Columbia Basin Foundation raises $126,000 for local grants to boost non-profits, small business

EPHRATA — Columbia Basin Foundation, or CBF, is making $126,000 available in grants to non-profits — including chambers of commerce — to help boost small businesses during the closures associated with the COVID-19 outbreak.

According to Corinne Isaak, foundation executive director, the organization is also going to help small businesses by buying whole-page advertisements on behalf of small businesses in newspapers.

“This is to create some excitement in the business community and get ready to get back on our feet,” she said.

The foundation supports food banks, community services organizations, youth services, senior services, mental health and first responders in Grant, Adams and part of Lincoln counties, as well as overseeing a number of college scholarships.

Isaak said the foundation typically does not support local businesses, but it can support non-profit chambers of commerce and can buy advertising on behalf of businesses.

The foundation is accepting applications for the up to $2,000 “ReCOVIDery” grants through May 15, Isaak said.

Moses Lake Chamber of Commerce President Debbie Doran-Martinez said the chamber has already received a $2,000 grant from the CBF.

“We will use it to help our small businesses get up and running again when things get opened up,” she said.

The grants were funded with donations from Microsoft, Grant County Public Utility District, the Perigee Fund (which specializes in prenatal and early childhood mental health), Grant County Industrial Alliance, and Columbia Basin Foundation itself.

Isaak said even in the middle of the COVID-19 crisis, the foundation is also evaluating 910 applications for CBF’s 54 scholarships for college and trade school.