The Whidbey Community Foundation honored its 2022 grant awardees at a reception earlier this month. The foundation has given around $300,000 in grants to 45 Whidbey Island organizations between the end of 2021 and November of this year.

The money for the grants came from the foundation fund, its essential needs program fund, its holiday sculpture fund and its donor-advised funds.

Grant winners included prominent pillars in the Whidbey community, including Big Brothers Big Sisters of Island County, Coupeville Historic Waterfront Association, Friends of Ebey’s National Historic Reserve, Good Cheer, North Whidbey Help House, the Orca Network, South Whidbey Tilth, WAIF, the Whidbey Camano Land Trust and many others.

Island organizations that received grants from the foundation covered a broad range of missions, from historical and environmental preservation and animal welfare to food and housing accessibility to promotion of the arts and access to information, among other essential community services.

The Whidbey Community Foundation was established six years ago and has granted nearly $1.5 million to local nonprofits to date.