“This new development fund has been very good news for our community, and we owe a debt of thanks to Holcim for their generosity,” SGCCF chairperson Sandra Cabot said. “The recipients have made it a point to express their appreciation for the grant funds. This program will make a very positive impact in the community.”

Members of the Ste. Genevieve County Community Development Fund Review Committee, county officials and recipients of the first round grants gathered at the Ste. Genevieve County 911 Emergency Dispatch Center for presentation of the grant awards.

“Many very worthy organizations requested grants from this fund and it was a very tough decision as to how to disperse the money,” said Art Armbruster, a member of the review committee. “We looked at the purpose of the request and how it would benefit the whole county to make sure we fulfilled our obligations to the Community Development Fund.”

The Ste. Genevieve County Community Foundation and the Ste. Genevieve County Commission will work with Holcim (US) Inc. as it contributes $200,000 to the fund annually for the next 14 years.

A total of $191,540 was awarded to support 13 proposals during the first official grantmaking round. The grant recipients and award amounts are as follows:

Bloomsdale Fire Department: $10,000 for pagers, rescue equipment, turnout gear, etc.
City of Ste. Genevieve Fire Dept.: $10,000 for training tools, nozzles, entry equipment, lights and fire extinguishing equipment
Kinsey Fire Department: $10,000 for safety gear & personal protective equipment
Lake Forest Fire Department: $10,000 to outfit brush truck, upgrade radios, add pulse oximeter and replace outdated AED
Ozora Fire Department: $10,000 for truck equipment upgrades, pagers, training
materials
St. Mary’s Fire Department: $10,000 for upgraded hoses and nozzles, Crossfire
monitor, rescue equipment
Weingarten Fire Department: $10,000 for monitor, hoses, nozzles and adapters
Wolf Creek Fire Department: $10,000 for rescue airbag lift kit, training, lights
Zell Fire Department: $10,000 for training materials, updated AED device firefighter health & safety
County Courthouse: $1,950 for security button system – partial funding
Ste. Genevieve County 911: $42, 950 for Reverse 911 emergency notification system
Sheriff Dept. of Ste. Genevieve County: $36,640 for police vehicle, communications and safety equipment
University of Missouri Extension Office: $20,000 for countywide technical assistance and educational programming in public safety and business development

The next grant application cycle for CDF grants will begin on September 1, 2006. Organizations can apply between September 1 and November 30 for 2007 grant funds. Eligible applicants must be a government entity or a not-for-profit organization.

For more information or a grant application, please visit the Ste. Genevieve County affiliate page or send a letter to: SGCCF, PO Box 247, Ste. Genevieve, Mo. 63670.

That activity, the “Kent Kehr Challenge,” has the potential to make a big difference in the lives of Eldon citizens for years to come. Kent Kehr, a 1949 graduate of Eldon High School, has pledged to match donations made to the Eldon Community Foundation up to $500,000.

Kehr, a 1953 graduate of Colgate University, finished his doctorate of law degree in 1956 and now practices law at Kehr & Associates, PC in St. Louis, Mo. An educator in the Eldon R-1 District made such an impact on Kehr’s life that he wants to give back to the Eldon community.

The kickoff event for the “Kent Kehr Challenge” will be held June 24 at the home of Eldon Community Foundation’s board president, Dennis Bond. The annual donor appreciation event will include music, a catered dinner and a short speech from Kehr. After this inaugural evening, the Eldon Community Foundation will begin what Bond calls “regular fundraising.” Eldon Community Foundation board members will speak to individuals and nonprofit organizations about the matching opportunity. Local groups like the Friends of the Animals and the Boy Scouts have already expressed an interest in partnering with the Eldon Community Foundation.

“We’re asking individuals to give $100 a year for 10 years for non-restricted grant money, but right now we hope they will give as much up front as possible for the match,” said Bond.
With a population of 5,000, the “Kent Kehr Challenge” will make a difference in the Eldon community. Programs often go unfunded because of a lack of matching dollars from the community, but future grants from the Eldon Community Foundation could change all that.
“The impact will be huge,” said Bond. “The school board had to cancel the gifted program because of no matching monies. The city tells me they don’t apply for improvement grants because there has to be matching money. That will be over. We’ll be able to do that.”

“When we first started out, we didn’t have much name recognition. People thought we cleaned the river because of our name,” said Karen Miller, President of the Finley River Community Foundation.

Five years later, the situation has changed considerably for the Finley River Community Foundation. Familiarity with the organization grew rapidly as Finley River Board of Directors members worked diligently to improve the quality of life in the communities nestled on the River’s banks. Today, the foundation’s market value for fiscal year 2006 stands at $484,055. Through the last fiscal year, they received more than $30,000 in contributions and made over $21,000 in charitable contributions.

Grant requests have increased substantially through the five year history of the Finley River Community Foundation. This year, Miller reports, was the first year that they were unable to fund all of the grant applications they received. The grants issued by the foundation had a far-reaching impact on the community. Grantees this year included the Children’s Smile Center, Least of These, Christian County Child Welfare Advocacy, and many others.

Recent distributions of seven grants totaling more than $4,000 helped expand learning opportunities for a number of Ozark students. Students at Ozark South Elementary will have the opportunity to further explore a featured topic from their curriculum when the Discovery Center’s (a CFO Endowment Partner, read more about the Discovery Center here.) education outreach program pays a visit to their school, thanks to one of the Foundation’s grants. Sharp new photos will soon appear in the Ozark Junior High yearbook and newspaper thanks to a grant that allowed the communication skills class to purchase a new digital camera.

Going forward, the Finley River Community Foundation will harness the momentum created in their most successful year to expand their presence in the community. Plans for the immediate future also include assembling a scholarship committee to help determine award winners for the growing number of scholarships being established through the Foundation. Already they are working with the local Chamber of Commerce to present grants. For others seeking a way to give back to the community, partnerships such as this will acquaint them with the Foundation and its important work.

“We started as a bunch of like-minded people who really believed that we could do something to make a difference where we live,” said Miller. “We want to get more like-minded people involved in the Foundation. That way we can help more people in the community.”

A program that the Greater Seymour Area Foundation works closely with is the Dolly Parton Imagination Library.

“(Parton) began this program after discovering that the illiteracy rate in her hometown was 35 percent amongst the adults,” Ron Giedd said. “While you can’t do much for the adults, you can start with the children and provide a way for them to learn how to read.”

The Dolly Parton Imagination Library provides a book a month to all registered children from birth to age 5. The books are selected by a panel of learning experts and mailed to the child.

“We do this for two program for two reasons,” Giedd said. “The philanthropic reason is to help kids get a start on their education, and the other reason is to get our name out there and develop recognition.”

Every book that goes into the household gets sent with the child’s name on it and says it is from the Greater Seymour Area Community Foundation.

The program has shown great results in improving the illiteracy rate as it lowered to 15 percent.

“The kids said, ‘Read me this book, mommy,’ and the parent had to learn to how,” Giedd said.

The cost per child is $30 a year. There are currently 62 children registered in the Seymour area for this program. To sustain this level of membership, the Greater Seymour Area Foundation needs additional donations.

“It’s a challenge to the community to keep this alive,” Giedd said. “We can’t take endowment money; this is a program that completely stands alone.”

To become a donor, or for more information, contact Renne Wallace at (417) 935-2888.

Established as the Carthage Community Foundation in 1999, the foundation awarded their first round of community grants and grew to almost one million dollars in total assets by 2002. The organization’s growth picked up steam over the following years and they reached the $4 million mark in total assets by 2006. That year also brought a significant expansion in the foundation’s service area as they expanded services to include Barton, Jasper, Newton and McDonald counties in their mission to enhance the quality of life in communities throughout the southwestern portion of Missouri. To reflect this regional commitment, the Carthage Community Foundation officially changed their name to the Community Foundation of Southwest Missouri, Inc.

As charitable funds have grown, so has the foundation’s grantmaking program. To date, the Community Foundation of Southwest Missouri, Inc. has made almost $2 million in charitable grants and distributions. This includes moneys distributed from scholarship funds, donor advised funds, family and community funds, and others.

The Curtis Rex Carter Science Scholarship Fund, established with the Community Foundation of Southwest Missouri, Inc. in November of 2006, awards a four-year, $5,000 scholarship to a graduate of a Jasper County high school pursuing a degree in an applied science field, such as engineering or chemistry. Curt Carter, a Carthage native, established the scholarship with an IRA transfer, using the IRA Charitable Rollover provision of the Pension Protection Act of 2006. (Read more about Mr. Carter’s scholarship fund here.)

Carter’s fund is one of 45 individual funds held by the Community Foundation of Southwest Missouri, Inc. and one of nine new funds established with the foundation during the 2007 fiscal year.

Like other community foundations, through their commitment to the towns and counties they serve, the Community Foundation of Southwest Missouri, Inc. has endeavored to preserve local history. These efforts preserve an authentic sense of place and regional identity as well as revitalizing residential and business districts.

The Endowment Partner program assists area nonprofits with endowment building and improving their capacity to improve service. (Learn more about CFO’s Endowment Partner program here.) The Powers Museum in Carthage is an important resource for the preservation and study of the city’s rich history through their archives, reference library, community events and education programs. The museum became a Community Foundation of Southwest Missouri, Inc. Endowment Partner in May 2007 when they established and organizational capacity building fund to assist them in managing their operational and program assets.

Two of the foundation’s donors and the Eastern Jasper County Historical Sites Association are working to renovate the historic one room Cave Spring School northeast of Sarcoxie. More than 160 years old, the one room school building has been a female academy, church, funeral parlor, a garrison for Union troops in the Civil War, and served briefly as the Jasper County Courthouse in the year following the Civil War. In 2005, the Missouri Alliance for Historic Preservation placed the school on its list of the ten most endangered state historic sites. Through their donor advised fund with the Community Foundation of Southwest Missouri, Inc. John and Carolyn Phelps are funding the improvements needed to preserve the historic building, such as replacing the roof and updating the exterior brick work, through a donor advised fund. Carolyn Phelps was one of the founding members of the Carthage Community Foundation, and has served on the board of directors since 1999.

“It’s a blessing. They’re going to make possible for future generations to see it,” Helen Hunter, Eastern Jasper County Historical Sites Association vice president, told the Carthage Press in July. “I think the Phelps are very foresighted people.”

Scholarships and historic preservation represent just a portion of the foundation’s efforts to enhance the quality of life in the communities they serve. Increasing levels of charitable assets will mean greater opportunities for the Community Foundation of Southwest Missouri, Inc. to positively impact the cities and towns they serve. And that is what ultimately makes the $5 million milestone such an important one.

“After 5 years we still feel new in this venture—we still feel like we have much to learn about building funds for our community, but we are nearly one quarter of a million dollars ahead of where we were when we started plus we have provided $117,000 for the enrichment of our community during that time,” President Kay Forest said. “We are proud of our successes and are confident that the next five years will be even more prosperous for us.”

Matching funds have been a motivator for the El Dorado Springs community. “Community Foundation of the Ozarks has provided matching funds which has been enormous in its power to leverage money,” Forest said. El Dorado Springs Community Foundation has also had employers match contributions made by employees which resulted in $3,000 becoming $9,000 when the employers of both spouses matched their charitable contributions.

“Certainly, Gary Funk and his staff at the Community Foundation of the Ozarks are the wind beneath our wings,” Forest said. “CFO resources represent the key in the development and growth of our regional community foundations. We can’t imagine that many rural communities would have discovered the benefits of this philanthropic opportunity if not for the vision of Gary Funk.”

The Houston Community Foundation was established in April 2006 by a group of community members under the leadership of Susan Warkentin, now president. In December 2006, the Houston Community Foundation formed its board of governors with nine members. Those members are: Susan Warkentin, Toni Coomes, Carol Dale, Jay Gentry, Curt Hugenot, David Keeney, Ron Reed, Dr. Joe Richardson, DDS, and Barb White.

The Houston Community Foundation is one of the newest affiliated Community Foundations for the Community Foundation of the Ozarks. Only one year into its existence, they have been able to develop close relationships with local nonprofits and the public schools, resulting in the establishment of several funds. Today, the Houston Community Foundation has eight funds and $6,310 in assets. Those funds include: Houston Community Grantmaking Endowment Fund, Houston R-1 Educational Foundation Fund, Houston R-1 Educational Foundation Endowment Fund, Houston R-1 Speech and Debate Fund, Texas County Technical Institute Capacity Building Fund, Texas County Technical Institute Endowment Fund, Texas County Technical Institute Scholarship Fund, and the Texas County Memorial Hospital (TCMH) Healthcare Foundation Fund.

Already the Houston Community Foundation has given its first grant from the Houston Community Grantmaking Endowment Fund. This $200 grant was given to the Texas County Public Library. The funds went into a capital campaign focused on building a new library building. Additionally, the Houston Community Foundation has shown commitment to the continual learning process of understanding Community Foundations by attending the Essential Questions Web Conference series together. Recently, participants from the Houston Community Foundation as well as the Houston Education Foundation and the Houston R-1 School District attended the Essential Questions series Web Conference together to learn about the establishment of scholarships at the Community Foundation of the Ozarks.

As the Houston Community Foundation grows and develops in its region, it is their hope to create an increasingly positive impact upon the charitable landscape of Houston and the Texas County area.