Supporting Cooperative Development and Education

The NCSC Board of Directors allocated $91,400 in fiscal year 2024 for an NCSC Cooperative Youth Education Grant Program to assist member statewide associations in promoting cooperative education to students in their states.

First approved in May 2009, the grant program was created to provide meaningful assistance to electric cooperative statewide organizations for their important mission of service and cooperative education. The funds can be used to cover the cost of the annual Electric Cooperative Youth Tour to Washington, D.C., as well as other efforts—such as videos, training programs, camps and scholarships—to educate electric cooperative youth about the cooperative principles.

For more information or to receive a grant application, statewide associations should contact PublicRelations@nrucfc.coop at 800-424-2954, Option 5.

NCSC employees can contribute funds, matched by CFC, through payroll deductions to Adopt-a-Family, an employee-owned foundation. Each quarter, the foundation partners with Northern Virginia Family Service (NVFS) to provide a working family in crisis due to illness, job loss or other emergency with the resources needed to recover from the event. Other activities include:

• Special drives for winter clothing and necessities for a local shelter.
• Fund-raisers for member employees affected by natural disasters.
• School supply, holiday toys and food drives to benefit NVFS.

To further the mission of NRECA International in providing rural residents of foreign countries with reliable, affordable and life-changing electric service, NCSC and CFC make matching grants available to electric cooperative statewide associations that sponsor overseas electrification projects. Recent projects include:

• CFC/NCSC Boost Statewide’s Central America Outreach.
• Tar Heel State Cooperatives Light Up Bolivia With Help from CFC.
• Big Sky Co-ops Electrify Rural Bolivia, with CFC Assist.
• CFC Grant Helps OK, CO Co-ops Light Up Guatemalan Village.

As an active associate member of NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association, NCSC annually sponsors speakers and other events at the organization’s conferences.

NCSC provides funding through donations and sponsorships to the Foundation for Rural Service, which works in cooperation with NTCA and its members to enhance the quality of life in rural America through philanthropic and educational programs.

NCSC is an associate member and supporter of WTA, whose mission is to strengthen the ability of its members to provide affordable, advanced broadband and communications services to rural America.