First National Bank of Omaha has awarded a total of $1,738,000 in Impact Grants to 90 organizations in Nebraska, Iowa, Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, South Dakota, Wyoming and Texas.
The grants support programs dedicated to workforce development and entrepreneurship; affordable housing and neighborhood revitalization; and adult education, financial literacy and security.
“FNBO recognizes that investments in workforce development, education, affordable housing and financial literacy have returns that far outlast a one-time donation,” said Whitney Baker, Director of Philanthropy and Giving. “Through this grant program, our goal is to find community partners working in these areas that not only impact individual lives, but build stronger and more financially successful communities.”
Locally, those donations include $15,000 to both the High Plains Community Development Corporation in Chadron and $15,000 to the Panhandle Partnership in Scottsbluff.
FNBO has transitioned from two grant cycles per year to one combined cycle. This total represents the largest one-year grant amount ever awarded by FNBO.
Nebraska and Iowa
FNBO awarded $1,143,000 in Impact Grants to 53 organizations across Nebraska and western Iowa:
● $25,000 – AIM Institute (Omaha): Supports AIM’s Advanced Technical Training, a pipeline program leading to various tech careers. Beginning with introductory content and career sessions, participants choose the tech career pathway aligned with their interests and progress to advanced specialization courses tailored to the tech ecosystem’s needs.
● $25,000 – Autism Action Partnership (Omaha): Supports Prosper Workforce Services (PWS), a comprehensive program that offers a range of services to help businesses secure qualified staff and to help individuals with autism enhance and sustain their employability.
● $25,000 – Boys Town (Omaha): Supports the CNA Program, where young people get hands-on experience in this high-demand occupation, giving them a head start on post-secondary education and careers.
● $25,000 – Canopy South (Omaha): Supports the development of four single-family for-sale homes within a qualified census tract in South Omaha targeting 80% area median income (AMI), first-time homebuyers, the emerging workforce and middle-income families.
● $10,000 – Care Corps, Inc. (Fremont): Supports the workforce development and life skill training program, which provides practical skills needed to gain employment and focuses on the soft skills needed to stay employed.
● $30,000 – Center for Rural Affairs Community Capital (Grand Island, Kearney): Supports the Center for Rural Affairs Community Capital to strengthen rural communities through home ownership and small, self-employed business development by offering essential services, including financing, business training, technical assistance and networking to a diverse target market.
● $25,000 – Child Saving Institute (Omaha): Supports the Independent Living Skills programming to provide a supportive transition into adulthood for those youth lacking familial support.
● $10,000 – Community Development Resources (Lincoln): Supports microlending, including working with the ECHO Collective to provide training, loan funds and support to female immigrants wanting to start or own a microbusiness.
● $20,000 – Completely Kids (Omaha): Supports adult education classes to enhance the employable skills of parents and caregivers in areas such as English as a second language, citizenship, GED attainment, computer skills, financial literacy and personal growth.
● $40,000 – Credit Advisors Foundation (Omaha): Supports a program for embedding CAF certified financial counselors into FNBO branches and partner non-profits by providing virtual credit and budget counseling and education to FNBO customers and community partners.
● $13,000 – Deborah’s Legacy (North Platte): Supports residential programming along with educational opportunities, social enterprise employment skills development and support services for women healing from addiction, homelessness and surrounding issues.
● $20,000 – Goodwill Industries (Omaha): Supports the YouthBuild program for opportunity youth, creating a pathway for improving everyday life, job readiness and occupational skills training.
● $20,000 – Grand Island Area Habitat for Humanity (Grand Island): Supports home loan program, which offers qualified applicants a 0% interest mortgage following completion of homeowner education classes and 500 hours of sweat equity by assisting in building their neighbor’s house.
● $25,000 – Greater Fremont Development Foundation (Fremont): Supports a revolving loan fund to increase housing inventory and the quality of housing inventory in Fremont city limits.
● $20,000 – Grow Nebraska (Omaha): Supports programming that focuses on allowing underserved entrepreneurs, specifically women and minorities, the opportunity to gain business knowledge and tools, as well as a network of peers to support their journey in creating a successful and long-standing small business.
● $25,000 – Habitat for Humanity of Columbus (Columbus): Supports the construction of safe, decent and affordable housing to applicants who may not have the ability to become a homeowner otherwise.
● $20,000 – Habitat for Humanity of Council Bluffs (Council Bluffs): Supports the elimination of substandard housing by building new affordable units and protecting the current housing stock through repairs.
● $10,000 – Habitat for Humanity of Lincoln (Lincoln): Supports the building and/or rehabilitation of homes in Lancaster County.
● $30,000 – Heart Ministry Center (Omaha): Supports the Fresh Start job training and job placement program to not only match clients with jobs that earn a livable wage, but to provide clients with the necessary job training, life skills and soft skills needed to be successful both inside and outside the workplace.
● $15,000 – High Plains Community Development Corporation (Chadron): Supports the construction of single-family homes for low-income families.
● $30,000 – Holy Name Housing (Omaha): Supports ongoing operational support to sustain the organization in its mission of developing a strong community, one home at a time.
● $20,000 – I Be Black Girl (Omaha): Supports Catalyst, which provides information, support and learnings specific to Black women and femmes looking to start, grow and maintain their businesses, providing an intentional space for Black women and femme founders to actualize their entrepreneurial vision and gain economic liberation.
● $15,000 – Immigrant Legal Center (Omaha): Supports the Refugee Education Program, which provides holistic and culturally effective educational services that empower newly resettling refugees to grow and thrive in their new lives.
● $20,000 – inCOMMON Community Development (Omaha): Supports inCOMMON’s Park Avenue and Walnut Hill Neighborhood Resource Centers, which serve as neighborhood-based hubs where residents access a broad range of workforce, financial, housing, leadership and relationship development programming, including ESL, GED, budgeting, mentorship and homebuyer education.
● $20,000 – Iowa Jobs for America’s Graduates (Council Bluffs): Supports iJAG, which provides a bridge between public education and the world-of-work, offering programming that complements academics by supporting marginalized students to graduate high school and preparing them to look past graduation toward a career that offers fulfilling work and financial self-sufficiency.
● $30,000 – Iowa Western SBDC (Council Bluffs): Supports the Iowa Western SBDC, which provides no-cost, one-on-one technical assistance and educational resources to entrepreneurs and small businesses in Pottawattamie and Mills counties.
● $15,000 – Kearney Area Habitat for Humanity (Kearney): Supports the construction of three simple, decent, affordable homes for and with the working poor in Kearney, Nebraska.
● $20,000 – Kids Can Community Center (Omaha): Supports Bridging the Cliff, a program that assists parents whose income is not sufficient to support a family, but who do not make so little they qualify for government child-care subsidies.
● $20,000 – La Fuente Business Center (Midlands Latino CDC) (Omaha): Supports La Fuente’s Entrepreneurship Program, which provides free education, business training and coaching by financial experts to Latino, refugee and immigrant adults in Omaha, Nebraska, and Council Bluffs, Iowa, that helps them launch, sustain and grow their own small business.
● $25,000 – Latino Center of the Midlands (Omaha): Supports the Latino Center’s basic literacy, English, GED, digital literacy and citizenship classes, serving more than 500 lifelong learners every year, helping them obtain stable, rewarding employment and addressing low levels of educational attainment in South Omaha.
● $20,000 – Legal Aid of Nebraska (Omaha): Supports the Legal Aid of Nebraska’s Housing Justice Project, which aims to prevent housing loss, enforce the right to safe and habitable housing and preserve the right to obtain and maintain housing, all through free civil legal assistance to Nebraskans with low income.
● $10,000 – Lincoln County CDC (North Platte): Supports the mission of the organization to develop and build affordable housing in Lincoln County, Nebraska.
● $20,000 – Lutheran Family Services (Omaha): Supports the LFS Economic Empowerment program, which provides employment support services to help refugees identify goals, recognize their skills and connect with appropriate education and employment opportunities.
● $20,000 – Mercy Housing Midwest (Omaha): Supports low-income residents to live to their full potential by providing services and resources in the areas of health, out-of-school time, financial wellbeing, community involvement and housing success.
● $15,000 – Metro Area Continuum of Care for the Homeless (Omaha): Supports community-wide Housing Problem Solving training to implement best practices for up to 25 direct service providers in collaboration with The Listening Group.
● $30,000 – Metropolitan Community College Foundation (Omaha): Supports adult basic education (ABE) activities (enhanced coaching, tutoring, GED and ESL courses) and Transitional Learning Community (TLC) onboarding to support students with career and educational goals, including Integrated Education and Training, to accelerate career placement.
● $20,000 – Midwest Housing Development Fund (Omaha): Supports technical and capacity-building assistance and access to MHDF loan funds to key partners, resulting in the development of at least five projects to facilitate the creation and preservation of affordable rental housing units in these communities.
● $10,000 – MOMentum (Omaha): Supports assisting unemployed and underemployed moms to find jobs that match their interests, experience, wage expectations and schedules, plus provides ongoing coaching and community referrals (for support such as food assistance, transportation and housing) to make sure mom is successful.
● $20,000 – Nebraska Early Childhood Collaborative (Omaha): Supports NECC’s Business Resource Center for Child Care Providers, which will help grow the economy through small business development and job creation, by supporting the start-up and sustainability of small child care provider businesses essential to Omaha’s children, families, workforce and community growth.
● $40,000 – Nebraska Enterprise Fund (Omaha): Supports training, coaching and mentoring programs to reach underserved micro and small businesses primarily in North and South Omaha and southwestern Iowa with technical assistance, encouraging start-up, early stage and growth of locally owned businesses.
● $20,000 – Nebraska Housing Developers Association (Omaha): Supports efforts to increase housing stability for Nebraska households at or below 80% area median income (AMI) for their community, by providing down payment assistance to first-time homebuyers, weatherization assistance to low-income homeowners and by providing education to homebuyers and renters.
● $20,000 – NeighborWorks Lincoln (Lincoln): Supports real estate development to increase the supply of safe, decent and affordable housing, and advances neighborhoods through strengthened housing stock.
● $25,000 – NeighborWorks Northeast Nebraska (Norfolk): Supports funding to assist low- to moderate-income individuals and families to purchase homes in its eight-county service area with down payment assistance and homebuyer education.
● $35,000 – No More Empty Pots (Omaha): Supports the No More Empty Pots Culinary Certificate Program to provide culinary and life skills training that support student development in workforce readiness, capabilities to overcome traditional barriers to employment and self-sufficiency.
● $20,000 – Omaha Home for Boys (Omaha): Supports Jacobs’ Place, OHB’s Transitional Living Program that helps struggling teens and young adults stabilize and grow to become independent, self-sufficient members of our community.
● $15,000 – Omaha Municipal Land Bank (Omaha): Supports the Acquisitions, Maintenance and Disposition Program, a core program of OMLB that allows the Land Bank to strategically acquire vacant and abandoned properties, remove title encumbrances, maintain them, and sell them to responsible property owners.
● $15,000 – Panhandle Partnership (Scottsbluff): Supports workforce development programs and events for junior high and high school districts across the entire 11-county panhandle of western Nebraska to work toward a thriving Nebraska panhandle.
● $30,000 – Project Houseworks (Omaha): Supports Project Houseworks’ senior programming to help preserve affordable homeownership for low-income seniors in Douglas and Sarpy counties by providing free home repairs and modifications so they may age-in-place in the safety of their own homes.
● $40,000 – RISE Academy (Omaha): Supports the RISE Reentry Employment Program to provide justice system-impacted Nebraskans with quality skills training, case management, career planning and job placement that result in livable and thriving wage employment pathways.
● $20,000 – SPARK Capital (Omaha): Supports the Developer Academy, a unique housing-focused program that offers comprehensive training, relationship-building and technical assistance to emerging local real estate developers, supporting them as they build affordable housing in the North and South Omaha neighborhoods where they live.
● $20,000 – Urban League of Nebraska (Omaha): Supports the Urban League’s new, evidence-based Financial Empowerment Center.
● $10,000 – Volunteers Assisting Seniors (Omaha): Supports the Nebraska Homestead Exemption Program, a property tax relief program for low-income homeowners over the age of 65, veterans and disabled individuals.
● $20,000 – YMCA of Greater Omaha (Omaha): Supports YMCA’s Early Learning Centers, which provide high-quality, affordable child-care options for working parents of children up to age 6, while preparing children for success in kindergarten and beyond.
Wyoming
FNBO awarded $30,000 in Impact Grants to two organizations in Wyoming:
● $15,000 – Climb (Laramie County): Supports low-income single mothers through career training and placement, life and financial skills development and mental health counseling to achieve self-sufficiency and fill critical jobs in industries that bolster the state’s economy.
● $15,000 – Wyoming Women’s Business Center (Wyoming): Supports further enabling its mission of serving Wyoming’s economically disadvantaged entrepreneurs through education, training and counseling.
For more information about FNBO’s impact initiatives, visit fnbo.com/impact.
