Gifts to the Lawrence County Community Foundation’s endowment fund are invested, with earnings from those dollars returned to our communities through grants to nonprofits, schools and public organizations serving our neighbors.
With the support of our donors and in partnership with FAO, our grants fund projects and programs that advance opportunities across five areas, known as our Pillars of Prosperity: arts and culture, community and economic development, education, environmental stewardship, and health and human services. Emphasis is on supporting individuals of all ages who are spearheading projects and programs that create opportunities, meet pressing needs and unleash the potential within Lawrence County.
2025 grant application
Our 2025 grant application closed on Sept. 9.
A growing impact, year after year
More than $46,000 awarded in 2025!
In 2025, the Lawrence County Community Foundation, with the support of our donors and in partnership with the Foundation for Appalachian Ohio, awarded 11 grants, totaling $46,564, to support projects and programs benefiting our county’s residents and communities.
Grant Recipients
- Chesapeake High School to support a project through which art, engineering and Ohio history students will create and install large-scale artwork and banners in public spaces in the village
- Facing Hunger Foodbank to purchase food for Lawrence County food pantries
- Fairland Local School District to purchase recording equipment for the music department
- Friends of Ironton to install stage lighting at the renovated Ro-Na Theater
- Ironton City Schools to update the nonfiction book collection at Ironton High School’s library
- Ohio University Southern to support the creation of the Bobcat Boutique, which will provide students and other Lawrence County residents with access to free professional clothing for career opportunities
- Rotary Club of Ironton to support an Italian cultural exchange tour that will bring young performers to Lawrence County to share their music, dance and storytelling
- Rome Township to purchase benches and swings for the riverfront park
- Southern Wayne Advocacy Council to help launch the Lawrence County Youth Environmental Stewardship and Cleanup Initiative, which will educate and mobilize high school students to engage in clean-up efforts at riverfront and forest recreation sites
- Tri-State STEM + M Early College High School to create an outdoor classroom where students, families and community members can experience nature while learning about environmental stewardship
- Way To Battle to purchase 200 Battle Pups – stuffed animals wearing collars that read “No one battles alone,” which are distributed to individuals fighting illness or facing other trauma along with a kind note
- Chesapeake Band Boosters to purchase two wireless microphone systems and a wireless microphone with an earset for the Chesapeake High School “Peake of Performance” Marching Band
- Harvest for the Hungry Food Pantry to purchase food for distributions
- Kiwanis of Greater Ironton to upgrade the swing set and provide additional swings at the Open Door School in Coal Grove
- RLB Ministries to purchase food for Backpack Buddies, which operates through 19 schools in Lawrence County
- Third and Center to help fund a program coordinator and meal services at the Ironton Senior Center
- Young Life (Proctorville) to support the club, which provides space where young people can build relationships, develop leadership skills and grow personally and spiritually
- HomeTown Love of Chesapeake to support a beautification project that will include building a stone flower bed, installing lighting and placing flowerpots by the village’s welcome sign near the Sixth Street bridge
- inspiHER Girls Leadership Foundation to support the inspiHER Girls Leadership Retreat for Lawrence County fifth- through eighth-grade girls at South Point Middle School
- Ironton aLive to help purchase storage containers that will be painted with Appalachian-themed murals at the children’s splash park
- Tri-State STEM + M Early College High School received two grants: (1) to purchase new computers and (2) to support the development of a student-led musical that highlights the positive impact of the arts on mental health
- William C. Lambert Military Museum and Archive to support the creation of a new exhibit, “The Korean War: Soldiers Stories of Lawrence County”
- Impact Prevention to help fund a youth-led weekend conference in which high school-aged youth serve as mentors and educators for fifth- and sixth-grade students
- RLB Ministries to support its Backpack Buddies program, which works with 17 local schools to provide weekly meal bags, emergency food boxes, clothing, coats, shoes and hygiene items
- Ironton in Bloom to help with construction of a small park that will enhance downtown revitalization efforts and preserve a piece of the city’s cultural history
- Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church to help finance a historic structure report, the first step in restoring and renovating the church, Ohio’s first Black church and the only surviving antebellum Black church in the state
- New Hope United Methodist Church to support its annual back-to-school giveaway of backpacks and school supplies in three of the county’s school districts
- Third and Center to help support the expansion of its Ironton Riverfront Beautification Project to include an interactive arts experience
Explore other grant opportunities available through the Foundation for Appalachian Ohio.
