The news earlier this week that Allen County Commissioners are reconsidering the second installment of a $100,000 pledge now due to the Allen County Community Foundation is hopefully no more than due diligence on their part. A new commission, after all, is not obligated to rubber-stamp decisions made by its predecessors. AS A REGION, we all stand to gain from the Allen County Community Foundation.
More than a year ago, commissioners pledged $100,000 to the newly emerging countywide foundation in an effort to attract a $500,000 grant from the Kansas Health Foundation.
Based on the evident widespread support from public and private entities, the KHF awarded Allen County the $500,000 as part of its GROW initiative — Giving Resources to Our World. The purpose of GROW is to strengthen community foundations as a permanent source of local funding.
The sizable grant works as a drawdown, matching individual grants with either 25 percent or 50 percent matches, depending on the giver’s intent. Gifts to the foundation solely for its purpose of perpetuity, result in the two-to-one match.
In the county’s case, the Wichita-based foundation said it would give $25,000 to the local foundation as a match. It has given half of that commitment to date. County commissioners directed the earnings on the $100,000 pledge to provide programs that benefit the environment, such as a recycling program or clean-up projects.
The county pledge comes from its landfill budget, which, according to County Counselor Alan Weber, “has the funds” to see the commitment fulfilled.
More importantly, the county’s pledge helps secure the continued funding from the Kansas Health Foundation. Under the grant’s conditions, the county foundation must raise $50,000 in pledges each year for the next five years to keep in its good graces. An additional reward is a $17,500 operating grant to help keep the local foundation’s doors open.
In securing the grant to the Kansas Health Foundation, it was important to note local buy-in to the Allen County Community Foundation. The late Donna Talkington, for instance, was one of the first foundation supporters, and left a gift to its corpus in her will. Other contributions have come from the Allen County Hospice, Home Health and Lifeline fund, the Allen County Healthcare Foundation, as well as other private donations.
To date, the foundation has an endowment of $300,000, with another $650,000 pledged to the new hospital through the Uniting for Excellence campaign, which the foundation is managing.
The income earned from the investments of these pledges is what goes to local entities. In Parsons, for example, its community foundation funds go to its historical society, the county health foundation, the police department’s chaplaincy program, support for the local farmers market, the Parsons Fire Department, area school districts, the county fair, county 4-H programs, county animal shelter, food bank, municipal band, and local Red Cross chapter, just to pull a few names from its long list of recipients.
The Allen County Community Foundation is under the direction of Iolan Susan Michael, who works to raise funds and direct them to donors’ wishes. Foundation board members include Gary Parker, Moran farmer, Jeff Livingston, Iola Walmart manager, Angela Henry, SAFE BASE director, Beth Barlow of Humboldt’s B&W Trailer Hitches, Alan Weber, counselor to Allen County Commissioners, and Gary McIntosh, former Iola insurance agent and past county commissioner.
As community foundations across the country show, investors, including the county, will see a return on their investments — and more.
— Susan Lynn
