From Grassroots to Bonafide Nonprofit
After many years of walking door-to-door in an attempt to organize and inform residents of the environmental issues impacting the Fairfax neighborhood in Jacksonville, Florida, Iris Hinton contacted The Jacksonville Urban League Entrepreneurship Center seeking assistance to establish her grassroots neighborhood-based organization as a bona-fide non-profit corporation. She knew that this assistance was necessary to elevate her organization from a group of concerned and impacted citizens to an organization that could qualify for corporate, local, state, and federal assistance and would be taken more seriously. Hinton said, “I have volunteered my time for many years to advocate for education and health assistance for former workers and surrounding residents of the defunct Wood Treaters Plant in the Fairfax neighborhood in Jacksonville, Florida. With direct coaching and technical assistance from the Jacksonville Urban League Entrepreneurship Center, we are now incorporated with our 501(c)(3) status and qualify for EPA Superfund Grant assistance.”
ResultThe Fairfax Environmental Committee for Justice, Inc., a grassroots organization, was formed, allowing Hinton to apply for a federal cleanup grant and other federal grant assistance, and Fairfax is now designated as a Superfund Site.