The Rotary Club of Cedar Rapids announced Kingdom Community Center as the winner of a $100,000 donation, as part of the club’s annual Grand Impact luncheon, held April 1 at the DoubleTree by Hilton Cedar Rapids Convention Complex.
According to a news release, the Cedar Rapids-based nonprofit received the funding after pitching as one of three nonprofit finalists to an audience of 50 area businesses, each of which pledged $2,000 toward the $100,000 award fund and voted for the event’s winner.
Kingdom Community Center was founded in 2019 to provide mentoring and support services to at-risk youth in Cedar Rapids’ Wellington Heights and Mound View neighborhoods. According to Founder and Board President Bart Woods, the organization will use the Grand Impact funding to purchase an extended passenger van to provide safer transportation to the middle and high school students it serves.
“This is unbelievable,” said Mr. Woods shortly after the check presentation. “You know, I own a business, and we know we need to do this or that to be successful. As a nonprofit, it’s a different world, where I’m relying on people’s donations to make it work. I believe in the mission, and we are changing lives and families, but getting the word out and getting people to open their pocketbooks to help us accomplish that is hard. This is just unbelievably helpful.”
The two other finalists presenting at this year’s event included Central Furniture Rescue and Mission of Hope. More than 30 applications to present at this year’s Grand Impact were received from leading human services nonprofits in the Cedar Rapids metro in February, according to the release.
“I’m so pleased that the Rotary Club of Cedar Rapids was able to make a $100,000 grand impact again this year,” said 2023-2024 Club President Joe Lock, in the release. “We intend to keep this going, and we look forward to doing it again next year.”
The Grand Impact concept was created in 2021 by five local business leaders: Lura McBride, of Van Meter; James Klein, of Cedar Rapids Bank & Trust; Beth Malicki, of KCRG-TV9; Jason Smith, of TrueNorth Companies; and David Sorg, of OPN Architects. The inaugural $100,000 award was given to Matthew 25 for its innovative corner store concept on Ellis Boulevard.
In 2022, the Rotary Club of Cedar Rapids—popularly known as Downtown Rotary—was asked to take over its management. The second edition of the event, held in 2023, awarded funding to Together We Achieve, which it used to build infrastructure and capacity at its food bank.
