Community foundations play key role in giving

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The Community Foundation of the Ozarks, which manages charitable endowment funds, fills a unique role in the community, said President and Chief Executive Officer Jan Horton. |ret||ret||tab|

In an endowment fund the contributed sum is invested and never spent; only the interest is spent. "That translates the charitable gift into an ongoing gift," she said. "It's a different kind of giving than just giving to an organization each year. It's ma-king permanent your deeply held values and charitable im-pulses."|ret||ret||tab|

The Community Foundation of the Ozarks was established in 1973 and operated without a staff until 1988, when Horton became the first person hired by the foundation's board of directors.|ret||ret||tab|

"We have four basic elements to our mission," said Vice Pres-ident Gary Funk. First, the foundation builds charitable en-dowment funds. Secondly, he said, "we implement community grant-making programs in Springfield and a number of other Ozarks communities." |ret||ret||tab|

The third element is working to promote collaboration be-tween different organizations and institutions in the community. And lastly, he said, "we provide community leadership for the different communities that we serve."|ret||ret||tab|

In addition to serving the Springfield metropolitan area, the foundation has 13 affiliate foundations in Benton County, Carthage, Dallas County, Dent County, El Dorado Springs, the Ozark area, Hickory County, Lockwood, Monett, Nixa, Sey-mour, the Clinton area, and Willow Springs. |ret||ret||tab|

"That is really our area of expansion and growth," Horton said. "We want to try to serve all of southern Missouri through community foundation affiliates." According to Funk, each of the affiliate foundations are autonomous entities with their own governing boards, but their funds are comingled to obtain greater investment power. |ret||ret||tab|

"In many regards we're somewhat analogous to a philanthropic co-op for this region," he said. "We provide staff support and technical assistance, and we work together to leverage resources into southwest and southern Missouri."|ret||ret||tab|

In the past two years assets in the affiliate foundations have increased more than 600 percent, he said, from about $300,000 to more than $2 million. |ret||ret||tab|

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Community efforts|ret||ret||tab|

When a group of community leaders wants to establish a community foundation for a county, town or area, they begin by holding meetings. |ret||ret||tab|

"We assist them as they begin nurturing this concept," Funk said. "Our role is really as an educator and facilitator. We explain the steps involved. What we do is more of an educational service and technical assistance than fund raising." |ret||ret||tab|

Community Foundation of the Ozarks manages approximately 380 funds worth more than $40 million, he said. "It's a constellation of different kinds of funds." |ret||ret||tab|

Some of the funds are unrestricted, which means they can be used for any purpose. |ret||ret||tab|

"Because we are a public foundation," said Horton, "we have the obligation to serve all the needs of the community." This is accomplished through the foundation's ongoing community grant-making program.|ret||ret||tab|

"Last year we distributed about $1.8 million in grants," Funk said. |ret||ret||tab|

According to Debbie Myers, program officer, the foundation awards grants in seven areas: human services, community betterment, education, social justice, health, arts and culture. Three grant panels meet and make recommendations to the board of directors. The board then has final approval.|ret||ret||tab|

"We prefer projects that are collaborative in nature, which address vital ongoing community services and provide innovative solutions for existing problems or emerging needs," Myers said.|ret||ret||tab|

"Another grant committee oversees the management of funds for which donors requested a more specific use," she added.|ret||ret||tab|

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Foundation funds|ret||ret||tab|

Funk said monies come into the foundation in the form of donor gifts, organizations putting their funds with the foundation, and planned giving through bequests and wills. Last year the Community Founda-tion of the Ozarks overall brought in more than $9 million in new philanthropic assets, Funk said. "Almost half of that came from gifts that were related to either wills or bequests."|ret||ret||tab|

Some charitable funds provide life income to the donor, Horton said. In this popular form of planned giving, the donor gives cash or assets to the foundation, and a life income is provided to the donor. At the donor's death, that fund is used to meet charitable needs in the community as specified by the donor. Often the assets that are gifted were non-income producing assets, she said, so the donor will receive the same or better income during his or her life while providing a future gift for the community. |ret||ret||tab|

Horton, who belongs to the Greene County Estate Planning Council, said she tries to make herself personally available to professionals in the field. "We also provide a weekly e-mail newsletter called eGift Law' with information about charitable and tax-wise giving," she said. |ret||ret||tab|

"We're always available at any time," she added. "We feel that those professionals who advise our charitably inclined donors are always happy to receive more information on the types of giving available." |ret||ret||tab|

The foundation and its affiliates participated in the Missouri Cultural Trust and collaborated with 30 different arts organizations and brought $1 million in endowed philanthropy for the arts into non-urban areas of southern Missouri, Funk said. "These are monies that would not have been available to these small communities had we not been collaborating."|ret||ret||tab|

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Community projects|ret||ret||tab|

Ron Giedd, president of the board of governors of the Greater Seymour Area Founda-tion, said that because of this collaboration, the foundation now has a cultural arts fund with $30,000 and has created the Seymour Arts Council to make decisions on how to use the fund.|ret||ret||tab|

The Seymour affiliate was started in September 1998. "Without the Community Foun-dation of the Ozarks, this foundation would not exist," said Giedd. "They represent an enormous pool of talent and re-sources for us." The Communi-ty Foundation of the Ozarks provides support and handles the administrative work so that the Seymour foundation's board of directors can concentrate on raising funds, determining fields of interest in grants and getting the word out about the foundation, he said. "The Com-munity Foundation of the Ozarks is an absolutely indispensable organization for the small towns of this area." |ret||ret||tab|

The Finley River Community Foundation, which serves the Ozark area, became an affiliate in September, said Elise Crain, a member of the foundation's board of governors and a key figure in the foundation's creation.|ret||ret||tab|

Familiar with the Community Foundation of the Ozarks, Crain gathered some friends who were active in the Ozark community and together they started the Finley River Community Foundation. "It's going very well," she said. "We have six named funds already and an unrestricted fund."|ret||ret||tab|

A fashion and image seminar held Dec. 28 helped raise the rest of the funds needed to begin awarding grants.|ret||ret||tab|

"The idea (for the foundation) originated because people wanted to be able to use and leave money in our community," Crain said. Grants will be given in several areas including technology for schools and organizations, she said. "We hope to do a lot for education." |ret||ret||tab|

By partnering with the Com-munity Foundation of the Ozarks, "we can take advantage of their experience and knowledge," Crain said. "We're excited to have an opportunity to learn from them. Their community spirit is contagious."[[In-content Ad]]