Community Foundation of the Ozarks

Meramec Regional Community Foundation President Laura Antolak (left) listens to Secretary-Treasurer Richard Cavender, at a recent organizing meeting in St. James.

The Community Foundation of the Ozarks welcomes the Meramec Regional Community Foundation as its 42^nd affiliate.

This represents the CFO’s first collaboration with a planning commission: The Meramec Foundation is a new venture within the Meramec Regional Planning Commission, which serves eight counties in central Missouri – Crawford, Dent, Gasconade, Maries, Osage, Phelps, Pulaski and Washington – and 32 cities within those counties.

The MRPC provides economic development assistance, housing assistance, planning and development expertise, solid-waste management, emergency-management planning, grant writing and administration, small-business loans, transportation planning, and other communication and community-building services.

The newly created Foundation will support community charitable grantmaking within its service area. The Community Foundation’s existing affiliates within this region will continue to operate their own asset-building and grantmaking programs based on their specific priorities.

Meramec Regional Community Foundation President Laura Antolak said the Foundation was a natural outgrowth of the services provided by the regional planning commission.

CFO President Brian Fogle said he expect the existing affiliates within this area to continue doing their important work; the new Foundation will provide a means to expand to other underserved areas that aren’t being reached by existing community foundations.

The organizing board members for the Meramec Regional Community Foundation are: President Laura Antolak; Vice-President Russell Scheulen; and Secretary-Treasurer Richard Cavender. Each county in the Meramec region will have a representative on the MRCF board and appointments are underway.

The 2010 “10 Weeks Festival” of Springfield area arts events exceeded its goal by raising more than $11,000, which will be shared evenly between the Care to Learn Program for Springfield Public Schools and the Arts in Action endowment fund.

The “10 Weeks Festival” surpassed its $10,000 goal by raising $11,354, with donations coming in throughout June after the official festival events concluded in late May.

The primary fundraising took place at more than 100 performing and visual arts events where patrons contributed $1 or more at a time throughout the 10-week period. This year’s festival also included the first-time “Flights of Fancy” event celebrating the one-year anniversary of the Springfield-Branson National Airport in May.

The “Care to Learn” program was created to meet health, hunger and hygiene needs for Springfield Public Schools students.

“The partnership between the arts community and ‘Care to Learn’ strengthens our community not only by serving those in need, but by allowing a new generation to explore their potential through the arts,” Founder Doug Pitt said.

The Arts Programming Sustainability Initiative oversees the Arts in Action education endowment fund at the CFO. The goal is to develop sustainable operational funding sources for the arts and therefore allow Springfield arts agencies to concentrate on presenting quality  programming for the region.

The Community Foundation of the Ozarks announces the opening of its 2010-11 grantmaking process with a series of initiatives aimed at strengthening non-profit service providers and schools across southwest Missouri.

The new grantmaking programs include:

Metropolitan Springfield Red-Flag Response Grants – The Community Foundation will offer $225,000 in challenge grants intended to help support existing programs of Springfield area non-profits that address red-flag issues identified in the 2009 Community Focus Report for Springfield-Greene County.

Coover Regional Poverty Grants – This program will award grants to support new or innovative non-profit programs outside of Springfield-Greene County aimed at fighting rural poverty. These grants are made possible through the Louis L. and Julia Dorothy Coover Charitable Foundation Regional Grantmaking Program, which is a partnership between the CFO and Commerce Trust Company.

Agency Partners Endowment-Building Grants – These grants, offered to the more than 350 non-profit agencies that partner with the Community Foundation, are intended to support efforts to plan, develop and implement endowment-building programs. These can be used for projects such as promotional materials, fundraisers, information/education programs and other awareness efforts.

The Rural Schools Partnership also has three grant cycles now open.

For more information on the CFO’s grantmaking programs, please e-mail Julie Leeth, Executive Vice President, or call her at (417) 864-6199.