2025 MicroGrants 4 Neighbours Program on Cortes Island

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - mmanuel McKenty is the new face of the Cortes Island Microgrants 4 Neighbours Program. 

When this ZOOM interview began, he was sitting in a room that looked very similar to where  I interviewed him along with the rest of the Awakeneers on previous occasions.

Cortes Currents: Give me your spiel and then I’ll ask some questions.

Immanuel McKenty: “  The 2025 round of the Cortes Island MicroGrants is now open for applications between March 10th and April 7th. We're accepting applications for cool projects in on in theCortes community and giving out grants between $50 and $500. The application process is super simple. The link is on the Cortes Foundation website under their Grants section. And there's also posts on Tideline and the various different Cortes Island Facebook pages. One interesting new thing we're trying this year for the first time is we're planning to put all of the applications out for input to the whole community once we receive them. So anyone who lives on Cortes can log in and view all the applications and submit their votes on which are their favourites.”

“I'm looking forward to seeing all the creative projects that get submitted and there's a few that are coming in already.” 

Cortes Currents: Actually, the first question that popped in my mind is how did Immanuel McKenty end up as the person doing the MicroGrants?  

Immanuel McKenty: “Manda Aufochs Gillespie recruited me shortly after the program launched. She initiated the program based on her literacy outreach coordinator position in 2020, I think that was the first year she organized it,  and  she recruited me as a jury member in 2021. The jury is basically a collection of people who review the different applications and rate them based on the rating matrix of different attributes.  I  was on the jury for a few years after that, and  Co-adjudicator last year. This year I'm coordinating the program for the first time.” 

Cortes Currents: When exactly did you say ‘yes,’ you'll be the guy in charge? 

Immanuel McKenty: “Manda asked me, I believe it was in December  of 2024, just after Isabella McKnight retired from  working for the foundation. She had been the previous coordinator, and I had been a co-judicator with her last year.”

Cortes Currents: Are you going to be doing more than MicroGrants?  

Immanuel McKenty: “I've just been contracted to run the MicroGrants program this year.  It's roughly a three month engagement during the time period that the grants are being accepted and reviewed.”

Cortes Currents: What’s special about the MicroGrants?  

Immanuel McKenty: “I find them very special and inspiring because they're so easy to apply for. Obviously applying for it doesn't mean you'll get the money, but the nice thing about the MicroGrants is that you don't need to have a registered non profit or a registered charity and go through all of these hoops of submitting financial statements, forms and hours and hours of details. They're small grants and it's super easy to apply for them.”

“They're a great fit for some types of community projects. For example, in the past, they funded things like the Cortes Island Skate Jam, or songwriter circles that happened on the island, or several years in a row they've funded some youth kayaking trips, or little library boxes, or language classes. Basically, they're great for  projects that somebody is excited about doing on Cortes and needs a little bit of encouragement and support  to get the project to happen.”