-by Press Stephens, WYCF Development Director



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.”

 

Grantmaking from unrestricted funds is the mind, heart and soul of the Wyoming Community Foundation. Donors to unrestricted funds are keenly aware of that fact. They are also thoroughly rewarded by that fact: “We give knowing grants will go to programs where dollars are most needed,” said one donor. “I trust future grantmaking committees to make wise decisions about the needs of our local communities,” said another. “You know how to deploy this better than I do,” said a third.

 

Samin Dadelahi, the WYCF’s senior program officer, pointed out, however, that the unrestricted funds held at the WYCF are among the smallest funds that we steward. This is despite the fact that such funds are the most flexible and give us the greatest ability to engage in impact grantmaking.

 

After-school reading programs for rural children, childcare training for child development professionals, computer upgrades in schools, community recycling programs, advanced natural resource education for teens, drug and alcohol addiction rescue and recovery for desperate families, food and other essentials for food banks, music camps for rural children, a statewide nursing workforce center to address the looming nursing shortage, proven mixed media information for Native American children looking to make good choices, programs to develop independent thinking and leadership skills in adolescent girls, and awareness of the gender-wage-gap dilemma are just a few examples of impact grantmaking the WYCF has been able to do through our unrestricted grants funds over the past three years.

  

A quiet phase of unrestricted fund development is proceeding as we speak. It is the initial phase of a campaign that the WYCF will launch in 2009 as we celebrate our 20^th anniversary.  This Twentieth Anniversary Campaign will herald the beginning of a new opportunity for the WYCF to continue bold, innovative, discretionary grantmaking.

 

The Twentieth Anniversary Campaign will offer four challenges. First, a “Founders Legacy Challenge” will salute the foresight of the founders of the WYCF who understood the premium value of grantmaking from discretionary endowments “to meet emerging opportunities and those yet unknown,” as they have declared. Second, a “Working for Wyoming Challenge” will celebrate the role industry continues to play in growing significant, discretionary assets. Industry representatives have already begun to build an impressive unrestricted fund, the “Working for Wyoming Unrestricted Fund.” Third, an “Ed Herschler Governors’ Legacy Challenge” will honor all Wyoming’s chief executives who have encouraged and continue to encourage communities to invest in themselves for increased quality of life. Finally, a “Friends of Wyoming Challenge” will encourage visitors and part-time residents who love their Wyoming “get-aways” to partner with us in giving back to the Wyoming communities they frequently call their “homes away from home.” The goal is to double our permanent, unrestricted grants funds to at least $4 million.

 

According to Samin, at this level, we would be able to continue making grants that are responsive to the needs of our nonprofits, that address critical community needs, and that continue to work on multi-year initiatives that address statewide issues. These issues include afterschool programming, the nursing shortage in Wyoming, and the gender wage gap.

 

”Impact grant-making requires expert identification of core issues, partnership-building across a wide array of stakeholders, committed sources of funding over multiple years, and at least some measure over time to ensure that, in fact, some impact has been made over the long-term,” Samin said.

 

As we move beyond our 20^th anniversary and continue to develop discretionary assets, we will have become a stronger and more relevant community foundation. We will have engaged an active Board of Directors that is experienced in advocating for flexibility in grantmaking. We will have assembled a wide-ranging donor base, truly representative of Wyoming’s far-flung communities. And we will have cultivated more profound relationships with professional advisors who recommend wise, charitable gift components in estate plans across Wyoming.



The Twentieth Anniversary Campaign is ours to carry out. We look for thoughtful partners, generous donors, and a heightened spirit in Wyoming of making a difference by identifying and planting the most important seeds and watching them come to life, year after year.