Opportunity Overview
OK Community Cares is a donor-advised fund of Oklahoma Community Credit Union administered under the guidelines of the Cornerstone Foundation. The program supports local organizations, schools and community activities in five stated priority areas: educational opportunities, financial literacy, food insecurity, healthy living and housing needs.
Q4 2026 Deadline
The current 2026 program webpage says fourth-quarter applications are due October 31, 2026 and recipients will be notified in November. The standing donor-advised-fund guidelines, revised November 12, 2024, separately state that grants are due by 5:00 p.m. on the last business day of the first month of each quarter. In October 2026, the last business day is Friday, October 30. The public materials do not state a time zone. Because those current sources conflict by one calendar day, Atlas uses October 30, 2026 at 5:00 p.m. as the conservative internal control deadline and requires direct re-verification before submission.
Funding
The current public materials do not publish a standard per-applicant award ceiling. The fund guidelines state that no more than 25% of the fund’s total balance may be distributed during a quarter unless the Oklahoma Community Board of Directors approves otherwise. The current balance is not published. Recent public award examples on the program site include approximately $983 to $3,000, but those examples are not a cap or guarantee. No mandatory match or cost-share requirement is stated.
Eligibility
Applicants must operate inside Oklahoma Community Credit Union’s current service area and generally must be charitable organizations described under IRC Sections 501(c)(3) and 170(b)(A), excluding private foundations. Most units of government, including public schools, colleges and universities, municipalities and police departments, may also be considered. Individuals, for-profit businesses, political campaigns, many non-charitable nonprofit types, social clubs and similar organizations are ineligible. Houses of worship are ineligible as such, although qualifying 501(c)(3) religiously affiliated service organizations may be eligible.
The Credit Union’s current membership application identifies its core Oklahoma field as Payne, Lincoln, Logan, Noble and Pawnee counties, plus certain areas of additional Oklahoma counties. Grant applicants should confirm the current bylaw-defined service-area boundary before relying on geographic eligibility.
Allowable and Restricted Uses
Requests should fit at least one of the published fields of interest: educational opportunities, financial literacy, food insecurity, healthy living or housing needs. Donor-advised-fund restrictions prohibit grants to individuals, political contributions, and transactions that provide prohibited goods, services or other benefits to the donor or related parties. The guidelines also identify event tickets, meals, sponsorships, registration fees, discounted merchandise, certain memberships, expense reimbursements, loans and compensation as prohibited donor-benefit uses. Applicants seeking capital contributions or advertising/sponsorship opportunities are directed to contact the Credit Union’s marketing department first.
Application Package and Submission
The current fillable application requires organization name and address, IRS designation, contact person and email, amount requested, selected field of interest, a project description with start and completion dates, prior OK Community Cares application history, other funding sources if applicable, a brief project budget, an indication of whether the project will proceed if not fully funded, and an authorized applicant signature/title. A Form W-9 is required with the application.
Completed applications may be mailed to OK Community Cares, P.O. Box 1357, Stillwater, OK 74076; emailed to Hana Kimberling at hkimberling@okcommunitycu.com; faxed to 405-743-3350; or delivered to Oklahoma Community Credit Union’s main office at 311 E. McElroy Rd., Stillwater, OK 74075. The main program phone number published on the site is 405-743-3328.
N9+ and Direct-Vendor Analysis
Atlas Opportunity Score: 74/100. The opportunity is open, Oklahoma-specific, accessible to schools and charities, and expressly includes healthy living and education. Its weaknesses for Atlas purposes are the unpublished award ceiling, likely small award size based on recent examples, and the one-day deadline discrepancy between the 2026 webpage and standing guidelines.
N9+ Fit Score: 5/100. Do not force fit. The public materials do not establish a clinical-equipment, telehealth, diagnostic-device or remote-exam acquisition pathway, and recent awards are small. A specific eligible organization would need an independently defined healthy-living or education project and written funder confirmation that the proposed N9+ cost is allowable.
Dr. Miltie/QC Healthcare direct-applicant fit: 0/100. For-profit businesses are not eligible grant recipients. Any involvement would be vendor-only under the control of an independently eligible applicant.
Realistic Applicant Screening Candidates
Stillwater Public Schools and Perkins-Tryon Public Schools are structurally plausible screening candidates because public schools are an expressly eligible class and both serve the Credit Union’s core north-central Oklahoma area. The program has also publicly reported a prior grant to Perkins-Tryon Band. These are screening candidates only; Atlas does not infer a current project need, application intent, prior-year eligibility, recipient identity or N9+ fit.
Source Control
Controlling sources reviewed: the current OK Community Cares program webpage, the November 12, 2024 Donor Advised Fund Guidelines, the current fillable application, and the published eligibility document. No solicitation number is published. The Credit Union reserves the right to amend, suspend or terminate the program; Atlas requires a fresh source check before any applicant submission or outreach.