Society of Founders Fund

When Eau Claire residents saw the need for a community foundation to support local nonprofits, they met that need in a big way.

ECCF’s first Board of Trustees met in January 1997 and established a goal to recruit 25 Society of Founders members by the end of 1998. Each Founder would be asked to commit at least $10,000 to the new community foundation.

When the deadline arrived, a whopping 64 Founders had pledged more than $1 million. Their gifts established the Society of Founders Fund, which allows ECCF to sustain its operations without having to compete with other nonprofits for funding.

“This Fund is key to ECCF’s success,” explained ECCF Executive Director Sue Bornick. “Without it, we’d have to do ongoing fundraising for operations. The Founders’ generosity ensures that we can devote all our energy to serving donors and supporting nonprofits forever.”

As an Unrestricted Fund, the Society of Founders Fund can also issue grants to nonprofits. It supported $100,000 towards the four Grant Catalog cycles that distributed more than $300,000 to local nonprofits in the year leading up to ECCF’s 25th Anniversary.

Thanks to the Founders’ vision, ECCF has been able to help local nonprofits improve Eau Claire’s quality of life for a quarter century, and it will be there for them far into the future.

15 YEARS

25 YEARS

130

64 $350,541 Grants issued to nonprofits Members Total grants to nonprofits

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ECCF’s first Board of Trustees set a goal to recruit 25 Society of Founders members. When the deadline arrived, ECCF had 64.