El Dorado Springs Community Foundation promotes local vaccination efforts

The El Dorado Springs Community Foundation is championing local efforts to increase vaccinations for COVID-19. If Cedar County is among the top five counties in the region for increasing vaccinations, the El Dorado Springs Community Foundation could win up to $20,000 for its community grant making fund.

The Community Foundation of the Ozarks, in partnership with the Louis L. and Julia Dorothy Coover Charitable Foundation, managed by Commerce Trust Co., is offering $60,000 to its regional affiliate foundations for efforts to increase the COVID-19 vaccination rate in rural Missouri.

El Dorado Springs Community Foundation is one of the CFO’s 53 affiliate foundations eligible for the Coover Regional Vaccination Initiative. The eight-week challenge will provide one grant of $20,000 to the most successful participating affiliate and four $10,000 grants for the most successful program in each CFO region.

The El Dorado Springs Community Foundation promotes many local charitable programs in our area and these funds would become a part of our annual grant making program.

The eight-week challenge to increase vaccination rates will run through Monday, Sept. 20. The grants will be awarded based on the largest percentage vaccination rate increase among the participating counties’ total populations, based on the COVID-19 data tracker used by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CFO and the Coover Charitable Foundation have partnered for many years on grant programs targeted to improving the quality of life and education in rural Missouri.

“We share a strong commitment to Missouri’s future,” said Jill Reynolds, senior vice president at Commerce Trust. “We want to get this pandemic behind us and make our communities safe places for everyone who wants to live, work, visit and raise families. This challenge grant will be a win-win for the successful communities to reduce transmission of the virus and use unrestricted dollars for local priorities.”

The El Dorado Springs Community Foundation was founded in 2001. It currently holds $1,067,143.65 in assets in 21 different funds on behalf of donors and nonprofit partners within our community.