The Distribution Committee of the Cuno Foundation held its recent meeting at the Beat the Street Community Center and awarded $88,000 in grants to non-profit organizations in and around Meriden. Grant recipients include The American Cancer Society for Relay For Life of Meriden-Wallingford; Franciscan Life Center for their summer camp; Meriden YMCA for the 2021 Summer Youth Employment Program; Summer Campership for Meriden and Wallingford for the 2021 camping program. Other recipients included Child Guidance Clinic for Central CT; Comunidad Hispana de Wallingford; Girls Inc.; GUS Robotics Team, Inc.; Kitonic Post 72 American Legion; Meriden Little League; Restore The Arts; and The Hometown Foundation. The largest grant was made to Arts and Crafts Assn. of Meriden dba Gallery 53 for roof repair at their Colony Street location. The Distribution Committee also voted to renew 29 scholarships in amounts ranging from $4,000 to $5,000 for students that graduated from high school going back to 2018. Thirteen high school seniors from the class of 2021 received $65,000 in scholarships that will be renewed for four years.
The Cuno Foundation is again accepting grant applications for public, charitable or educational purposes. Grants are usually made for specific, tangible items or capital expense requests that directly benefit the recipient. The Cuno Foundation does not grant funds for salaries. Applications are reviewed three times a year. The next deadline date to submit an application is September 15, 2021. Awards will be announced in October. As a general rule, organizations are not awarded more than one grant per calendar year. Preference is given to proposals submitted by tax-exempt, not for profit organizations located in the Meriden area.
Non-profit organizations seeking to submit a grant for consideration should visit www.cunofoundation.org/grants where they can create an account and submit their grant application via the website. An agency can also create an account for the online grants system at any time outside of the application cycle. Questions regarding the application process can be directed to Trudy Cotton at cunofoundation@gmail.com.