CFO distributes record $8.3M in fiscal 2007

SBJ Staff

Posted online December 18, 2007 | 9:38 am

Community Foundation of the Ozarks set a record in fiscal 2007 with $8.3 million in grants and charitable distributions made to various programs and nonprofit agencies.

The public foundation, which has nearly 1,400 charitable funds created by donors and organizations, released its fiscal 2007 annual report Monday.

CFO received $17 million in contributions for the year, and a record 183 new funds were established, according to the report. When the year ended June 30, total assets exceeded $136 million.

About $7.6 million of the year’s contributions came from donors outside of Springfield, and new regional community foundations were established in Ash Grove, Aurora and Oregon County. CFO now partners with 41 regional community foundations in southern Missouri.

The year also saw the launch of CFO’s Stewardship Ozarks Initiative, which aims to preserve the region’s environment through endowment building, planned giving and targeted grantmaking, according to a CFO news release. About $130,000 in conservation grants were made this year, and the initiative will provide $1 million in challenge grants in the next two years to enhance building efforts of local conservation organizations.

The endowment building challenge is made possible by a major gift from Johnny Morris on behalf of Wonders of Wildlife and other local donors, according to the release.

CFO also completed the second year of its five-year Grantmakers Challenge for Children, designed to direct charitable dollars to address the challenges identified in “Community Focus: A Report for Springfield and Greene County.” So far, 28 organizations and families have committed or granted more than $10 million to solutions to these children’s issues, according to the release.

The Louis and Dorothy Coover Regional Grantmaking Program also set a record in fiscal 2007. The program – a partnership between CFO and Commerce Trust Co. – awarded $230,000 to 11 Ozarks agencies during the year, the largest amount awarded since the program began in 2002, according to the release.

Since its 1973 inception, CFO has distributed more than $40 million throughout the Ozarks; the organization expects to surpass $50 million in fiscal 2008.