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The Jesse and Juanita Grimes Fund for Humanitarian Services
The Cape Cod Foundation
261 Whites Path, Unit 2 | South Yarmouth 02664

The Jesse and Juanita Grimes Fund for Humanitarian Services

To support health and human services on Cape Cod.

1997

$530,538

Permanent Endowment.  Follows spending policy set and approved annually by Foundation’s Board of Directors

$344,957

$13,264,131. Total from all Health & Human Services Funds from 2019-2023.

FUND BACKGROUND
In 1997, we received a bequest from Jesse Grimes. Six years earlier, Mr. Grimes and his wife, Juanita, entrusted Foundation leaders to establish a named permanent endowment fund upon their deaths. Their goal was simple: to enable the Foundation to “sponsor and support humanitarian services” for Cape residents in perpetuity.

FOUNDATION STRATEGY
Health and Human Services is a very broad umbrella and a very important area of community life. The Grimes family gave the Foundation very broad guidelines for grantmaking, ensuring we have had the flexibility to support a wide range of basic needs. Over the past five years, nearly half of the Foundation’s total annual distributions fall within this critical category. The percentage is extremely high because of the additional resources we raised and distributed during the pandemic. Because the Grimes family gave the Foundation very broad guidelines for grantmaking, they ensured we have had the flexibility to support a wide range of needs during ordinary and extraordinary times.

In our 2023 report, Connecting Cape Cod, we detailed many of the nonprofits we have supported with operational, programmatic, and capacity-building support to expand impact in recent years. We’ve made large investments in community health centers supporting vulnerable populations, established The Breast Cancer Reconstructive Surgery Fund, and supported organizations working to support mental and health and substance use disorders, such as Wellstrong, Gosnold Behavioral Health, Alzheimer’s Family Support Center, The Samaritans on Cape Cod and the Islands, and The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Cape Cod & The Islands. These organizations, and our featured grant recipient, were literally lifelines to many people during the pandemic.

RECENT GRANTMAKING
Community Connections, $25,000+
Communication Connections (CCI) provides life-enriching services to people with disabilities. The organization opened its first programs in Fall River and on Cape Cod 39 years ago to serve adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities and autism spectrum disorder. Over the years, CCI has grown to eight programs, including day habilitation, life skills, employment services, supported living services, social recreation, individual support, and transportation. These services promote optimal independence for more than 800 clients annually and impact thousands of lives in our community. CCI received a $25,000 Targeted Capacity Building Grant from the Foundation in 2022 and other funding, which supported client transportation and the Explorers Program, a social and recreational program to help with isolation.

SIDEBAR: SEAT AT THE TABLE
Two of the Foundation’s employees serve on the Barnstable County Human Services Advisory Council and Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce Childcare Task Force: Caitlin Buckley, Capacity Building and Strategic Partnerships Officer and Jeanne Ruckert Lovy, Program Officer. Having a seat at the table allows us to participate in strategic community leadership and stay current on community needs and opportunities for impactful grantmaking.

All figures updated 2.13.24

Building Flexible Resources to Support All Aspects of Community Life

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