Highland Village awards annual nonprofit grants

Highland Village City Council awarded nearly $50,000 worth of grants to several local nonprofit organizations at their Nov. 9 meeting.

Each year, the city designates 0.25% of the Maintenance & Operations budget, excluding capital projects or purchasing funds, to give back to nonprofits, according to city documents. In the 2021-2022 Fiscal Year budget, the city had $49,250 to give out in grants to nonprofit organizations.

The city had requests for funding from 17 different nonprofits from Highland Village, Lewisville, Flower Mound and Denton County. Funding requests ranged from $1,500-$5,000, with the total requested funds coming out to $61,800, according to city documents.

Because the requests exceeded available funds, some organizations, like PediPlace and Friends of the Flower Mound Public Library, received a portion of their request. Other organizations, like Denton County Friends of the Family and Christian Community Action (CCA), received the full amount requested.

In the city council’s early workshop session, Mayor Charlotte Wilcox presented a preliminary breakdown of funding, and then worked with the council to finalize it. Wilcox said she looked at a few different factors when deciding how much to award each organization.

“I looked at what we’ve given in the past, what they were requesting and then just went down the list.” Wilcox said.

The mayor also said she factored in how the organizations serviced Highland Village, citing the Lewisville Education Foundation as an example of an organization that directly impacts Highland Village teachers and students.