About Us

Formed by Andrew Panzo, Todd Pittman and Michael Bailey in 2005, Community Backstop was founded on the principle of raising money through charitable contributions and events in an effort to distribute the money to individuals and families encountering life-altering circumstances.

Our Advisory Board is committed to personally reviewing each and every situation set before them and helping as many individuals and families as possible. We’d like to offer a warm CB welcome to the newest member of our board, Joe Waterman, whose family has been a generous and devoted supporter of CB for quite a while.  We’d also like to offer our gratitude to Jennie Minnick and Rob Lodge who are stepping off the board this year.  The Community Backstop Advisory Board members are:

Grant Guidelines

Once a Candidate has been identified, one or more members of the Advisory Board will gather information including details on the hardship or circumstances facing the Candidate, their financial situation and resources, and character references. Once evaluated, a unanimous vote of the board is required to approve a Candidate for a grant. The board will also determine the amount of the grant by taking specific factors into consideration:

• The individual or family has a verifiable need for financial assistance as a result of a specific circumstance or hardship, such as:

• Health or medical issue;
• Catastrophic event (e.g. fire, natural disaster) which has caused substantial damage to Candidate’s home or well being; and
• Other personal problems which would be completely or partially alleviated by a cash grant from Community Backstop.

• The Candidate has limited financial resources with which to deal with the circumstance or hardship;
• The Candidate has been an upstanding and reputable member of his or her community;
• The purpose of the grant (i.e., pay medical bills, etc.); and
• The available resources of Community Backstop.