Charity relief program now available

A total of $12 million has been distributed to Wyoming’s counties through Governor Mark Gordon’s Community Charitable Relief Program. This program allows the counties to distribute awards to charities that incurred expenses related to COVID-19 in supporting the public or suffered a reduction in donations, grants and other incomes during the pandemic.

The program is open to all nonprofit entities, including churches, that qualify as tax exempt and that provided goods, services or payments to the public related to the COVID-19 emergency. With a population of 7080, representing 1.26% of Wyoming’s population, Crook County has been allocated $150,698.42 of the total funding available.

No maximum award amount has been set; instead, it is up to the county to determine the size of the award given to each charitable organization.

Awards can be issued as reimbursements for expenditures between March 19 and December 30. Expenses must be related to the provision of goods or services at no costs to persons impacted by COVID-19 in the county (for example, food, clothing, childcare, counseling, transportation, legal assistance, tutoring or temporary housing); to provide a direct payment to an individual or county to cover costs for basic needs; or to cover the charity’s operational costs to allow them to continue providing goods and services in a safe manner.

A second subsection will only be applicable if Congress extends the deadline for spending under the federal CARES Act. It allows awards as reimbursements for lost donation revenue or other revenue, or to replace lost revenue from a fundraiser that would ordinarily have been held.

Awards cannot be used to reimburse donors, cover ordinary expenditures unrelated to COVID-19, cover other types of shortfalls related to a decrease in donations; cover expenditures that were reimbursed by other CARES Act funding, cover costs for goods or services that would benefit the county, cover costs the county would otherwise be responsible for funding or be issued to healthcare providers to cover healthcare services that were billed but never paid.

Funds received must be claimed on the charity’s federal income tax filings.

All awards must be issued by the county under this program by December 30, so applications must be submitted to the County Clerk’s Office by 5 p.m. on December 28 to allow the commissioners to approve them on December 29 and overnight the paperwork to Cheyenne.

Information, including the rules and forms, are available on the county website at crookcounty.wy.gov in the Public Notices section.