Philanthropy starts early at the Quad Cities Community Foundation. The Community Foundation’s Teens for Tomorrow (T4T) program gives Quad Cities high schoolers the opportunity to experience the grantmaking process firsthand, awarding real dollars to local nonprofits. Today, the group announced the program’s largest total grant award ever—$15,500 to 10 area organizations working in domestic violence and abuse support, education, the environment, housing, and immigration support. “A lot of students come into T4T with just a broad idea of what philanthropy means,” said Kaleigh Trammell,... Read More

Growing up, Yuliana Marceleno Lopez never lost sight of the sacrifices her family had made to give her the opportunities she had. “I always felt a sense of pressure to be someone greater because I saw my parents struggle,” said Lopez, whose family came to Davenport from Guanajuato, Mexico. When Lopez decided to become a teacher, she knew the college search would be difficult. “It was especially hard for me to be a first-generation student,” she said, “and I went through the application and search process all alone.” But Lopez found that she had the support of her community when in 2021... Read More

Continuity matters. Just ask Hunt and Diane Harris, who recently moved from Moline to Naperville to be closer to their son and his family. As they settle into their new home, they’re making sure that their giving remains grounded in the Quad Cities, that generosity keeps thriving in their family, and that their legacy lives on after their lifetimes, too. How? By converting their two existing private foundations into a donor-advised fund at the Quad Cities Community Foundation. With the support of the Community Foundation staff, Hunt and Diane will be able to use the newly established Harris Family... Read More

Like many American children, Dean and Deb Mathias learned to ride bikes at an early age. Unlike most, however, the couple has cultivated that rite of passage into an enduring passion—one that has introduced them to lifelong friends, been shared with multiple family generations, taken them all over the globe, and guided them to give back to their community. Today, Deb and Dean are two of the biggest champions of bicycling and recreation in the Quad Cities. Deb is secretary of the Quad Cities Bicycle Club, while Dean sits on multiple local committees, advocating for projects that enhance the region’s... Read More

Milan residents who aspire to join the healthcare workforce have a new resource in their corner: the Grant W. and Virginia W. Brissman Scholarship for Nursing & Health Sciences. The permanently endowed scholarship, which will support Milan students attending Trinity College of Nursing and Health Sciences in Rock Island, is made possible by a $50,000 grant from the Grant W. Brissman and Virginia M. Brissman Foundation, a private foundation administered through the Quad Cities Community Foundation. The scholarship fund grant is just one of 15 grants totaling over $140,000 recently announced by... Read More

Local educators Julie Eisenband and Chris Strunk noticed a problem when it came to the representation of immigrant and refugee students in their classrooms. While these students were a strong presence in Eisenband’s courses at United Township High School in East Moline, one of the state’s most diverse high schools, they were few and far between in Strunk’s at Augustana College. The two teachers’ new scholarship fund, administered by the Quad Cities Community Foundation, aims to help local immigrant and refugee students bridge the gap to higher education by removing one of the key barriers... Read More

It’s the haunting month in the Quad-Cities, but there’s plenty of non-frightening, fun stuff going on in the area! And every month we scare up plenty of positive news in the Q-Cs. There are always a lot of great things happening in the Quad-Cities, and every month, we here at QuadCities.com, in partnership with our friends at KWQC-TV6’s “Paula Sands Live,” present to you an array of some of the best of them. We call this What’s The Good News? and it’s a way for you to keep up with some of the awesome people, events and things going on here in our community. So, what’s the good news... Read More

The Quad Cities Community Foundation today announced the recipients of a total of $566,000 through its Coordinated Field of Interest Grant program. Made possible by donors to the Community Foundation, this year’s program pools resources from 11 different Field of Interest Funds as well as the Quad Cities Community Impact Fund. The Coordinated Field of Interest Grant program represents one of the largest single grantmaking distributions made by the Community Foundation each year. Grants from the program cover a variety of specific focus areas, from basic needs and health to community development... Read More

Fall is falling into the Quad-Cities! The weather is getting crisper, the sweaters are coming out, the pumpkin spice is beginning to invade! And there’s plenty of positive news dropping like so many golden, orange and rust leaves. There’s always a lot of great things happening in the Quad-Cities, and every month, we here at QuadCities.com, in partnership with our friends at KWQC-TV6’s “Paula Sands Live,” present to you an array of some of the best of them. We call this What’s The Good News? and it’s a way for you to keep up with some of the awesome people, events and things going... Read More

After seven years leading the Quad Cities Community Foundation, President and CEO Sherry Ristau will step down from her position at the end of August to make way for further organizational—and regional—transformation. “I am deeply grateful for all the relationships and opportunities this community has provided me since arriving in the Quad-Cities,” Ristau said in a Thursday announcement. “With the board of directors, we have spent the last seven years in pursuit of a new mission to transform the region through the generosity of donors, and I believe wholeheartedly that we have moved the... Read More