Community Foundation of the Ozarks

The Monett Area Community Foundation Board of Directors hosted about 40 community members at a  first-time “Celebrate a Legacy” event Saturday night to learn more about the impact charitable giving has had on Monett.

Founded in 1998, the MACF now holds about $1.3 million in charitable assets in about 35 funds.

Representatives of Camp Barnabas, the YMCA, The Den, and RockOn set up displays to show the impact of charitable gifts for their groups. The Monett Youth Empowerment Project chapter told its story through a Powerpoint and video presentation outlining its youth grantmaking efforts and having students describe what participating in YEP has meant to them.

Two MACF founding members also described their experiences with charitable gifts and planned giving.

Rod Anderson said he established the Howard and Dorothy Anderson Education Assistance Fund to honor his “working middle class” parents who both graduated from Monett High School in 1939. He designated the endowed scholarship fund for non-traditional students who have to work their way through college.

Frank Compton told the story of how he and other MACF founders worked to transfer a portion of an estate left by EFCO and Clark Industries founder Tom Clark and his wife, Mary Dell, who died in a motorcycle crash in Europe. Instead of ending up in probate court, estate proceeds established the Tom and Mary Dell Clark Memorial Fund through the Community Foundation of the Ozarks. That became the impetus to set up the Monett Area Community Foundation as an affiliate of the CFO. The fund now supports the Clark Community Mental Health Center, which provides crisis assistance and treatment services for residents in Barry and Lawrence counties with mental illness, substance-abuse problems and developmental disabilities.

CFO President Brian Fogle said such legacies are important to fill the gaps created by decreased public funding for education and human services.

“A Community Foundation is just a means of helping gather local resources for local challenges,” Fogle said, noting last week’s announcement of the CFO’s grantmaking milestone. “People like you are the reason we’ve been able to give out $100 million over the past 38 years.”

MACF President Mark Nelson summed up the challenge to the community members to consider charitable giving as part of their family financial and estate planning.

“What do you want your footprint to look like?” he asked.

Guests attending today's event applaud the announcement of the $100 million milestone.

The Community Foundation of the Ozarks today announced that it has surpassed the $100 million milestone in making grants and distributions throughout the Ozarks over its 38-year history.

This milestone reflects grants and distributions made through the CFO’s grantmaking programs, the affiliate foundation community grantmaking programs, donor-advised grants, scholarship awards, and distributions made on behalf of non-profit agency and school partners.

Founded in 1973 as the Community Foundation of Greene County, Inc., the non-profit, tax-exempt organization was formed “to provide a way for the charitable desires of people of large means and small to be given permanent useful expression in furthering the welfare of the community.”

The original incorporators were organized by former Mayor Jim Payne, who later was elected to the Greene County Commission. The incorporators and past and present board members were recognized for their service at Wednesday’s announcement.

The Community Foundation’s first grant was made in 1974 when an anonymous donor contributed $10,000 for a petting zoo at the Dickerson Park Zoo. It operated as a volunteer organization until 1988 when Jan Horton was hired as its first staff member. Later named the first president, Horton was succeeded by Gary Funk, who served from 2003 until July 2010 when Brian Fogle was named the CFO’s third president.

“There are a million different stories represented in that $100 million and all were because of the founding board members who cared about their community, and wanted to leave it better than they found it,” Fogle said. “They have left a lasting legacy.”

Re-named the Community Foundation of the Ozarks, Inc., in 1994, the organization now includes 43 affiliate foundations, 381 non-profit agency and school partners, 1,965 funds and assets of $172 million as of Dec. 31, 2010.

Stories on KOLR and KSMU offer more coverage of the event.

The announcement was made Wednesday to coincide with the Metropolitan Springfield Red-Flag Response Challenge Grant presentations to 19 non-profit agencies that received $217,093 in matching funds. With these matching funds, the agencies raised more than $434,000 to support programs representing early childhood development, hunger, health and human services, education, and housing stabilization.

For the third year, this annual grant cycle has been linked to the “red flags” identified in the Community Focus Report for Springfield-Greene County. The grants were awarded to sustain and enhance successful existing programs that work to address community red flags. After the challenge grants were announced in October 2010, the agencies had until Feb. 28, 2011 to raise their matching funds.

The requests for this grant cycle totaled more than $400,000. The CFO expresses its appreciation to the volunteer grant committee comprised of: Dr. Gloria Galanes and Dr. Tom Prater, Co-Chairs and CFO board members; David Yaktine; Dr. Janie Vestal; Ferba Lofton; Tom DenOuden; Debbie Shantz; and Carol Cruise, with staff support from CFO Executive Vice President Julie Leeth.

Perhaps the largest presence in a room chock full of civic energy and pride was the one who was not there.

On Thursday night, the Nixa Community Foundation honored as its Citizen of the Year the late Betty Ann Rogers, a spirited volunteer and NCF board member who died unexpectedly last year at just 64.

Betty Ann was determined to contribute to Nixa when they moved to the community in 1998, said Mitch Callicott, whose moving tribute to his partner of 23 years stilled the room. She threw herself into every volunteer role with the same spirit and passion she put into her friendships and voracious reading habit, he said.

“We wanted to make this community our own,” Callicott said.

“I can only ask that we remember Betty Ann for what she was – energetic, loving, active and involved – and learn from her example. Become involved and make your mark. When you deeply and truly believe in something, you’ll make a difference.”

Every one of the citizens honored Thursday are making a difference in Nixa – at the schools, protecting the public, helping kids, and supporting community projects.

Another CFO partner, Holly Beadle, was honored as the school district’s Volunteer of the Year for her service including the Nixa Education Foundation Board.

President Sharon Whitehill Gray and the Board members distributed $46,591 in community grants to 24 organizations. As the CFO’s first affiliate in 1993 and now with the largest community grantmaking program, Nixa has awarded a total of $836,654 and has assets of more than $1.8 million in 50 community and school funds.

“You are to be congratulated for having the energy and resources that it takes to create a vibrant community,” CFO President Brian Fogle said.

And a special grant was presented to Mitch Callicott and Betty Ann’s step-daughter Shelby Rogers for the Betty Ann Rogers Community Fund. She was a member of the CFO’s Legacy Society for the Nixa Community Foundation. She understood the significance of making her mark for good on Nixa – the place she’d come to consider home.

NCF Vice President Ken Worthley had spoken earlier in the evening about what planned gifts like Betty Ann’s had meant to the community over the years.

“Each of us has the opportunity to plan how we want to give back to the community,” he said, recalling how philanthropic dollars helped create the park he played in as a kid.

“We have to plan for what we want things to be,” he said. “We are the ones reaping the benefits of their plans.”