Charity of Excellence Award

The Charity of Excellence award was created in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Washington County Community Foundation.

The Foundation will select 25 non-profit organizations as Charity of Excellence honorees, with each recipient receiving an unrestricted grant of at least $5,000. One of the 25 organizations will receive the top prize of a $25,000 unrestricted grant, and one will also receive the People’s Choice Award for $5,000. In total, $150,000 will be distributed through the WCCF's special grant cycle.

Eligible non-profits must:

• Be recognized by the Internal Revenue Service as a non-profit and file a Federal Form 990
• Provide at least one charitable program in Washington County
• Have operated for at least five years

The Foundation will evaluate applicants on four criteria: quality and variety of programming; community impact as gauged by the number of people served relative to the operating budget; volunteer engagement; and the organization’s financial improvement over the last five years.

The 25 winners will be announced in June. At this time, each honoree will have a web page featuring its testimonial on the WCCF Charity Storybook website. The recipients of the top Charity of Excellence award and the People’s Choice Award will be revealed at the WCCF Silver Anniversary Banquet in November.

All applications must be received by March 1.

The grants are made possible by the Alvin and Carol Berthold Fund. Lifelong residents of McDonald, the Bertholds were longtime supporters of the WCCF. Their fund, valued at more than $5 million, is the largest discretionary grant-making fund of the WCCF.