Congratulations to the Sioux Empire CC! Coalition! It received a donation of $23,900 in 2002, the first installment in a three-year $70,000 grant. A Sioux Falls Area Community Foundation (SFACF) donor family presented the funds to launch C.A.R.E., the Community And Resource Expansion program. The grant also expands the use of CC! in middle school sessions, adds to the district’s video resource library, underwrites the cost of training staff for the Pursuing Victory With Honor program and for CC! assemblies, and helps publicize American Character Youth Awards.

This match evolved from a meeting SFACF hosted for a donor family nearly a year ago. It focused on establishing grantmaking criteria for the family. “By the end of the meeting,” says SFACF program officer Marsha Englert, “I knew that the family’s charitable goals and values meshed with CHARACTER COUNTS!. The benefit to the community increases exponentially when when one can link a generous donor to a good program."