THE MORE YOU GIVE

An article from our new fall/winter newsletter

“There is a passage in Luke that pretty much sums up our approach to philanthropy and the Wyoming Community Foundation,” wrote Kim and Mary Kay Love, in an email responding to the question, “What inspires you to give so generously?”
 
The Loves continued, “It’s Luke 12:48, which says, ‘For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.’”
 
The Loves oversee two Donor Advised Funds at the WYCF – The Kim and Mary Kay Love Family DAF, and the Christine Gempp Love Endowment Fund, established in honor of Kim’s late mother. In addition to this, both Kim and Mary Kay have served on the advisory board for the Sheridan-Johnson Community Foundation, a WYCF affiliate. Kim is currently a member of the board, and Mary Kay is a past member.

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COMMUNITY FOUNDATION BEGINNINGS

An article by our founding president, John F. Freeman, from our new fall/winter newsletter

Over a Pepsi in the bar at the old Casper Holiday Inn, Larry Nash, US West Foundation administrator, first suggested that we start a statewide community foundation.
 
We had been participating in a nuts-and-bolts technical assistance conference for Wyoming nonprofits. Long-term financial viability had emerged as the number one challenge. While some of us knew about endowments, though at the time (1987) it hadn’t yet entered the Wyoming vocabulary, we had never heard of community foundations. Larry, however, who was an excellent teacher, introduced us to the Denver Foundation and the national Council on Foundations. Lollie Plank, a director of the technical assistance organization and a newcomer to Wyoming from Minnesota, had arrived thoroughly versed in community foundations and, in particular, the inestimable value of flexible or unrestricted endowment funds.

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PLANTING SEEDS FOR EVEN GREATER SUCCESS

An article from our new fall/winter newsletter

By January 2009, the Wyoming Community Foundation will have made over $21 million in grants to 385 different nonprofit organizations across Wyoming—an average of almost $1 million per year since inception. Of that grant making, a total of $3 million were awarded from permanent funds for unrestricted grantmaking—granted to accomplish critical, community building identified by WYCF staff and determined by the WYCF Distribution Committee. 
 
The WYCF has always valued this kind of impact grantmaking. In a letter to WN McMurry dated June 25, 1999, during the 10th anniversary of the WYCF, then President John Freeman wrote:
 
“The community foundation idea is as ingenious as it is simple—a vehicle by which substantial charitable assets can be built over time from contributions both large and small. Earnings from these assets are then used to meet changing community needs as well as to meet opportunities in which the careful placement of non-governmental dollars can make a significant difference.”

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