Making an Impact

Milestones for the Winona Community Foundation Community Grant Program In 2021, the Winona Community Foundation celebrates two major milestones for their competitive Community Grant Program. But before we share those milestones, let’s turn back to 1988, when the program began. THE START The Community Grant Program was started in 1988, one year after the Winona Community Foundation was created, in large part because of direct gift from C Paul and Irene G Venables Foundation. [...]

Click on the links below. Annual Report Webpage 2020 Annual Report PDF

Donor Advised Fund for Corporate Philanthropy Make a Donation Grow the Balance Support Charities From: Tedd and Tracy Morgan, Thern, Inc. Thern, Inc. has partnered with the Winona Community Foundation (WCF) for our philanthropic giving for more than five years now. We have always enjoyed the friendly and professional service provided by the WCF staff. Over the years we have realized the convenience [...]

John and Margaret Cross Memorial Fund of the Winona Community Foundation Benefits Homeless Day Shelter Kevin Cross and Carolyn Cross deMatta, co-fund advisors to the John and Margaret Cross Memorial Fund, directed a $21,000 grant to fund the Catholic Charities Drop-In Day Center. Cross and deMatta are the children of John and Margaret Cross and although neither live in Winona, they stay current on the needs in Winona through their relationship with the Winona [...]

What are you passionate about? How do you want to improve life in the Winona area? And could you use funding to support this effort or passion? The Winona Community Foundation has matching grant dollars to start a new Field of Interest Fund. What’s your interest? Nature? Animals? Children? During our Founders Event on October 6th, 2020, we celebrated JC Pfieffer as the 2020 recipient of its Founders Award. During this event, we [...]

An important part of the Winona Community Foundation’s mission is realized though awarding community grants to local non-profits to help meet the ever-changing needs of our community. By doing so, a variety of interests are supported with the goal of enhancing local charities’ impacts. The following is a list of the Foundation's General Fund grant recipients from 2020 and earlier. For more information on each grant, please visit our annual report archive. [...]

You want our community to thrive, and we want to be your partner. Since 1987, the Winona Community Foundation has served as a trusted partner and resource for a thriving community, touching thousands of lives across the region. When you invest in the Winona Community Foundation, you take on our community’s biggest challenges -- and biggest opportunities. You may or may not know and understand the work of our Foundation. A few examples of [...]

What are you passionate about? How do you want to improve life in the Winona area? And could you use funding to support this effort or passion? The Winona Community Foundation has matching grant dollars to start a new Field of Interest Fund. What’s your interest? Nature? Animals? Children? During our Founders Event on October 6th,  we celebrated JC Pfieffer as the 2020 recipient of its Founders Award. During this event, we thanked [...]

2020 Founders Award JC Pfeiffer: Planting a Seed “Everybody wins when they invest time, talent or treasure into their community.” – JC Pfeiffer For JC Pfeiffer, a simple phrase such as “planting a seed” has many meanings. On October 6, 2020, he was honored for all the seeds he planted in Winona as the Winona Community Foundation presented him with its 2020 Founders Award. This award is given to an individual in [...]

Cycle 2 Community Grant Results COVID-19 has changed many aspects of daily life. For local nonprofits, they have stayed focused on their missions and adapted to a different reality while trying to manage losses of income or increased demand for their services. In response to the global pandemic and its effects on local nonprofits in Winona, the Winona Community Foundation Board of Directors voted to suspend the normal community grant program and focus [...]

A Surprise Gift From a Person Known for her Giving Heart Introducing the Ramona L. Jezewski English Fund Ramona L. (Ladewig) Jezewski English lived a lifetime in the Winona area yet traveled widely, leaving her mark not only on people in Winona, but all around the world. Because of a gift designated in her will to the Winona Community Foundation, she will be giving back to Winona, and the people she loved, far beyond [...]

Stronger Together Led by the Laird Norton Family Foundation The Laird Norton enterprise and their partners raised over $1,000,000 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and distributed funds nationally to the Seattle Foundation, Pierce County Connected, Washington Food Fund, and the Winona Community Foundation COVID-19 Relief Fund. “We understand our values of community outreach and partnership are even more important during these times, and we will continue to do what we can in support [...]