icf

The Idyllwild Community Fund Advisory Committee honored its 2016 grant recipients at its annual reception on Thursday, Sept. 29, at the Rainbow Inn.

A capacity audience was on hand to hear ICF officers discuss the fund’s mission and to honor the local nonprofits to which ICF awarded grants this year.

The Idyllwild Community Fund was started in 1995 by a local couple who sought to establish a fund that would benefit the community in perpetuity. Each year ICF awards interest income from the fund to nonprofits it has vetted through site visits to and presentations by grant applicants. The advisory committee’s primary mission is to grow the fund by raising money each year and to raise community awareness about ICF.

A highlight of this year’s reception was a special award and acknowledgement to Hubert Halkin for his longstanding financial assistance to ICF. Halkin dedicates all his advertising income from his Live Mail site to ICF. That assistance helps ICF fund the Idyllwild Youth Grantmakers afterschool program for Idyllwild Middle School students.

ICF board member Holly Guntermann chairs the Youth Grantmakers program and conducts the eight afterschool sessions that teach Middle School students about philanthropy and community service. At the end of their training sessions, students award up to $4,000 in grants to local nonprofits that have young people as part of their mission.

Representatives from a new philanthropic organization in town, the Palms to Pines Foundation’s Pink Prism Fund, presented more awards to grant recipients.