BCF Invites Nonprofits to 2024 Grants Program Webinar

Bayou Community Foundation 2024 Nonprofit Grants Program Webinar Registration

This informational webinar is intended to guide potential applicants through the process of applying for BCF’s 2024 Nonprofit Grants Program Process. The webinar will cover topics such as program description and eligibility requirements, program guidelines and evaluation procedures, accessing and navigating the grant portal, and how the BCF 2023 Community Needs Assessment will be taken into consideration throughout this year’s grant’s process.

The live webinar will be held via Zoom on Wednesday, January 24 at 2:00 p.m. and all registered participants will be emailed the webinar link on Monday, January 22. Can’t make it? Don’t worry! The webinar will be recorded and sent out to all registered participants.

Register for BCF’s Nonprofit Grants Program Webinar HERE.


BCF’s 2024 Nonprofit Grants Program is OPEN

Bayou Community Foundation is now accepting initial grant requests through 5:00 p.m. CST on Friday, March 1, in the first phase of our 2023 Annual Competitive Grants Program.

Since 2013, BCF has awarded 274 annual grants totaling over $2.3 million to qualified nonprofits serving Lafourche, Terrebonne and Grand Isle as part of the Foundation’s annual competitive Grants Program. View a list of BCF competitive grant award recipients HERE.

In 2024, BCF’s Grants Program will continue to fund impactful nonprofit programs that fill critical unmet needs in our service area, with special consideration of needs identified in our 2023 Community Needs Assessment.

All grant requests must be submitted on BCF’s online grant portal.  We encourage you to read the full 2024 Nonprofit Grants Program Guidelines before applying.

Questions? Contact Community Impact Officer Kati Callais at (985) 219-0046 or Kati@BayouCF.org


Hunger Summit Addresses Food Insecurity

Bayou Community Foundation and Second Harvest Bring Local Nonprofits Together to Develop Partnerships to Feed Lafourche and Terrebonne Residents in Need

Over 30,000 men, women and children in Lafourche, Terrebonne and Grand Isle – an alarming 15 percent of residents – lack consistent access to affordable, nutritious food on a daily basis, and the number of local residents, especially children, battling food insecurity continues to grow with inflation and homelessness. This grim statistic, along with current and potential solutions to the local hunger crisis, was the focus of discussion at the Bayou Region Hunger Summit October 12, 2023, at the Larose Civic Center.

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Grant Helps Local Food Banks

October 13, 2022
As we continue to help our community recover from Hurricane Ida and address the escalating crisis of food insecurity, Bayou Community Foundation recently presented a $10,000 grant to Second Harvest Food Bank to help two local food bank partners provide more meat and fresh food to families in need in Lafourche, Terrebonne and Grand Isle.

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Generosity Fuels our Hurricane Recovery

August 29, 2022 / One Year after Hurricane Ida

by:  Jennifer Armand, Executive Director, Bayou Community Foundation

Hurricane Ida was a storm of traumatic destruction for our bayou community, but that is just the beginning of the story.

Here in Lafourche, Terrebonne and Grand Isle, Hurricane Ida is also a powerful story of unmatched generosity, compassion and resiliency, which continue to fuel our recovery one year later.  It is this story that makes me so unbelievably proud to call our precious coastal community home. It all began on August 29, 2021.

Tied with Hurricane Laura in 2020 as the strongest hurricane to hit Louisiana, Ida came ashore at Port Fourchon in southern Lafourche Parish at noon with crushing sustained winds of 150 mph. The historic storm collapsed homes and buildings, tore roofs and overturned boats and vehicles as she slowly cut her way through Grand Isle, Lafourche and Terrebonne, maintaining Category 4 strength for nine brutal hours.

As the sun rose on Monday, August 30, tens of thousands of our region’s 200,000 residents were homeless, water and power supplies were cut, and mangled debris was all that remained of many families’ homes and businesses. The pain and loss were tremendous. Recovery would be long, and it would be hard.

In the immediate aftermath, New Orleans garnered national attention, but the depth of destruction here was far worse. Ida was our storm, and our people were hurting. Bayou Community Foundation would share this message with the world.

It was the small, rural communities right here along our coast and our bayous, like Grand Isle, Golden Meadow, Larose, Montegut and Chauvin, that suffered some of the greatest losses from Ida’s direct landfall. Hundreds of local families lived in tents and cars along Bayou Lafourche, Bayou Dularge, Bayou Terrebonne and Grand Caillou for weeks on end, living day to day, battling hunger, exhaustion, heat, rain and grief. And yet, with all of this pain and suffering around us, our devastated communities quickly became cradles of generosity, compassion and resiliency that persevere through our recovery today.

The intense pain and loss over this past year has been overshadowed only by the selfless compassion of neighbor helping neighbor, and the explosive generosity of volunteers and donors here and around the country who shared their time, talent and treasure to care for the neediest among us.    The long road to rebuilding lives began the day after Ida left.

Generosity blossomed within local nonprofit organizations and their tireless volunteers who responded quickly to distribute food, water and critical supplies to hurricane survivors at churches and community centers up and down the bayous. Many volunteers with organizations like Bless Your Heart Nonprofit in Lafourche, and Hache Grant Association in Terrebonne had lost their own homes, but that didn’t stop them from working day and night to make sure that those who lost so much more had food, dry clothes and a warm shower. Despite significant damages, Live Oak Baptist Church in Montegut and Holy Family Catholic Church in Dulac set up food and supply banks inside their churches and prepared hot meals for those in need. On Grand Isle, the most impacted area of all, Our Lady of the Isle Catholic Church, Catholic Charities and Second Harvest Food Bank distributed food, supplies, hot meals and generators to residents as they returned to the island to pick up the pieces. Many more nonprofits like these would work for days, weeks and months throughout our area to feed and comfort our people.

Americans everywhere heard our plea for help, saw the unique needs of our devastated area, and responded generously with contributions to our Bayou Recovery Fund for Hurricane Ida Relief. Because of this generosity, Bayou Community Foundation has funded over $5 million in relief and recovery services provided by local nonprofits, including food, diapers and formula, clothing, emergency shelter, home repairs and rebuilds, and classroom supplies. Our work to secure funding and continue rebuilding continues today.

Generous volunteers have also come here from around the country to help our people rebuild their homes, their lives and our community. Over 400 Amish and Mennonite men and women from Pennsylvania and Ohio lived and worked in Dulac from January through June, building eight new homes for families like Paul and Lena Dion and repairing over 40 more with a grant from Bayou Community Foundation. Mennonite Disaster Service Storm Aid volunteers will return in October for another season of building, helping dozens more families come home.

At the dedication for their new home in May, Lena said with tears in her eyes, “We’ve worked so hard all our lives.  We can’t believe someone would do this for us.”  I can believe it, Lena.

We still face huge challenges. Thousands of residents still have no home to come home to, and others remain in campers as they wait patiently for help. The generosity, compassion and resiliency of our people here in Lafourche, Terrebonne and Grand Isle, however, is what makes our region so very special.  And with the help of so many generous and compassionate friends around the country, our precious coastal community will rebuild stronger than ever.

This is our Hurricane Ida recovery story, a story that will prevail for decades to come.