Story Category: Impact Stories

BGCF Celebrates $150 Million in Total Grantmaking

Blue Grass Community Foundation is celebrating a tremendous milestone: awarding over $150 million in grants and scholarships since our founding in 1967! BGCF was established when C.W. and Irene Sulier invited several Central Kentucky philanthropists to join them in establishing a public foundation to encourage charitable giving and to… Read More

It All Started With Three Sheets of Paper

By Scotty Patrick, Magoffin County Community Foundation chair   I grew up in Magoffin County and learned a lot in my early years there. My teachers taught us the three Rs and the importance of respecting each other. My education extended beyond the classroom as I realized how those around… Read More

LBPI Supports Breonna Taylor Legacy Project

The Lexington Black Prosperity Initiative at Blue Grass Community Foundation granted $2,500 to support the educational and community programming component of a mural commissioned by the Kentucky Black Writers Collaborative at the Carnegie Center for Literacy & Learning. The artwork, “The Weeping Wall,” will be created by artist Kiptoo… Read More

Lexington Black Prosperity Initiative Grant Provides Prosperity Backpacks

In the summer of 2021, Believing In Forever Inc facilitated its Community On The Corners initiative where Devine Carama and JK-47 engaged in community pop-performances in underserved neighborhoods in Lexington. During these performances, volunteers from several local organizations distributed free food, bottled water, baby products, household cleaning items and children’s books,… Read More

3.14 Going Forward Fund: Full STEAM Ahead!

More than $110,000 has been awarded to Fayette County public middle and high school STEM-related projects benefitting girls and minority students, thanks to an anonymous donor who established the 3.14 Going Forward Fund at BGCF in 2018. With COVID-19 disrupting the 2019-20 school year, the original plans that Gary DeBorde,… Read More

Appalachia Rises Telethon to Raise Funds for Flood Relief

  With Kentucky’s Appalachian counties in distress following historic floods, nine organizations united to form a large-scale fundraising effort anchored by a telethon at 7 p.m. on Monday, March 8, to be broadcast by CBS affiliates WKYT in Lexington and WYMT in Hazard.   Soon after rainfall began… Read More

2020 GoodGiving Challenge Raises $2.39 million for Local Nonprofits

Tenth annual week-long online giving campaign raised a record-breaking amount of money for 126 nonprofits   The preliminary numbers are in for the GoodGiving Challenge, and they reveal that $2.39 million was raised for 126 local nonprofits during the record-breaking, week-long online giving campaign that launched on Giving Tuesday. Hosted… Read More

Making the Dream of College a Reality: MacLellan Scholarship

Baylee Oldham thought her dream of getting a college education would always be just that — a dream. “I could never have gone to college without the MacLellan Scholarship,” said Baylee Oldham, who graduated cum laude with a GPA of 3.7 from the University of Southern Indiana with a degree… Read More

Providing Diverse + Creative Solutions: Bilal ibn Rabah Scholarship

Hadeel Abdallah, a University of Kentucky Rhodes Scholar from Lexington, wanted to create a scholarship for students of diverse and underrepresented backgrounds. Working with UK Philanthropy, she created the Bilal ibn Rabah Scholarship, which rewards deserving UK students who have overcome adversity and want to fight for justice and equality. Read More