Summer 2024 Our Mission:
Bringing philanthropy to life for a stronger South Dakota.
Investing in Community Innovation Beyond Idea Grant Recipients Announced and a Program Success Story: Lewis & Clark Behavioral Health Services behavioral health crisis response, including limited resources, staffing issues, social determinants of health affecting mental wellness, high turnover rates and transportation barriers. Communication challenges between agencies and service providers further complicate crisis care. However, the outreach role has effectively addressed these issues. Due to the success of the BIG pilot project, the program has expanded to Clay County and introduced a part-time position in Charles Mix County. This expansion underscores the model’s scalability and effectiveness in addressing rural mental health care challenges. The position will continue to be funded through 2027 by a grant from the South Dakota Department of Social Services, Division of Behavioral Health, highlighting its sustained success and importance. Lewis & Clark Behavioral Health received $100,000 from SDCF’s BIG Program.
South Dakota Community Foundation’s (SDCF) Beyond Idea Grant (BIG) program was designed to support communitybased problem solving in South Dakota. Started in partnership with the Bush Foundation in 2022, the BIG program aims to assist nonprofits to develop, test and spread their ideas and to connect leaders. SDCF recently announced BIG’s 2024 grantees, awarding nearly $1.2 million to 13 nonprofits in South Dakota (see box). Organizations seeking funding are finding innovative ways to solve problems in their communities, and investments from BIG are essential for that work to advance. Funded ideas have included leadership development, food security and mental health initiatives. Since 2022, several grant recipients have completed their projects. Lewis & Clark Behavioral Health Services (LCBHS) is one such grantee. With support from BIG, LCBHS launched a pilot program aimed at improving the response and follow-up when there are behavioral health crisis situations in rural Union County. Throughout the project, LCBHS identified four main barriers: transportation challenges necessitating involuntary holds for travel to the Yankton Crisis Center, care coordination difficulties due to the proximity of Iowa and Minnesota borders, communication issues between law enforcement and mental illness board chairpersons and the high costs and difficulty of spreading awareness about services in rural southeastern South Dakota. LCBHS’s idea created a crisis outreach coordinator role, which provided a reliable point of contact between families, law enforcement and service providers, reducing officer time and improving outcomes for patients and families. Law enforcement in rural areas face considerable hurdles in
BIG RECIPIENTS: 2024 BLACK HILLS SPECIAL SERVICES COOPERATIVE/ COMPASS Statewide $132,000
NORTHEAST SOUTH DAKOTA ECONOMIC CORPORATION Northeast South Dakota $100,000
EAT WELL SIOUX FALLS MOBILE MARKET Sioux Falls $50,000
SOUTH DAKOTA NETWORK AGAINST FAMILY VIOLENCE AND SEXUAL ASSAULT Statewide $100,000
FAMILY CONNECTIONS CENTER Pennington/Meade/ Lawrence Counties $100,000 HELPLINE CENTER Statewide $95,000 LOST&FOUND Statewide $100,000 MIDWEST STREET MEDICINE Sioux Falls $90,000 MITCHELL AREA DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION Davison County $100,000
SOUTH DAKOTA DISCOVERY CENTER Central South Dakota $77,400 SOUTH DAKOTA NATIVE HOMEOWNERSHIP COALITION Pine Ridge/Rosebud/ Cheyenne River/ Lake Traverse/Crow Creek Reservations $73,000 STRAIGHT UP CARE Statewide $100,000 THE LEGACY FOUNDATION Statewide $82,350
Learn more about the BIG program recipients and how to apply here: SDCommunityFoundation.org/BIG