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Celebrating our newest Summer Flower CSA pickup partner!

Every week from June to September, CSA members can pick up their flower shares from five locations. Vine & Branch, a wine and plant shop on Southland Drive in Lexington, is our new pickup partner. 

Owner Ally Hanna was familiar with us before our partnership. She is a survivor of intimate partner abuse. Although Ally never used our services, her therapist shared the emergency shelter address in case she needed a safe space.    

Vine & Branch celebrated its two-year anniversary in December 2022. Ally offers Free Friday Wine Tastings from 4:30 – 6:30. She will also help you pick the perfect wine. I was recommended a Mosketto Delicate Sweet Red, which was bubbly, fruity, and delicious!   

Check out this video on our Instagram for a mini tour of the shop!  

The Endow Kentucky Tax Credit can support survivors and offers a great tax incentive.

Endow Kentucky Tax Credit season is quickly approaching! Tax credits totaling $1 million will become available on July 1. But these tax credits are often gone in the first week, so now is the time to start planning!  

Individuals and businesses can receive a credit on Kentucky state taxes of up to 20% of a gift to our endowed fund held at Blue Grass Community Foundation. The credit is in addition to your federal and state charitable tax deduction. 

Is there a minimum or maximum gift amount for the tax credit?  

There is no minimum gift size required to receive the tax credit. Unlike tax deductions, tax credits are subtracted from a donor’s tax bill, dollar for dollar. A gift of $5,000 can reduce what you owe in state taxes by $1,000. A gift of $50,000 can reduce your tax bill by $10,000. The maximum gift amount is $50,000.  

Not itemizing your charitable donations this year?  

You can likely still take advantage of the Endow Kentucky Tax Credit. This is a state tax credit, not a deduction. A tax credit reduces your Kentucky state tax liability dollar-for-dollar, regardless of your ability to itemize.   

Are donations of non-cash assets eligible for the tax credit? 

Yes, here is the list of non-cash assets that could be eligible:

• stocks, 
• mutual funds, 
• tangible property, 
• donations of life insurance, and 
• donors 70 ½ and older can make a qualified charitable distribution from qualifying IRAs (QCDs can be made to any endowed funds other than donor advised funds).  

How do I make an endowment gift eligible for the credit? 

1. The first step is to complete the Application for Preliminary Authorization.
2. The completed form should be mailed or emailed to the Kentucky Department of Revenue in Frankfort. Addresses are included in the application, but if you’d rather just drop it off at the Blue Grass Community Foundation office, they’ll mail it for you.
3. Next steps and additional resources, including contacts at the Blue Grass Community Foundation, are linked at the bottom of this page. 

How can I learn more about your endowment? 

Send a note to Corissa Phillips, Certified Fund Raising Executive on staff. She looks forward to sharing more about how our permanent endowment supports the mission in perpetuity–through times of crisis and opportunity. 

We never expected to type these five words on our blog. Let’s talk about septic systems. 

Septic systems aren’t top of mind when you think about our mission. But the disposal of septic waste is critically important to any home or facility, especially an emergency shelter with 42 adult and child residents each night. 

Our large 19,326-square-foot shelter facility requires two septic systems.

Waste from the shelter is pumped into two tanks, each connected to a separate leach bed. These leach beds are formed by hundreds of feet of underground perforated pipe meandering through our front lawn. Liquid waste seeps through holes in the pipes to be naturally filtered by the soil.   

Something’s not right 

The standard lifecycle for a septic system is about 25 to 30 years. Our systems were built during the facility’s original construction 25 years ago.  

During the pandemic response, we noticed slow drainage from shelter sinks, showers, tubs, and toilets. The grass on the property’s front lawn felt a little mushy, even though it hadn’t rained for days. From time to time, when the weather was just right, a faint unpleasant smell would blow across the shelter’s front porch. 

It was time to call in the professionals.  

Inspection of shelter’s septic systems found our tanks in good condition, but an expedited need for replacing the septic system’s aged leach lines was identified. The cost to replace the leach lines was estimated to be more than $60,000.
 

One-time opportunity 

Although our annual operating budget includes funds for emergency repairs at the shelter, we had not anticipated the need for such a large-scale project during the pandemic response. 

Just weeks later, there was a possible solution.  

The City of Lexington announced a call for proposals from the community’s nonprofit organizations for one-time capital investment grants to be funded by the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).  We began to prepare our application in haste, learning more than we could’ve imagined about septic systems and leach fields.  

It’s more interesting than one might think! Did you know good bacteria in septic tanks feast on solid waste, breaking them down through digestion into gases? 

Award notification 

Following the city’s review of 138 project proposals, we received notification of funding to support the full cost of our leach line replacement project.  

We had to wait a few months for the weather and ground to warm after winter, but the project begins today! Crews are onsite to replace 1600 total feet of leach lines to better dispose of liquid and solid waste generated at our emergency shelter. 

More than 20 social service agencies in Fayette County are making much needed facility renovations, improving accessibility to facilities for those with disabilities, and more with support from the city’s ARPA funds.