finalists will be expected to attend trainings and meetings in collaboration with Piqua Community Foundation and guest lecturers to prepare and enhance their proposals. This leads up to the public Pitch Piqua Event on March 2, 2023 where the three finalist organizations will present their proposed ideas to the community and a panel of judges.
All submitted organizations are required to keep project ideas and proposals within the organizations to publicly unveil each project.
“Pitch Piqua is an ultra-local grant competition that promotes local philanthropy and supports our community’s nonprofit sector!” said Perry.
