POWER OF GIVING Pender-Thurston Education & Community Foundation Fund
Unrestricted Endowment Campaign
1
WE HAVE SPIRIT IN THE PENDERTHURSTON COMMUNITY. A spirit of determination. Of confidence. Of hope.
Time and again, we have demonstrated what our community is capable of when hearts and hands are set to a task. In part because of that spirit, our community was selected to participate in a challenge grant opportunity. The challenge is to raise $500,000 in unrestricted endowment funds for the Pender-Thurston Education & Community Foundation Fund. Once this goal is achieved, The Sherwood Foundation will grant our Fund an additional $250,000. Recognizing the power of a permanent endowment, the Pender-Thurston Education & Community Foundation Fund is embarking on the Power of Giving campaign. The campaign will build our community’s unrestricted permanent endowment, helping to ensure quality of life in our community for generations to come. The campaign will honor and celebrate the place where we raise our children, build our businesses, live our lives and achieve our dreams. It is exciting to imagine what a $750,000 boost in endowment means for the PenderThurston community!
The people here are very giving. If we want to get something done, we’re willing to put our money on the line; but we are also willing to put our time and resources on the line. Connie Wichman 2
THE POWER OF PHILANTHROPY
P
ender-Thurston Education & Community Foundation Fund was formed by a small group of local leaders in 2004 to rekindle and deepen a belief in the future of Pender and Thurston. The Fund fosters a spirit of philanthropy in addressing current and future opportunities that make our community a better place to live and work.
A lot of the ideas in the community involve the Foundation Fund. The Fund makes a difference. It provides money. It provides scholarships. It provides an avenue for more people to donate in ways that make sense for them. The Fund provides an avenue to make good use of a donor’s dollar.
Community projects supported by the Fund have included equipment for the Thurston and Pender Fire Departments, defibrillators for Pender Public Schools and the Main Street sound system. Other grants awarded include support for the Veterans Memorial Park, the flower pots project and Thurston playground.
In 2013, the Fund provided startup costs to launch the nonprofit Main Street Dr. Jean Karlen Thriftique Boutique. With the help of volunteers, Thriftique took off and, in just two years, contributed nearly $80,000 back into the communities of Pender and Thurston. Pender-Thurston Education & Community Foundation Fund scholarships go to both traditional and non-traditional students. To date, more than 40 scholarships totaling more than $20,000 have been awarded. Non-traditional scholarships have helped area teachers return to college for certification to teach dual-credit courses. Teachers certified for dual-credit courses give local students the chance to take college credit classes while still in high school at a significantly lower cost to their families. The Fund supports the Pender Community Center project to create a community space for residents and a way to attract families back to this area. The Fund awarded grants to the Community Center for the architectural feasibility study as well as for marketing support.
Leslie Timm is the school nurse for Pender Public Schools. She described the importance of the grant funds from PenderThurston Education & Community Foundation Fund: We’ve got a great school and an involved community that supports many events at the school. Our school funds training for staff to be able to handle almost any emergency – severe allergies, asthma attacks, seizures. But the one thing that we didn’t have, that many large schools do, was a defibrillator. The cost and maintenance of medical equipment that hopefully is never needed is too much for small schools with limited resources. After reaching out to a few larger foundations looking for granting opportunities, I turned to our local Fund for help. Within a few short weeks, we had a defibrillator and staff was trained and ready to use it for any student, athlete, or public emergency. And just this year, the Fund granted us a second defibrillator for use at other school facilities. The second defibrillator will be used part of the year at the football complex and the other part of the year at the baseball/softball complex.
33
THE POWER OF UNRESTRICTED ENDOWMENT
T
he endowment is a permanent fund that benefits our community in perpetuity. Your contribution to an endowment is a “forever” gift that increases over time. While Pender-Thurston Education & Community Foundation Fund grants out a portion of the income earned by the unrestricted endowment each year, the principal – and your gift – is left intact to continue to build the fund. As a result, each contribution to the permanent endowment is a powerful tool to help assure sustainability and vitality of our community through future generations. A strong unrestricted endowment brings both long and short-term benefits for the Pender-Thurston community. Long-term, the endowment will assure financial support of community needs we cannot even envision today. This provides unlimited possibilities to future generations. More immediately, a strong unrestricted endowment makes a significant difference in our ability to support local causes. A $750,000 increase will raise our permanent endowment to over $1 million and enable the Fund to award meaningful grants – both in size and number. As an affiliated fund of Nebraska Community Foundation, Pender-Thurston Education & Community Foundation Fund receives financial management, strategic development and educational services. Affiliation with Nebraska Community Foundation provides advantages both in safekeeping and independent auditing of our endowment fund. The graph below illustrates how a $750,000 endowment and its grantmaking capacity will increase over a 20-year time period. Within 20 years, cumulative community investments will have surpassed the original endowment balance.
It’s the friendliness of the community, the way people treat each other. Everyone works together on major projects that are needed. A lot of people get involved in trying to improve the community. We may be a small community; but, if everybody gets involved, it creates a sense of wellbeing. Randy Rink
The Power of Endowment $1.2m $1m
Endowment Balance
$800k
Cumulative Grantmaking Over Time
$600k $400k $200k $0
4
Beginning Balance
After 5 years
After 10 years
After 15 years
After 20 years
This example uses the following assumptions: 7.50% return (net of fees), 4.5% annual endowment payout, Asset Allocation: 75% equities, 25% fixed income, Support Fee rates remain at the FY 2015 rate.
OUR FUND IS ABOUT PEOPLE C ommunity is not an abstract concept. Community is about people. Support for the Fund comes from young couples and older persons, as well as former residents who grew up in the Pender-Thurston community and now live elsewhere. Our Fund provides an opportunity for all of us to give something back to the place we love. The Fund Advisory Committee, made up of Pender-Thurston area residents, provides oversight for the endowment and makes grant decisions. Fund Advisory Committee members are diverse in age, occupations, expertise and perspectives. In 2013, Fund Advisory Committee members learned of the “Building Community Capacity in Rural Nebraska” initiative to increase unrestricted endowment and build leadership capacity. To qualify for a challenge grant, committee members participated in an intensive, competitive application process along with 15 other community funds affiliated with Nebraska Community Foundation. Pender-Thurston Education & Community Foundation Fund was one of only four Nebraska community funds selected to receive a challenge grant. For every $2 in unrestricted contributions to the permanent endowment received by December 31, 2018, The Sherwood Foundation will grant $1 in unrestricted funds to our permanent endowment, up to a maximum of $250,000. As community leaders – demonstrating philanthropy with both dollars and time – each member of the Fund Advisory Committee has pledged a contribution to this endowment campaign.
I want our communities to be a place my children and grandchildren are proud to call home for years to come. I want them to view the Pender-Thurston area as a viable choice when considering where to put down roots. I hope they can look back with pride at what has been accomplished here. Kelly Ballinger 5
FOR THE FUTURE
A
gift to the unrestricted endowment of the PenderThurston Education & Community Foundation Fund is a gift to our children and the generations to come. What will be important to the next generation of business and civic leaders? By contributing to our Fund – with strong leadership, broadly defined community goals and sound financial management – you can be confident the future of our community will be well served for decades to come. To support this campaign is to be part of something significant: creating a legacy for coming generations. An investment in our Fund is an investment in the Pender-Thurston community. All unrestricted gifts to the campaign will go to the permanent endowment to ensure funds are always available to improve the lives of children and families in our community. The endowment will continue to grow, meeting needs and opportunities now and in the future, and providing the flexibility to respond to changing times.
6
We have the power to create hope in our community. We have the power to shape the future in a place that holds value to us. Together, our charitable giving can address the current and future opportunities that make our area a better place to live and work.
Moe Wenke
NOW IS THE TIME.
T
ime does not stand still; it powers forward. So must a community. We cannot and will not rest on our laurels. There is much more to accomplish.
The Sherwood Foundation has put forward a generous challenge grant of $250,000. We cannot pass up this opportunity to build a permanent endowment for the future of Pender and Thurston.
Join us. Step forward. Make a difference. Now is the time to embark on this journey.
Let’s put the power of giving to work and make this campaign a success.
OUR PARTNERS Nebraska Community Foundation (NCF) serves communities, organizations and donors throughout Nebraska with a range of services, including financial management, strategic development, education, training and peer learning to affiliated funds statewide. NCF works to build relationships with community leaders, donors and their financial advisors to help them achieve the impacts that charitable giving can have on community economic development outcomes. NCF encourages community leaders to build on this ethic to use charitable giving to address the current and future opportunities that make rural communities better places to live and work. By building permanent community assets, NCF reaches out to help everyone deepen or rekindle their belief in the future of their hometown.
Susan A. Buffett established The Sherwood Foundation in 1999. Reflecting her deep hometown roots and belief in social justice, the foundation focuses on racial and social equity initiatives in Omaha, particularly early childhood education, public education and poverty alleviation. In recent years, The Sherwood Foundation has broadened its efforts to partner with communities across the state of Nebraska. The intent is to help community members strengthen the places they call home, build local capacity and deepen participation in community life. The opportunity to work with the Pender-Thurston Education & Community Foundation Fund exemplifies The Sherwood Foundation’s hope to build partnerships of shared learning and collaboration in service to the common good we enjoy as fellow Nebraskans. 7
HOW YOU CAN HELP
Y
our generous gift will not only help build the unrestricted endowment today; it will continue to grow and keep giving tomorrow. Below are a number of ways you can support the Power of Giving campaign:
Cash – A gift of cash may be eligible for income tax deductions as prescribed by current law. Your cash gift may be by check, credit card or electronic funds transfer, which authorizes the automatic transfer of funds each month from your checking or savings account. Pledging a gift over several years may allow you to increase its size and effect, while adjusting the timing and amount of each payment to optimize your tax position.
Marketable securities – A gift of publicly-traded stock, bonds or mutual fund shares is eligible to be matched by The Sherwood Foundation at the full fair market value. Such a gift may provide you with additional tax benefits, as you will not pay capital gains tax on the appreciation in the value of the securities. Gifts of IRA – Individuals who have reached age 70½ may
contribute up to $100,000 directly from their Individual Retirement Account (IRA), without having to recognize the IRA distribution as taxable income. If married, each spouse can transfer up to $100,000 from his or her IRA.
Agricultural commodities – Gifts of grain or livestock may
provide significant income tax savings to a producer. Because the property is gifted, no revenue is recognized, and the cost of production may still be deducted as a business expense. Please note checks may be made payable to “Pender-Thurston Education & Community Foundation Fund” and mailed to: Pender-Thurston Education & Community Foundation Fund PO Box 662 Pender, NE 68047 As with all financial considerations, we encourage you to discuss potential tax advantages and other aspects of charitable giving with your attorney, tax adviser or financial consultant.
OUR LEADERSHIP Power of Giving Campaign Committee Honorary Chairs
Joan and Norman Moeller LG Norman
Campaign Chair Tony Smith
Committee Members Carol Hilker, Campaign Coordinator Katie Gutzman Susan Jensen Neal Kubik Mark Lorensen Randy Moeller Kent Weborg Ray Welsh
Pender-Thurston Education & Community Foundation Fund Advisory Committee Kelly Ballinger Katie Gutzmann Carol Hilker Neal Kubik Corky Malmberg Randy Moeller Bob Rainer Jason Roth Tony Smith Leslie Timm Jane Tonjes Kent Weborg
Pender-Thurston Education & Community Foundation Honorary Committee Members Susan Jensen Mark Lorensen Deb Welsh Ray Welsh Moe Wenke
OUR VISION
8
Pender-Thurston is a caring and energetic community that engages in creating economic opportunity, progressive education and state of the art health care so all people can live healthy, happy and productive lives.