At our October 21 meeting, the Kiwanis Club of Coeur d’Alene welcomed Emma Hoagland, Community Engagement Associate for North Idaho with the Idaho Community Foundation (ICF). Emma shared how the Foundation connects generous donors with nonprofit organizations, helping build stronger communities throughout Idaho.

Emma brings considerable experience in the nonprofit sector to her position. Earlier in her career, she worked with Safe Passage in North Idaho, supporting survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. She subsequently held positions in public health and grant administration before joining the Idaho Community Foundation in November 2025. Her background gives her a valuable perspective on the challenges facing nonprofit organizations and the importance of community partnerships.

What Is the Idaho Community Foundation?

The Idaho Community Foundation is a statewide charitable organization dedicated to improving lives and strengthening communities by connecting donors with causes they care about.

Headquartered in Boise, the Foundation maintains a regional presence throughout Idaho, including North Idaho, to ensure that charitable giving responds to the unique needs of local communities.

Emma described the Foundation as functioning somewhat like a charitable bank. Individuals, families, businesses, and organizations contribute funds, which the Foundation manages and invests. Depending on the type of fund established, grants are then distributed to charitable organizations according to donors’ wishes or identified community needs.

Many of these funds are established as permanent endowments, allowing charitable gifts to continue supporting worthwhile causes for generations. Other funds provide more immediate support for community needs.

The Foundation offers several ways for donors to make a difference, including donor-advised funds, designated charitable funds, scholarships, nonprofit agency funds, and regional community funds.

Importantly, donors who wish to support North Idaho can direct their charitable contributions to benefit organizations right here in our region.

Forever Idaho: Supporting Local Nonprofits

One of the Foundation’s signature initiatives is its Forever Idaho Grant Program, which provides financial support to nonprofit organizations addressing a broad range of community needs.

The program is particularly valuable because its grants generally provide unrestricted funding. This gives recipient organizations the flexibility to use the money where it will have the greatest impact, whether that means supporting ongoing operations, purchasing equipment, expanding programs, or responding to emerging needs.

Emma shared some impressive results from the North Idaho region:

• $315,000 distributed during the 2026 grant cycle
• 40 nonprofit organizations receiving grants
• Individual awards generally ranging from $2,000 to $10,000
• Approximately $1.2 million distributed over the past four years

These grants support organizations working in education, health and wellness, housing, community services, the arts, and other areas that improve quality of life throughout North Idaho.

The Foundation relies on regional councils composed of local community members who understand the needs of their communities and help recommend where grant funding can make the greatest difference.

A Familiar Connection: Specialized Needs Recreation

One of the organizations benefiting from the Foundation’s charitable work is Specialized Needs Recreation (SNR), an organization with particularly close ties to our Kiwanis Club.

SNR provides recreational and social opportunities for individuals with special needs, promoting personal growth, independence, and meaningful community connections.

The Idaho Community Foundation and its local affiliate, the Greater Coeur d’Alene Community Foundation, have supported SNR’s mission. Most recently, the local foundation helped facilitate charitable contributions totaling more than $18,500 toward SNR’s Building Belonging Campaign and its planned facility at Cherry Hill Park.

Our Kiwanis Club has long valued its relationship with SNR and the opportunities it provides for individuals of all abilities to participate fully in community life.

Seeing another organization invest in SNR’s future reinforces the importance of collaboration among community service organizations, charitable foundations, and local donors.

Idaho Gives: Four Days of Statewide Generosity

Emma also introduced Idaho Gives, an annual statewide fundraising event organized by the Idaho Community Foundation.

Idaho Gives brings together nonprofit organizations, businesses, and individual donors for four days of online giving. Through the Idaho Gives website, donors can discover Idaho nonprofits, learn about their missions, and make contributions directly to the organizations they wish to support.

The event does more than raise money. It increases public awareness of the nonprofit organizations serving Idaho communities and helps those organizations connect with new supporters.

The results demonstrate the generosity of Idaho residents.

During Idaho Gives 2026, North Idaho donors contributed $776,603 to 112 nonprofit organizations, with participation from more than 3,000 donors. That represented an increase of more than $317,000 over the previous year.

The next Idaho Gives event is scheduled for May 3-6, 2027.

Community members interested in supporting local charitable organizations can learn more at www.idahogives.org.

Looking Ahead: Opportunities for Collaboration

The presentation was particularly relevant to our Kiwanis Club because our mission of improving the lives of children and strengthening communities aligns closely with the work of the Idaho Community Foundation.

While the specific opportunities for collaboration remain to be explored, there are clear areas of common interest, including youth development, education, community service, and support for local nonprofit organizations.

Whether through charitable grants, joint initiatives, or simply connecting organizations with shared goals, there may be opportunities for our club and the Foundation to work together to accomplish even more for our community.

We sincerely thank Emma Hoagland for joining us and sharing the important work of the Idaho Community Foundation. We look forward to continuing the conversation and exploring opportunities to work together in service to North Idaho.

Photograph: (left to right) Kim Cummings, Emma Hoagland, Matt Palmer

At our Kiwanis meeting today, we welcomed Jessica Gross from Relatives as Parents (RAP), an organization our club has been proud to partner with for many years.

RAP serves families in which relatives step in to care for children when their parents are unable to do so. In many cases, grandparents suddenly find themselves raising grandchildren at a time in life when they never expected to be parenting again. The emotional and financial challenges can be significant.

RAP serves Idaho Region 1, with a particular focus on Kootenai County. Jessica shared that 234 families are currently actively involved with RAP, in addition to other families who continue to receive occasional support. Jessica joined RAP in 2008 and has helped more than 3,000 families since then.

RAP provides financial assistance, caregiver training, clothing, food and other necessities. Just as importantly, its monthly family support meetings give caregivers an opportunity to meet others facing similar circumstances, exchange experiences and know that they aren’t navigating these challenges alone.

Many of the caregivers RAP serves are seniors living on Social Security or disability income. The increasing cost of living in Kootenai County has made an already difficult financial situation even more challenging.

Jessica explained that many kinship families are outside the formal state foster-care system. As a result, caregivers may receive substantially less financial assistance than licensed foster families. Idaho is currently developing a statewide Kinship Care Plan that is expected to be presented to policymakers during the 2027 legislative session. The effort is examining ways to better support grandparents and other relatives who are raising children outside the formal foster-care system, including the financial and other support available to these families.

The children themselves often arrive in their relatives’ homes after experiencing significant trauma. RAP works with organizations such as Head Start to connect families with additional resources and services they may need.

One thing that makes RAP especially remarkable is its extremely lean operation: the organization has no office and no paid staff, helping ensure that donations go as directly as possible toward assisting families.

Our Kiwanis Club has been fortunate to support RAP in several ways. RAP was one of the recipients of the 213 hygiene kits our club assembled this summer, and last Christmas our club adopted a RAP family. Two of RAP’s biggest annual efforts are its Thanksgiving program, which provides turkeys and food gift cards to families, and its Christmas Adopt-a-Family program.

Jessica’s presentation was a great reminder of how much grandparents and other relatives quietly do when children in their families need a safe and stable home—and how organizations like Relatives as Parents can make an enormous difference for those families.

Thank you, Jessica, for joining us and for the work RAP continues to do for children and caregivers throughout our community.

Photograph: (left to right) Linda Mayers, Alice DeShazer, Jessica Gross, Jim DeShazer

Nancy Phillips, Director of Lake City Center, joined the Kiwanis Club of Coeur d’Alene as our guest speaker on September 16, sharing how the Center supports seniors and others throughout our community.

Lake City Center has been an important Kiwanis community partner for many years. Every Wednesday, Kiwanis volunteers deliver Meals on Wheels for the Center, with Kiwanian Michelle Gonzalez coordinating our club’s Meals on Wheels volunteers.

The Center provides free meals every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, including delivery to seniors who are unable to drive or otherwise unable to reliably obtain food for themselves. All of Lake City Center’s services are provided free to its clients.

But nutrition is only part of its mission. Nancy explained that social isolation can be a serious issue for seniors, and Lake City Center offers numerous opportunities to help people remain active and connected. Programs include group meals, line dancing, tai chi and chair yoga. The Center is also beginning technology classes for seniors, including instruction on recognizing and avoiding fraud and scams.

Beginning in October, new fiber arts programs will include crocheting and spinning wheel activities. For many participants, Lake City Center has become much more than a place to attend a class or enjoy a meal—it is an encouraging community and, for some, a second home.

Nancy also shared how a recent grant from the Kiwanis Club of Coeur d’Alene helped Lake City Center purchase a new three-door refrigerator. The refrigerator is being used to store milk for the Center’s nutrition programs, making it a very tangible example of how our club’s community grants support local organizations and the people they serve.

Lake City Center also provides nutritional support for children and others in need and coordinates with assisted living and rehabilitation facilities and other service providers.

The Center will be offering a Thanksgiving meal this year and welcomes volunteers who would like to help.

Thank you, Nancy, for visiting our club—and thank you to Lake City Center for the many ways you help nourish, connect and support people in our community.

Photograph: (left to right) Nancy Phillips, Michelle Gonzalez

At our August 19, 2026 meeting, our guest speaker was Katelyn Mateo, founder of The Ripple Reset Foundation, a new organization dedicated to helping individuals and families rebuild their lives following trauma and significant hardship.

Katelyn shared that Ripple Reset grew directly out of her own life experiences. Over a period of years, she faced a series of difficult circumstances and major life disruptions, including health issues and the loss of her home to a fire. Those experiences taught her that after a crisis, people often need more than advice or short-term assistance — they need help restoring stability and rebuilding their lives. Her presentation summed up the organization’s philosophy simply: “We don’t just want to help people survive hardship. We want to help restore what hardship took from them.”

Interestingly, the idea of restoration also connects with Katelyn’s professional background. Years ago, she started a business detailing and restoring cars and boats. Through that work and her own experiences, she began to recognize a parallel: just as something damaged or neglected can be restored, people going through difficult seasons can benefit from the opportunity for a fresh start.

Ripple Reset’s goal is to provide practical, direct assistance to people experiencing significant hardship. Rather than simply providing money, the organization looks at what will actually help a person or family regain stability. That might include needed household items, transportation, emergency assistance, or connecting people with other resources such as financial advisors and counselors.

Katelyn emphasized the impact that hardship can have on children. When a family is struggling, children often experience the consequences even though they had nothing to do with creating the situation. Helping a parent regain stability or removing one major obstacle for a family can therefore have an impact that extends well beyond the immediate need — potentially changing the trajectory of a child’s life.

That idea is behind the organization’s name. One act of kindness or assistance can create a positive ripple effect: helping one person strengthens a family, which can strengthen children and ultimately the broader community. As Katelyn explained, people who experience a community showing up for them may someday become the people who show up for someone else.

The Ripple Reset Foundation has applied for 501(c)(3) nonprofit status and is working to build its network of community resources and partnerships.

We thank Katelyn for sharing both her personal story and her vision for turning difficult experiences into an opportunity to help others.

Photograph: (left to right) Jeannie Nugent, Katelyn Mateo, Jill Jurvelin