The Ramona Community Foundation donated $40,000 in grants to nonprofits benefiting Ramona.
NOAH HARREL | THE SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE
JANUARY 3, 2024
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The Ramona Community Foundation has donated a total of $40,000 to support nonprofit programs that work directly in the community.
The selected programs include Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater San Diego, Friends of the Ramona Library, TrueCare, Ramona Senior Center, Trauma Intervention Programs of San Diego, ArtReach at Ramona Elementary, and Voices for Children.
Robert Krysak, chair of the Ramona Community Foundation, said that every year the foundation sends out a notice to all nonprofit organizations that want to participate and seek grant funding.
“We get applications from them and we do interviews and site visits,” Krysak said. “Then the board makes the decision on who to provide grants to.”
This is the 12th year of grantmaking and the RCF has granted more than $447,000 to over 100 nonprofit programs that serve the people in Ramona, Krysak said. Money to fund these grants are raised from each member of the foundation contributing about $1,000 a year.
Krysak remembered when he was first asked to join the program and asked why he would give to the Ramona Community Foundation when he could just give directly to the programs he wanted to support.
“The answer was the matching, it’s called the McLaughlin Grant,” Krysak said. “We’re affiliated with the San Diego Foundation and they match our funds every year so it gives us double the impact.”
This was made possible through the McLaughlin Grant, Krysak said, which was a donation of $15 million made to the San Diego Foundation specifically for the unincorporated areas of San Diego.
When it comes to who receives donations from the Ramona Community Foundation, Krysak said, it’s typically benefiting those benefiting the youth, elderly and services that support them. All of these are carefully chosen based on which has the potential of having the most impact in town.
“We bought two computers for the library (for the Friends of the Ramona Library), they’re for early learning programs,” Krysak said. “TIP (Trauma Intervention Program of San Diego) is a big one I like because when someone dies they come with the first responders to counsel the family and help them transition.”
Several have been consistently picked over the years like TrueCare, supporting its Health Equity Through Uncompensated Care program to ensure individuals and families in Ramona who are unable to afford the sliding fee can still receive care without the burden of cost, Trauma Intervention Program of San Diego and arts programs.
The Boys and Girls Club of San Diego received $5,000 to provide youth from underserved backgrounds with lessons in ecosystem exploration, finding and visiting your local park, and reuse/reduce/recycling strategies through the “The Ultimate Journey,” program. ArtReach at Ramona ElementarySchool will be using its $5,000 to provide workshops for K-6 students involving visual and performing arts.
This year the Ramona Senior Center received $10,000 for their nutrition program for those who may not be able to afford to feed themselves and Voices of Children received $5,000 to recruit, train, screen and supervise additional Court-Appointed Special Advocates (CASAs) who will serve Ramona’s children in the foster care system.
Those looking to join the Ramona Community Foundation are encouraged to give $1,000 a year, Krysak said, which can be paid over time throughout the year. Any amount can be given above or below the $1,000, he said, anything helps.
“We invite people to join us because the more we raise the more we can spend on the vulnerable portions of our population in Ramona,” Krysak said.
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