Last year, staff with the Good Samaritan Health Clinic were writing prescriptions and patient files entirely on paper rather than recording them electronically.
But thanks to a $5,000 grant awarded by the Lowndes Community Foundation last winter, the clinic now has a new electronic medical system up and running to more effectively help patients, Dr. William Rosenblatt, Rotarian and chairman of the clinic, said at Tuesday’s Rotary Club of Columbus meeting at Lion Hills Center.
“Simple things, small gifts like that, are big to small organizations like ours,” Rosenblatt said.
LCF, an affiliate of CREATE Foundation in Tupelo, is a charitable foundation that uses its endowment funds to provide grant funding for nonprofits and community organizations aiming to benefit Lowndes County.
Tyler Covington, co-chairman of LCF, said the foundation gave more than $38,000 last year in grants to seven local organizations, ranging from Cook Elementary School to Helping Hands of Columbus.
Speaking to Rotarians on Tuesday, Covington said the foundation on Sunday opened its grant application cycle for the year, which will run until Sept. 1. After parsing through applications, the foundation will award grants to organizations by Dec. 31.
“Our only requirements are that your project or organization serves specifically Lowndes County,” Covington said. “… And that you have a federal status as a 501(c)(3), or other institution like (Columbus) Air Force Base.”
Covington told The Dispatch the group is ready to give away even more in grants this year, especially after raising about $35,000 at the foundation’s first-ever fundraiser in July 2025 and receiving an additional $90,000 from misplaced Walmart stock in the foundation’s name earlier this year.
With those two sources of revenue added to existing funds, LCF’s endowment now sits at more than $600,000.
“It’s been awesome,” he said. “I feel like we’ve got more momentum than ever. More people are hearing about us. We’re getting more grant applications, and I just feel like that’s growing our endowment and getting more exposure in the community, (which) is really the way that we make these funds go the farthest in Lowndes County.”
The foundation typically gives 4% of its endowment away in grants each year, Covington said, reinvesting more than $276,000 since 2003.
Some of these projects have included FORGE’s Career Expo, a youth recreation center at Columbus Air Force Base and renovations at the YMCA, the foundation’s website said.
Covington hopes to see a large applicant pool of about 30 organizations this year because the group is always looking for ways to give away its money and benefit the county.
“We feel like the best kept secret in Lowndes County, because we’ve got this money that we need to put to work in the community,” Covington told The Dispatch. “… The more grant applications we have, the greater impact the endowment can make.”
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