Looking Back on 25 Years
In honor of this anniversary, we will be sharing stories, called ‘Looking Back On 25 Years’, that celebrate our Community Foundation, its history, and all those who have made it possible.
For the People By The People
The Western Colorado Community Foundation was incorporated in late 1996 by a group of civic leaders who wanted to create a charitable foundation to benefit the people and communities of their community. Herb Bacon, Pat Gormley, Joe Prinster, Bob Denning, Peggy Foster, Dave Wood, and many other founders had a vision of building a home-grown philanthropic institution that would receive funds from many people across western Colorado, all to benefit the people of western Colorado. 25 years later we are a successful $115 million foundation that provides almost $5 million in grant and scholarship funding every year. Hooray for our founders and their vision!
Helping Education Dreams Comes True
Many of our donors want to help the next generation get a college education. Our regional Community Foundation holds over 30 different scholarship funds and distributes almost $800,000 in scholarship funds each year. With the ever-increasing cost of college, that’s a lot of funding for tuition, room and board, and other college expenses. Scholarships allow students to focus on their studies and reduce their overall debt. Thanks to our donors’ incredible generosity, we are helping young people make their education dreams come true!
Celebrating Our Nonprofit Partners
Colorado Nonprofit Week is an annual acknowledgement in March to recognize and celebrate the work that nonprofits do across our state to improve lives in our communities. Our Community Foundation is proud to work with our nonprofit partners to address both small and large, complex community challenges. Since 1997, we have worked with hundreds of nonprofit across our seven counties to invest nearly $36 million in grants and scholarships to improve the lives of the residents in western Colorado. As we look back on 25 years of investments in our communities, we recognize and thank our nonprofit partners who make a difference, every day.
Legacy Gifts Continue to Give
Give Now or Give Later. Leaving a legacy means making an impact that will last long after one’s lifetime. Charitable legacies involve donations made by people in our community who make provisions for an end-of-life gift. We work with donors who want to articulate a charitable legacy to improve the community they lived in and called home. Legacy funds are highly personalized to the interest of our donors and allow a donor’s name and charitable giving to be continued after they are gone. Our first bequest gift came from Jane Quimby, one of our founding donors, back in 2001. During these past 20 years the Quimby Family’s legacy fund has grown almost 50% and has distributed over $300,000 in grants to the community. We continue to receive significant end-of-life gifts over the years, some of them multi-million-dollar bequests, but anyone can leave a legacy. We are pleased to count over 100 individuals and couples in our WCCF Legacy Society!
Our organizational tag line is an invitation to consider a legacy donation: Leave your mark…
Permanent Funding for Favorite Organizations
Almost 30% of our Community Foundation assets are in designated funds. Donors identify nonprofit organization(s) they want to support at the point they make their donation, and then each year earnings on that endowment fund go to support those designated organizations. This allows donors to provide ongoing financial support to favorite organizations and provides a diversified revenue stream for many nonprofits in our community. Our Waldeck Fund is our biggest designated endowment fund, providing steady financial support to eight great organizations every year: Grand Valley Catholic Outreach, Habitat for Humanity, Hilltop’s Latimer House, HomewardBound, HopeWest, MarillacHealth, Partners, and Roice-Hurst.
All Sorts of Causes
Our Community Foundation offers an option for donors to identify a cause or field of interest they wish to support and leave the annual grantmaking decisions to our staff or grantmaking committees. Our oldest field of interest fund is the Brownson Memorial Fund supporting substance abuse education, prevention and treatment programs in Mesa County. Our most specialized field of interest fund supports youth recreation through skateboard parks. Our largest field of interest fund is the Bruce Dixson Fund for Basic Needs and Human Services, distributing over $400,000 each year across our region. One of our newest and fast growing field-of-interest funds is CORE supporting conservation, outdoor recreation and traditional environment causes.
Whatever your interest, we have a way for you to help fund nonprofits in our community!