The Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation Opens Flood Fund

Thursday June 19, 2008
GCRCF accepting donations for flood relief

Update from The Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation
Our foundation offices have relocated as a result of the flooding in downtown Cedar Rapids where our offices are located. Our foundation office received minimal damage but cannot resume onsite operations until the first floor level occupied by a bank can be cleaned and power is restored. The first floor of the bank was completely destroyed by the powerful and muddy flood waters.

The GCRCF has opened a Flood 2008 Fund to accept donations from individuals and businesses. Here is additional information on the fund. Visit our Web site at www.gcrcf.org for more details.

We extend a grateful thanks to the San Diego Foundation who has established an online giving site at www.sdfoundation.org to accept credit card donations for the Flood 2008 Fund while we get back on our feet and establish our own giving site. They've also been very generous with their staff in helping us with design and communications support. Their immediate guidance and reassurance just hours after the crest of the river was unbelievable. The Baton Rouge Community Foundation and the New Orleans Community Foundation also offered their support and best practices in their response to Hurricane Katrina.

To date, more than 25,000 residents have been displaced from their homes in Linn County, Iowa, as a result of the devastating June floods. Residents of nearly 4,000 homes in Linn County, Iowa, suffered significant damage or were completely destroyed. The flood took family heirlooms, photos and personal treasures and left behind a muddy muck that covers everything it has touched. The massive clean up and rebuilding efforts are underway and many community needs exist and will emerge in the coming weeks, months and years. Iowans are united in the recovery but need your help.

Nonprofits in our community are responding to the relief and recovery effort in extraordinary ways. More than 50 nonprofit organizations were directly damaged or destroyed by the flood waters but in spite of this, these organizations continue to serve and help our community.

YOU can help make a difference! Make a donation today to The Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation's Flood 2008 Fund. One-hundred percent of money donated will go directly to Linn County, Iowa nonprofits that are helping individuals and families recover and rebuild.

About the Flood 2008 Fund
The Flood 2008 Fund of The Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation is for flood relief and recovery donations. One-hundred percent of financial donations to the fund will support nonprofit organizations in Linn County, Iowa, who are providing first-response efforts and ongoing recovery and rebuilding support throughout the Cedar Rapids-metro area and surrounding communities.

The Flood 2008 Fund will work through nonprofit organizations to provide basic assistance to individuals and families as they reestablish stable living after the June 2008 flood and look to a brighter future in our community.

The Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation will work with organizations that we have a current relationship with and have proven themselves strong administrators of grant funds. The Flood 2008 Fund will be coordinated with other funders and basic service providers to target needs unmet by other sources.

Donate online with your credit card at www.gcrcf.org starting Friday, June 20
or send your financial gift by check today to:
Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation
200 First St SW
Cedar Rapids, IA 52404
Please note in the memo "Flood 2008 Fund"

To donate gifts of stock or discuss corporate donations, please contact Bud Synhorst, vice president of resource development at 402.450.5106 or bud.synhorst@gmail.com.

About The Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation

The Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation is a charitable nonprofit organization that works to strengthen and promote philanthropy in the Greater Cedar Rapids area. We also serve as a community leader that brings people and organizations together to create positive change.

Community Foundations connect philanthropists with the needs of the community by providing a service for giving that allows them to give back in variety of ways - outright gifts, donor advised funds, scholarships, memorials and honors.

In 2007, The Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation awarded $4.3 million to 246 Linn County nonprofits - uniting the generosity of our donors with the needs of the community.

Since becoming a public foundation in 1992, The Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation has distributed more than $32 million in grants.

For more information, visit www.gcrcf.org or call us at 319.366.2862. Our mailing address is: 200 First St SW, Cedar Rapids, IA 52402.

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