Community Involvement and Support
Supporting Our Communities
Communities served by ITC Great Plains are supported by community sponsorships, economic development support and access to ITC’s Charitable Giving program. To support nonprofit organizations that provide essential services to those in need, ITC Great Plains has an ongoing charitable giving program that has provided millions of dollars of support over the past 14 years. These contributions can range in the hundreds of dollars—which can make a significant difference in small communities—to grants of hundreds of thousands of dollars in the local communities in Kansas and Oklahoma.
Charitable Giving
Among recent major contributions, ITC Great Plains supported human services through a $10,000 grant awarded to LIVESTRONG at the YMCA Program through the Greater Wichita YMCA. This is just one of the organizations ITC Great Plains supports in making a strong, positive social impact and improving the quality of life in the communities served by our company
Recently, the company added a new area of focus to its charitable giving program: Inclusion and Diversity. ITC Great Plains will award approximately $25,000 in 2023 to programs to create opportunities for underserved populations in local communities across its service territory.
The ITC Great Plains LGCA team is constantly evaluating its programs and striving to cultivate additional relationships to support both company and community objectives.
STEM
ITC Great Plains sponsors the Kansas KidWind Challenge, a hands-on event that encourages students of all ages to explore wind and solar energy throughout the country.
The Kidwind Challenge involves teams of students constructing small-scale wind turbines with a requirement of a KidWind generator being utilized in the structure. Teams rotated through the Judging Room, Knowledge Quiz, Wind Turbine Performance Testing, and an Instant Challenge. Different metrics are scored throughout each portion of the challenge and aggregated into a final result for each team. This is just one example of ITC’s commitment to supporting the vocations utilizing science, technology, engineering, and math.
Disaster Relief
During the COVID-19 pandemic, ITC Great Plains committed funding to economic development organizations with the charge for them to identify small businesses in their respective communities to receive support. The effort is part of ITC’s commitment to support relief agencies throughout its seven-state footprint.
The first round of ITC Great Plains funding supported Kansas and Oklahoma food banks, pantries, and soup kitchens, all of which reported a significant increase in demand for their services at a time when many struggled to secure the supplies and resources needed to survive the national COVID-19 crisis. During this initial round of funding, ITC provided funding to support the work of the Kansas Food Bank, Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma Southern Branch, and Meals on Wheels of Eastern Kansas. The second round of ITC Great Plains funding supported agencies that provide mental health and substance abuse services throughout Kansas and Oklahoma, including Compass Behavioral Health, High Plains Mental Health Center, and the Mental Health Association of Oklahoma.