In July 2023, prolonged, torrential rainfall caused catastrophic flooding across Vermont. Creeks and rivers rose, washing away roads, damaging homes and flooding fields. Paddlers in canoes and kayaks floated down State Street in Montpelier. City hall was forced to relocate, Interstate 89 closed in both directions, and Gov. Phil Scott declared a state of emergency.
So, Vermonters did what they do best: They came together and helped each other. Neighbors mucked out each other’s basements and started raising money for rebuilding efforts. Almost immediately, the Vermont Community Foundation stepped in to aggregate and distribute those donations. A public charity that’s home to hundreds of funds and individual giving accounts created by Vermonters to serve charitable goals, the community foundation was uniquely positioned for the role.
In the immediate aftermath of Vermont’s devastating floods, the Vermont Community Foundation quickly mobilized to meet critical needs, providing rapid-response grants to ensure food, shelter and emergency assistance. Working with key partners such as the American Red Cross, community action agencies and local organizations, the organization supported temporary housing, case management, and supplies for individuals and families.
Vermont farms were hit hard — and at the height of the summer season. According to the Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets, Vermont farms suffered more than $16 million in losses across more than 27,000 acres.
“We’re already a trusted partner with organizations across Vermont. It was a natural step for us,” said Kate Neubauer, program officer for climate and environment.
Within the first day after the storm hit, Neubauer and her colleagues were making calls to identify who needed what and how the Vermont Community Foundation could help. Everyone wanted to chip in — from individuals to companies to nonprofit organizations — and the effort raised about $12 million for the VT Flood Response & Recovery Fund.
Then, as the anniversary of the July 2023 flood approached and Vermonters were starting to get back on their feet again after a hard year, it happened again.
On July 9, 2024, devastating floods once again swept through the state. What was supposed to be a day of reflection turned into a day of action. Because of what happened in 2023, the community foundation already knew what to do. Within 24 hours, it was able to get funds out to people in need.
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“While the overall damage in 2024 was lower than in 2023, some communities faced even greater hardship, compounding last year’s challenges. It was a different kind of disaster,” Neubauer said.
People were tired. As a result, the foundation raised $2 million in 2024, significantly less than the year prior. But there’s still so much work to be done, Neubauer said.
In addition to providing immediate relief and grants for farmers, the Vermont Community Foundation is looking at how it can help catalyze conversations around long-term solutions to help Vermonters withstand the effects of climate change.
“No one person can solve this challenge. It takes many people working together,” Neubauer clarified. “We stand with Vermont. I really love that about the community foundation. It’s not just resources but bringing people together where they can learn and connect with each other.”
Helping Close to Home
When Phoenix Books co-owner Renee Reiner saw the effects of the flooding, she was immediately motivated to help. First, she set up a fundraising day at the three Phoenix locations, which she owns with her husband, Michael DeSanto. A portion of those sales went to the Vermont Community Foundation’s VT Flood Response & Recovery Fund. Then she matched those donations several times over with a contribution from her own giving account with the Vermont Community Foundation.
“The need was there, and I love being one of the people who responded to it,” Reiner said.
When Renee learned about giving accounts, she knew that she would open one someday. Before she was a Vermont bookstore owner, Reiner worked in the philanthropy space herself, at the Council on Foundations in Washington, D.C. Reiner reached out to the community foundation in 2014 after her mother’s passing. Her inheritance allowed her to think more about how she could use her money to help people in her community.
Because of Reiner’s work experience, she was aware of all the options for starting a donor advised fund. She said she chose the Vermont Community Foundation because “Vermont is my home,” adding that the leadership the foundation provides in philanthropy across the state was also a huge factor for her.
Reiner regularly meets with her community foundation adviser, Martha Trombley Oakes, who both educates Reiner about current issues and pays attention to what is important to Reiner so that she can offer guidance. Reiner tells Trombley Oakes what she cares about, such as literacy, women’s issues, food insecurity and land conservation. When specific funds have opened, such as the COVID-19 Response Fund and the VT Flood Response & Recovery Fund, Reiner has given to those, too.
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Trombley Oakes calls Reiner whenever there is a cause that she wants her to be aware of. Reiner is never obligated to say yes, but she appreciates knowing what the needs are and staying informed.
“The folks at the Vermont Community Foundation are well versed in the needs of the state in a way I never will be,” Reiner said. “They have their finger on the pulse at the very heart of Vermont’s communities.”
Strike Up the Band
Though the summer flooding wasn’t as widespread in 2024, it still damaged 3,500 acres of farmland, resulting in $5 million in losses for Vermont farms. Helping them recover is a job for Hug Your Farmer, a locally grown benefit concert series.
Rich Price of the rock band the Sweet Remains helped start Hug Your Farmer on behalf of Select Design in 2011 to assist Vermont farms. It began with a benefit concert at Higher Ground in South Burlington to help Pete’s Greens after the Craftsbury farm experienced an electrical fire. Since then, the organization has held nine concerts and raised more than $400,000 for Vermont farmers. Select Design underwrites all the events so that 100 percent of ticket sales go directly to farms in need.
After the flooding last year, Hug Your Farmer made the decision to partner with the Vermont Community Foundation. “When we wanted to raise money to help farms impacted by flooding, the Vermont Community Foundation was the obvious choice. It’s really the leading voice and expert in areas of need in the community and how to drive meaningful impact in those areas,” Price said.
The show in September 2023 at the Flynn in Burlington had a theme: the music of Bob Dylan. The program featured a cast of Vermont all-stars including Phish bassist Mike Gordon, keyboardist Ray Paczkowski of the Trey Anastasio Band, soul duo Dwight + Nicole, Kat Wright, Steve Hadeka of Matthew Mercury, and Matt LaRocca of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra. The lineup was lead by local musician Bob Wagner, who accompanied on guitar. The sold-out show raised $218,000.
“It was important to us to work with the Vermont Community Foundation because we need continued and improved safety nets for Vermont farms in the wake of climate change,” Wagner said. “It’s scary. But at least the people at the community foundation have a plan and know what they’re doing.”
After the 2024 flooding, the Hug Your Farmer team sprang into action again, planning another memorable evening at the Flynn on Friday, November 22.
This time, they’re curating a different type of show Vermonters don’t usually see, inspired by legends of country music. Called “A Night at the Opry,” the concert will feature another star-studded lineup, including Grace Potter, Ryan Miller, Mike and Tessa Gordon, Kat Wright, Ryan Montbleau, Brett Hughes, Nicole Nelson, Dwight Ritcher, and Eric George.
“There’s such a respect and camaraderie between our two organizations,” Wagner said of the group’s partnership with the community foundation. “What I love is that everyone is doing what they’re good at together to help out. It’s going to be a great show.”
Tickets can be purchased through the Flynn box office.
Growing Resilient Communities
Once the money is raised, the Vermont Community Foundation figures out where to direct it. Silloway Farms in Randolph is one of the recipients.
John Silloway’s grandparents bought Silloway Farms in 1940; his family raises Holstein cows for dairy production. Since 2017, they’ve sold their products to Organic Valley co-op. But it takes more than milk production to keep a dairy farm going these days. They’ve tried lots of side projects, such as firewood, maple syrup and hay. They have to be careful about how they spend their money and spend a lot of time strategizing how to prepare for every Vermont winter.
“Every little bit helps,” Silloway said.
A little bit can hurt, too. In July 2023, they lost 10 acres of farmland that they used to grow feed for their cows. Their fields down by the river were completely underwater. They lost about $5,000 worth of feed. Still, Silloway feels fortunate.
“It was a frustrating experience, but we were lucky not to be devastated like some of the other farms in the area. But it made us sad, and we knew it was about to make our life a lot harder,” he said.
The difficult situation made Silloway Farm eligible for Vermont Community Foundation’s VT Flood Relief & Recovery Fund. The fund dedicated $1.5 million to agricultural relief after the flood, awarding grants to 157 different farms. The Silloway family used the funds to offset the loss, and it enabled them to pay for things such as fuel and grain.
“It helped us get through the winter,” Silloway said. “They were really easy to work with, and it was a seamless process to get the grant.”
In addition to helping farmers, the Vermont Community Foundation is also thinking ahead. When Neubauer took on the role of program officer for climate and environment three years ago, she was tasked with providing support to watershed organizations. These organizations consider the ability of Vermont to recover easily from flooding by creating a more resilient environment. For example, many culverts, a name for pipes that carry water under roads, are too small and get washed out in heavy rain, often resulting in road closures. Watershed groups are replacing undersized culverts with ones that are big enough to withstand a flood.
“The floods brought to our attention that there is a lot of work to be done with Vermont’s watersheds. Not just to repair the damage, but to increase our resilience for the next flood.”Kate Neubauer
“The floods brought to our attention that there is a lot of work to be done with Vermont’s watersheds,” Neubauer said. “Not just to repair the damage but to increase our resilience for the next flood.”
Neubauer describes a lot of her work as “creating a container” — making the space for important conversations to happen and work to be done. She works on the community foundation’s Healthy Watershed Initiative, which brings together 12 watershed organizations across the state with funding, resource training, and opportunities for them all to meet and discuss solutions.
Michele Braun, Executive Director for Friends of the Winooski River, leads one of those organizations. Her group works to make all the land surrounding the river more resilient through community outreach and ecosystem restoration projects. Her job really changed after the 2023 flooding, she said.
“We didn’t have a lot of time to think about what our role in it would be because the second the floods started, our phone just started ringing off the hook with people asking for our help,” Braun said. After crisis phase ended, Friends of the Winooski River transitioned to conversations about the future and what else they could do to help.
“We’ve been having a lot of conversations about how our work can make communities safer in the future, but it’s not something that we typically had funding for,” she said. “But through the Vermont Community Foundation, we’re able to support our communities and build more resilient systems to handle extreme weather.”
The funding that they get from Vermont Community Foundation, Braun said, is really critical for the organization’s ability to operate — or to do things such as travel to Richmond to host an educational program for eighth graders at Camels Hump Middle School last month. “We now have the breathing room to say yes to requests like that.”
She also appreciates the time to meet with other directors of watershed organizations because when they get together, they all learn from each other. All of their organizations are small, she said, and need each other’s support to handle the challenges that they face.
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Still, there’s a long way to go. In October, Braun learned that FEMA is sending Vermont $67 million for hazard mitigation projects, but there are well over $300 million in grant requests for hazard mitigation projects in the state.
“And that’s just the tip of the iceberg,” she said with a sigh. “But if we can restore our watersheds to be healthy and functioning, it will make our communities more resilient.”
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This article was commissioned and paid for by the Vermont Community Foundation.
