How Thrive! is funded

When I speak about Thrive! in the community, one of the first questions I’m asked is how our program is funded. Thrive! is an independent non-profit organization. Like most non-profits, we operate on a combination of donations (both financial and in-kind) and grant funding.  

• Thrive! has a lean budget. We have three part-time staff who work the equivalent of 40 hours a week among the three of us. We have professional costs such as program insurance and financial services that comprise about 20% of our budget.  
• Generous donations from the First United Methodist Church allow us to avoid paying rent for an office or meeting space. Much of the food for our weekly meals is donated by civic and church groups, most notably St. Thomas More Catholic Church, the Pilot Club, and Faith Evangelical Free Church.  
• We have grant funding from the City of Manhattan through both their Social Services Advisory Board and Special Alcohol Fund. Konza United Way provides us with a yearly grant. We obtain grant funding from foundations such as the Great Plains Conference of the Methodist Church and the Greater Manhattan Community Foundation. In the past, the Caroline F. Peine Foundation and the Goldstein Foundation provided significant funding for our startup costs. 
• Our most unique grant comes from a pilot project of the U.S. Department of Agriculture through the Department for Children and Families. The GOALS program operates with recipients of food assistance (SNAP or food stamps) to provide six months of intensive stabilization and employment assistance. Participants of GOALS are referred to Thrive! to become Leaders and obtain long-term community support. This pilot ends in January 2019, so like many grants, is not a long-term funding source for our program.

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Donations from local individuals and businesses make up about third of our budget. Your contribution is crucial for the ongoing operation of our program.

If you would like to contribute to Thrive! please send a check to 612 Poyntz Ave., Manhattan, KS 66502 or use our website (www.thriveflinthills.com) to contribute through PayPal on the Invest page. Every donation moves us one step closer to our goal of ending poverty in our community.

— Jayme Morris-Hardeman, executive director

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