Co-op announces Community Education Grant support for Flathead Industries
Flathead Industries is the recent recipient of a $50,000 Flathead Electric Cooperative Community Education Grant.
The grant will help construct a continuing education center at Flathead Industries’ newly remodeled administration center.
The continuing education center will support adults with developmental disabilities by focusing on financial education, health and nutrition, and exercise and interest development.
“Individuals with developmental disabilities have extremely limited access to education once they graduate from high school,” said Flathead Industries Executive Director Patrick Maddison. “We are thrilled by the Co-op’s support of our continuing education center, which will eventually allow us to create programs to promote inclusion, independence, and opportunities for individuals with developmental disabilities in our community.”
As a not-for-profit, member-owned co-op, Flathead Electric’s business model means that when it brings in more revenue than is needed to operate, that money is allocated back to its members as capital credits.
Each year, some of these capital credits go unclaimed, usually because members move away without updating their mailing addresses. When capital credits go unclaimed for five years or more, Montana law allows the money to be used for educational purposes.
“Due to this statute, Flathead Electric Cooperative is occasionally able to award Community Education Grants funded by unclaimed capital credit dollars,” Flathead Electric Co-op’s Community Relations Manager Katie Pfennigs said.
“We do our best to connect members with their capital credits, but sometimes those funds go unclaimed,” she added. “We are grateful that Montana law allows our Trustees to re-distribute those unclaimed capital credits for educational purposes that benefit our members.”
Pfennigs said in the past, those dollars have been thoughtfully invested back into the communities through the co-op's scholarship program and other initiatives, including the Evergreen sidewalks project and now, the continuing education center at Flathead Industries.