MOLINE, ILLINOIS (March 30, 2022) — The Hubbell-Waterman Foundation, now administered in partnership with the Quad Cities Community Foundation, today announced $1.2 million in new one-time and multi-year grants to 43 local nonprofits. Spanning the foundation’s three focus areas of education, social welfare, and culture and the arts, the grants advance the foundation’s vision of a growing, thriving, and compassionate Quad City community whose strengths are in education innovation, its quality of life, and its commitment to fostering economic opportunities.
“Through philanthropy, we can create the opportunity for people to improve and change their lives, whether it’s from an economic, health, or learning perspective,” said C. Dana Waterman III, one of the foundation’s trustees. “We are proud to support more than three dozen non-profits with this funding.”
The foundation’s largest grant this year will go to the Putnam Museum and Science Center in Davenport, a $140,000 commitment to help fund a transformational reimagining of the museum’s facilities and programs. “We have a long history of partnership with the Putnam, and we wanted to be a lead donor in their campaign initiative,” said Waterman.
In the area of social welfare, a $50,000 grant will support the implementation of the Zero Suicide initiative launched by the Quad Cities Behavioral Health Consortium in partnership with Vera French Community Mental Health Center and the Quad Cities Open Network. Created by the global Education Development Center, Zero Suicide helps improve suicide care in healthcare systems. “This is another area we’ve been involved in supporting,” said Waterman, “and we were pleased to have an opportunity to provide funding for this important initiative.”
Across its grantmaking, the Hubbell-Waterman Foundation funds both larger nonprofits and smaller programs, as well as established institutions and newer organizations. This year, in culture and the arts, it will provide $20,000 for general operating needs at the Quad Cities Symphony Orchestra, while a $50,000 challenge grant will help the newly opened Deanery School of Music with operational support. In addition, the foundation is providing $80,000 for grants to be made by Quad City Arts through its Arts Dollars program.
Established as a charitable trust in 1967, the Hubbell-Waterman Foundation’s grantmaking has grown in scale to almost $2 million annually in new and multi-year grants while its focus has sharpened on three areas of need in the Quad Cities. Since its founding, the foundation has awarded more than $35 million in grants.
In 2018, the foundation initiated a relationship with the Community Foundation for technological and administrative support, while continuing to make all grantmaking decisions among trustees.
“We have been thoughtfully transitioning more administrative services to the Community Foundation to be able to develop the institutional knowledge and memory necessary to support our ongoing programs,” said Waterman. “We need an organizational structure and affiliation that provide us with the continuity, stability, and sustainability that will enable the current trustees and our successors to continue to pursue the work of the foundation in the Quad Cities.”
“We’re so pleased to partner with the Hubbell-Waterman Foundation,” said Kelly Thompson, vice president of grantmaking and community initiatives at the Community Foundation. “Simply put, we can do more together—and that means philanthropy will continue to thrive and grow in our region.”
Learn more about this year’s grantees and the next grantmaking cycle on the Hubbell-Waterman Foundation’s new website.
The following nonprofits received grants from the Hubbell-Waterman Foundation:
* Indicates the first installment of a multi-year commitment.
Culture and the Arts
- Ballet Quad Cities — $25,000
- Figge Art Museum — $55,000
- Mississippi Valley Blues Society — $5,000
- Quad City Arts — $80,000
- Quad City Symphony Orchestra — $20,000
- Quad Cities Community Broadcasting Group Inc — $15,000
- River Music Experience — $20,000*
- SBC Outreach Music & Arts Academy — $5,000
- The Deanery School of Music — 50,000
Education
- Fresh Films — $9,000
- Girl Scouts of Eastern Iowa and Western Illinois — $30,000
- Hope At The Brick House Inc — $10,000
- Junior Achievement of the Heartland — $18,000
- Junior Theater — $8,000
- Putnam Museum and Science Center — $140,000*
- Spring Forward Learning Center — $30,000*
- WQPT Quad Cities PBS-WIU Foundation — $50,000
- YMCA of the Iowa Mississippi Valley — $25,000
Social Welfare
- Argrow's House — $23,940
- Boys & Girls Clubs of the Mississippi Valley — $20,000
- Cafe on Vine — $6,000
- Child Abuse Council — $20,000
- Family Resources Inc — $40,000*
- Grow Quad Cities Fund-Iowa — 10,000
- Hand in Hand — $41,000
- Heart of Hope Community Outreach Ministries — $20,000*
- LivWell Cares — $6,000
- NAMI Greater Mississippi Valley — $30,000
- Narratives QC — $10,000
- One Eighty — $15,500
- Project Renewal of Davenport — $8,500*
- Q2030 — $40,000*
- Quad Cities Open Network (SEAP) — $25,000*
- Quad Cities Open Network (Zero Suicide) — $50,000*
- River Bend Food Bank (capital campaign) — $20,000*
- River Bend Food Bank — $60,000
- Safer Foundation — $25,000*
- School Health Link — $10,000
- Tapestry Farms — $10,000
- The Martin Luther King Center — $30,000
- Unity House — $8,000
- Vera French Foundation — $75,000
- Youth Service Bureau of Rock Island — $15,000
In addition to these new grants, the Hubbell-Waterman Foundation also paid out over $750,000 in multi-year grants awarded in 2020 and 2021.
