Community Concerns: New forms of funding reach communities

The power of endowment and the strength of public-private cooperation was celebrated on Oct. 5, when the Springfield Area Arts Council announced the first grants from last year's very successful Missouri Cultural Trust pilot program to build arts endowments in the Springfield area.

The opportunity to participate resulted from the Missouri Arts Council and the Missouri State Legislature program creating the Missouri Cultural Trust. The goal is to stabilize funding for the arts through long-term endowments utilizing state funds to leverage local and private investments in the arts.

A brochure prepared by SAAC last year said, "By 2008, the Missouri Cultural Trust aims to raise a total of 20 million dollars in public and private monies to stabilize funding of the arts in communities statewide.

This program has gained national attention for its progressive model, but, perhaps more importantly, is generating excitement in communities throughout Missouri, whose local arts programs will receive the funding needed to grow and thrive."

Area arts and arts related organizations added to existing endowments or established new endowments totaling $1.2 million, which has been matched by a set-aside of approximately $600,000 within the Missouri Cultural Trust.

Checks representing first-year earnings from these funds were presented at the Landers Theatre by June Hamra, a member of the Missouri Arts Council and representatives from the Springfield Area Arts Council.

Speakers at the event included Sen. Roseann Bentley, a member of the Missouri Senate and the Missouri Cultural Trust Board, and myself, representing Community Foundation of the Ozarks, which holds many of the local arts endowment funds.

Of special significance is the broad-based participation by arts organizations, a dozen of which were able to take advantage of this beneficial program.

Springfield became a model for the state with the local program, in which SAAC provided an umbrella fund allowing small arts organizations to participate, and arts supporters Rob, Sally and Tom Baird and Nancy Aton, through the Thomas H. and Josephine Baird Fund and the Ray F. Aton Memorial/SAAC Capacity Building Fund contributed significantly to the private match.

Phase 2 of the Missouri Cultural Trust endowment building program has just been launched by SAAC and Community Foundation.

Entitled the Greater Ozarks Arts Initiative, it extends the initiative to the area surrounding Springfield.

Affiliates of the Community Foundation of the Ozarks and arts councils in the Ozarks attended a meeting on Aug. 23 and were invited to participate. Early indications are that at least 15 communities are interested and will participate and two Community Foundation affiliates, the Greater Seymour Area Foundation and the Hickory County Community Foundation have already established arts endowments.

Another form of collaboration, private-private funding, may become a reality in southern Missouri if a pending grant proposal is accepted.

A national collaboration of regional associations of grant makers, with funding from large private foundations, has issued an RFP for the New Ventures in Philanthropy program, designed to extend the knowledge and use of philanthropic vehicles throughout a designated region.

In collaboration with the Ozarks Foothills Development Corporation in Poplar Bluff, Community Foundation of the Ozarks has submitted a proposal which would fund staff and program expenses over three years to provide outreach to underserved communities.

Designed to tie in with a soon-to-be-launched public education program entitled "Leave a Legacy," the tentatively titled Ozarks Philanthropy Project would incorporate collaborative governance, utilize the Internet in multiple ways, conduct town meetings and establish service offices in the eastern and western Missouri Ozarks.

Correction: In my last column, I erroneously described the Greater Ozarks Blues Festival as being "put on by" ddec.net and benefiting the Springfield Symphony and Springfield Little Theatre.

In fact, and happily, it is a partnership between the three organizations, initiated by the Springfield Symphony in 1997.

All three organizations coordinate the event and all three organizations divide the net proceeds.

(Jan Horton is president and CEO of the Community Foundation of the Ozarks. She is proud to be a lifelong volunteer, devotee of the arts, nature lover and environmentalist.)