Site visits spotlight needs

Stepping up for action is what we do

At a recent site visit, a grant seeker asked WIN members if they had a favorite WIN grant. WIN has made 16 grants since 2011-2012, and at any given moment, any one of them could have felt like a favorite. Perhaps the grants from the first year, or the first year you were involved, are a little more memorable individually, but they are all meaningful.

Whether you are a founding WIN member or one of the 26 new members this past year — and we were thrilled to have both in our site visits — you have seen the lessons we are offered at every stage of WIN’s process, from letters of inquiry to voting on grant recipients. Site visits are especially educational and often inspirational.

We learn about the needs of our state and the people who step up to address them. Nebraska does not have the benefit of tourist magnets like oceans or mountains or oil and other resources that generate other states’ income.

But we have Nebraskans, and Nebraskans step up and get things done.

That’s what WIN does, too. With 179 members eligible to vote on the grants starting Aug. 1, we’ll soon start working with the 2019-2020 grant recipients for an October announcement and virtual celebration of two grants of $82,500 each.

Then the grant recipients will be ready to step up and get more things done.

Read about the four finalists to be on the ballot in the article below, and watch your email for voting instructions. WIN voting will be from Aug. 1 to Aug. 10 this year. It is abbreviated because we extended the proposal period due to the pandemic quarantine.

I look forward to the next step in our process and the lessons we will learn from the 2019-2020 grant recipients.

Thank you, for stepping up for WIN.

Candy Henning
WIN Chair