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Bartlesville
Posted: Aug 25, 2025 9:32 AMUpdated: Aug 25, 2025 9:32 AM
Bartlesville Community Foundation Celebrate Together 2025
Tom Davis
The Bartlesville Community Foundation (BCF) is gearing up for their second annual Celebrate Together luncheon coming up September 16, at noon at the Bartlesville COmmunity Center
Appearing on COMMUNITY CONNECTION, Laura Jensen with BCF said, "We had an incredible 2024 year. So we're going to talk about all the things that we did in 2024. And then we will have two awards that we'll give away: the Community Catalyst Award and a Tell Your Story grant."
The Community Catalyst Award was actually created in memory of some of the BCF founders, Charlie and Corky Bowerman. Last year's first award was given to George Halkaitis. Jensen said that this year's winner will be announced likely next week on Facebook Live on the Bartlesville Community Foundation's Facebook page. She said, "We'll recognize them at the event with an award, give them some time to say some things in the microphone in front of the audience. And if you know them, I hope you'll buy a ticket and come celebrate them."
The Tell Your Story Grant is a $20,000 grant, $10,000 to the organization's endowment fund. And if they don't have one, BCF is happy to help them start one. $5,000 to their general operating and $5,000 toward a video that speaks to the value of endowment and an endowment process for that organization.
Laura said, "We started hearing feedback about how challenging it is to, one, raise those dollars, but how beneficial they are when they are raised. When you do have an endowment that supports some portion of the organization's operating budget. She added, "We recognize that this is how we're going to help organizations be aware, tell that story for themselves, and then build those resources for their organization."
Last year's awardee was the Journey Home. They will unveil their video at the event on September 16th.
Laura describes the Community Foundation as the philanthropic bank. "We are, like you would go into a financial institution like Arvest or Truity or any of the other wonderful banks or credit unions in town. When you walk into one of those institutions, you get a bit of a menu of account types that you can use to achieve a financial goal." She added, "We have different things like scholarship funds, agency endowment funds, and other grant type funds that help families, organizations, corporations achieve charitable goals for the community."
Laura reminded everyone that they have a grant cycle open. "If you're an organization seeking some grant dollars, we've got, I think, six grants open for application this year that'll close the first week of September."
Ticket information: https://bartlesvillecf.org/events/celebrate-together-luncheon/
Grant information: https://bartlesvillecf.org/grants/
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