IRCF Awards Inaugural Grants from the Proven Programs Fund

In 2024, Indian River Community Foundation launched Giving Forward, a three-year, $50 million leadership initiative that encourages generous people in our community to make charitable gifts today that were originally planned as bequests in the future. This initiative was created to provide reliable, long-term funding to help sustain our community’s most proven charitable programs and to support promising practices that use innovation and collaboration to address gaps in services that would otherwise go unmet.

Giving Forward was set into motion in the spring of 2024 by a lead gift of $5 million from Dace and King Stubbs. One year later, Indian River County Healthy Start Coalition, the Mental Health Association, and Thrive (formerly Substance Awareness Center) were awarded the first distributions from the Community Foundation’s permanently endowed Proven Programs Fund. These grants of $25,000 each will be renewed in perpetuity as long as the organizations continue delivering meaningful results that prevent the most adverse outcomes associated with community needs. This index for good and the amount of dollars it distributes will grow over time and is intended to help support long-term financial sustainability. For good. Forever.