The Women’s Fund of South Central Kentucky announced Friday it will award $100,000 in grants to area nonprofit organizations this year, with the funds to be distributed in August.

The Women’s Fund normally awards the grant in October, but in light of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic the organization opted to distribute the funds earlier.

“This year we really kind of thought, ‘How can we help our community and nonprofits that we have in the past,’ ” Women’s Fund Executive Director Jennifer Wethington said. “So the group looked back and we looked at the four finalists for the last seven years and we decided we would put them on a slate. We emailed a ballot and told them to pick the top nonprofit you want to support this year.”

The Women’s Fund will distribute the $100,000 between 14 finalists, each an Impact Grant finalist the past seven years. These organizations are Barren River Area Safe Space, Boys & Girls Club of Bowling Green, Boys & Girls Club of Franklin-Simpson, Community Action of Southern Kentucky, the Family Enrichment Center, Friends of the Lost River, Inc., Habitat for Humanity of Bowling Green/Warren County, Hope Harbor, Hope House, HOTEL INC, Junior Achievement of South Central Kentucky, Kentucky Kids on the Block, the Foundry and the Salvation Army Bowling Green.

The foundation’s 365 members will vote online through Aug. 7 with the funds distributed according to votes. Each organization will receive a minimum of $1,000.

“We are pretty excited,” Wethington said. “We think the membership is going to step up and tell us what they are passionate about. They are going to invest in that organization that they feel like is doing good work and needs to be supported at this time.”

She added that the Women’s Fund wishes they could give more to every organization, particularly during this rough time economically.

“I would love to give $100,000 to each of them if I could,” Wethington said. “That would help them through this time. They are all doing good work. They are all valuable nonprofits to our community. They are all making a contribution that makes this community better and that is what is so important, not only to support them, but this is also an opportunity for us to raise awareness.”