The Sheridan-Johnson Area Community Foundation has more resources for grantmaking, thanks to the generosity of one donor who included the organization in his planned giving.

In 2007, the Wyoming Community Foundation, of which the SJCF is an affiliate, learned that Kenneth Revland of the Gillette locale had established, through his estate plan, a fund to benefit the Sheridan, Buffalo, and Gillette areas.

That fund is held at the WYCF, with investment royalties and principal benefitting both the SJCF and the Campbell County Opportunities Fund and adding to their total amounts available for grantmaking.

Dick Davis, a Sheridan attorney, helped Revland consider his options for leaving behind a charitable legacy and ultimately guided him to the WYCF.

Davis said, “The Community Foundation is a natural” choice for people who don`t want to set up a private foundation. “I always throw the Community Foundation into the mix if [clients] are thinking charitable kinds of thoughts. Being involved in a couple of private foundations myself I know some of the difficulties. They take work. The Wyoming Community Foundation does all that work.”

Even though Revland has passed on, the assets he left to the Community Foundation will continue to work for the areas of the state that he loved and continue to help the people and nonprofit organizations in those areas.

The SJCF, governed by an 11-member advisory board that is chaired by Dennis Kirven, accepts grant applications twice a year from nonprofit organizations. Application deadlines are July 1 and November 1. For more information, or to apply for a grant, visit the WYCF website, www.wycf.org/grants.asp.

The SJCF is an affiliate of the Wyoming Community Foundation. The WYCF is a statewide nonprofit organization with total assets in excess of $50 million. In 2008, the Community Foundation awarded more than $2.5 million in grants to nonprofit organizations across the state. The mission of the WYCF is to connect people who care with causes that matter to build a better Wyoming.



Cutline for photo: This statue, The Great Escape by D. Michael Thomas, was donated to the town of Sheridan by the Sheridan-Johnson Area Community Foundation through a gift from an anonymous donor.