Vermont Community Foundation Distributes $455,500 in Flood Relief Grants    

 The Vermont Community Foundation has distributed $455,500 in flood relief grants over the past month to respond to devastating flooding around the state this summer. The latest grants bring the total granted or allocated through the VT Flood Response & Recovery Fund since July of 2023 to $13.7 million.  

Thanks to generous donations, the most recent grants are helping communities shelter people displaced by floodwaters, clean up debris, and meet basic needs for food and clothing. Grants are also helping farmers plant cover crops in damaged fields, replace equipment, and repair farm roads that were gouged by torrents of water. The money is supporting local long-term recovery offices where people can seek assistance with a range of needs, from filing for state and federal aid, to connecting with volunteers who can help with rebuilding and mucking out.

The Community Foundation’s VT Flood Response & Recovery Fund, created after catastrophic flooding in July 2023, has been reinvigorated to help the state put itself back together after the new rounds of flooding this summer. Since July 11 of this year, $842,715 has been donated to the fund to help hard-hit communities recover from flooding that in many cases has been recurring, adding to the need for aid and hope.

“It is only through the deep generosity of people who care about Vermont that we are able to bring hope and help to communities coping with this era of recurring flooding,” said Dan Smith, president & CEO of the Vermont Community Foundation. “We cannot overstate how important this assistance is right now, or how grateful we are to everyone who is helping the effort. Our regard for our neighbors is infrastructure that no flood can wash away.”  

With the fresh damage, the work of the fund is closely focused on immediate relief. Grants over the past month have gone out to the Vermont Chapter of the Red Cross, the towns of Plainfield, Lyndon, Barnet and Peacham, Barre Up, Capstone Community Action,  Rainbow Bridge, United Way of Addison County, Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity, Middlesex Community Fund, Northeast Kingdom Community Action, Hinesburg Community Resource Center, Intervale Center, Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont, Association of Africans Living in Vermont, Waterbury Good Neighbor Fund, Kingdom United Resilience and Recovery Effort, Vermont Rural Water Association, Locally Social Gives, Helping Other People Every Day, Center for an Agricultural Economy, Lamoille Area Recovery Network, Community Resilience for the Greater Waterbury Area and more.

Many partners have stepped up to help raise donations for the VT Flood Response & Recovery Fund this summer including Vermont Public, Spruce Peak, Sugarbush, Darn Tough, Stowe Jazz Fest, American Flatbread, Adagio Chocolates, WCAX-TV, and The Point Independent Radio. This generous effort adds to the contributions made through partners last year that continue to support flood recovery.

Since the creation of the VT Flood Response & Recovery Fund in 2023, more than $14 million has been donated from all over the country and all over Vermont.

In addition to immediate relief, the Community Foundation has also been deeply involved in the longer-term work of building flood resilience through a range of strategies and continues to support this work through the VT Flood Response & Recovery Fund.

The nonprofit Vermont Community Foundation has coordinated philanthropic responses to crises throughout its history. Its VT COVID-19 Fund put nearly $11 million to work in Vermont communities and the Foundation raised more than $4 million to rebuild communities after Tropical Storm Irene in 2011.

To give to the VT Flood Response & Recovery Fund go to vermontcf.org/givetofloodrelief