News
May 18th, 2026
2026 Grant Cycle: What the Numbers Are Really Telling Us
This year’s “Empowering Resilient Communities to Thrive” grant cycle brought in 108 applications from organizations working across Tompkins County—and with them, one clear message: the need in our community is at a level we have not seen before.
The total amount requested exceeds what is available to invest. But more than a number, that gap tells a story about where we are right now. It tells us about families trying to keep up with rising costs. It tells us about organizations stretched thin but still showing up. It tells us about systems that are being asked to hold more and more complexity every day.
And if we think about what that looks like in real life, we think about a mother raising three young children, caring for her parents, navigating language barriers, managing limited income, and doing her best to keep everything together. Using services from Catholic Charities, Lifelong, GIAC, Family Reading Partnership, Healthy Food For All, Running to Places, Unity House, Southside Community Center, and many others. That family is not an exception. They are part of what is showing up in these applications.
They are the reason this work matters. This work is interconnected on purpose. One of the clearest things this grant cycle shows us is that community support is not siloed—and neither is need.
A family doesn’t just need one thing. They need food security, yes, but also connection, language access, educational support, mental health care, spaces for their children to belong, and pathways to stability. And what we see in this cycle is that no single organization meets all of those needs—but together, they hold pieces of the same ecosystem. That’s what makes this work powerful, and also why it has to be approached with care.
How we make decisions is different here
We don’t sit at a table in isolation and decide who gets funded and who doesn’t. Instead, we use a shared decision-making model that brings together the community voice. We sit in the same information, ask the same questions, and work through the same tensions together.
It’s intentional. It’s sometimes slower. And it asks more of all of us.
But what it produces is something different—decisions that are grounded in lived experience and real community context, not assumptions about what we think the community needs. This is what equity looks like in practice. Not just in values, but in process. We look forward to making final announcements in mid-June.