Posted on November 25, 2011

George Kaiser Family Foundation Awards $5.8 Million to Tulsa Nonprofits

The George Kaiser Family Foundation, a supporting organization of the Tulsa Community Foundation, has awarded grants totaling $5.8 million to more than eighty Tulsa-area social service agencies and nonprofits, with twenty organizations receiving matching challenge grants, the Tulsa World reports.

To help address pressing social service needs in the area, the foundation awarded $1.2 million to organizations working on issues related to substance abuse, mental health, and crisis intervention. Those grants include $549,000 to Family and Children's Services for mental health and crisis intervention services and $298,742 to the Incarcerated Women's Project Fund, a donor-advised fund at TCF, for intensive treatment programs for women at two area prisons.

Grants totaling $837,000 were awarded to organizations working to provide child and family welfare services, senior services, and youth development programs and training. They include $115,000 to Emergency Infant Services and $165,000 to Rebuilding Together Tulsa to fund home repairs in the Hawthorne and Kendall-Whittier neighborhoods.

The foundation also awarded grants totaling $2.5 million to organizations working to provide basic needs in the community, including a $150,000 grant and a $100,000 matching grant to the Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma to help address food insecurity in eastern Oklahoma and support the agency's Food for Kids backpack program, which provides low-income children with food they can take home over the weekends.

"Many individuals and families in our community are struggling to obtain basic needs like food and shelter, do not have access to health care, and are in need of other critical services," said Ken Levit, the foundation's executive director. "Organizations in Tulsa are working hard to help meet the needs of Tulsa's most vulnerable citizens. The foundation is pleased to present these 'Social Services Safety Net' year-end grants to assist organizations as they serve more individuals and families throughout our community."