OrthoWorx Member Spotlight: Nationally Ranked Community Foundation Grants Strength for Future

Guest Author: Suzie Light, Executive Director, KCCF, OrthoWorx Board Member, Orthopedics Capital Foundation Chairman

If I worked for an ice cream store, and someone asked me, “What does your business do?”, I could respond: “We sell ice cream.” Simple. But, I don’t work for an ice cream store. I work for a sophisticated philanthropic engine called the Kosciusko County Community Foundation (KCCF). After 20 years here, I’m finally coming to terms with the answer to the question, “What does the Community Foundation do?” It depends.

To be clear, I’m not looking for another job. I love being a part of a team made up of donors, volunteers, board and staff members who are creating lasting and positive change in our community. The reason the answer to the question “What does the Community Foundation do?” is “It depends,” is, because we can do whatever a donor wants us to help them do – charitably.

We specialize in helping donors accomplish their charitable goals, forever, through endowment funds. We hold over 300 funds that help care for the poor, provide enrichment programs to local school children, conserve our lakes, improve access to healthcare, support faith-based initiatives, provide college scholarships, care for the elderly, support recreation (like the YMCA and greenways), make arts and cultural programs available and protect vulnerable children from abuse and neglect.

And, we do all that very well as evidenced by our certification by the Council on Foundations as achieving national standards covering all areas of the foundation’s operations from donor services to grant making. More importantly to us, however, is the trust donors continue to place in us. We are ranked 10th in the nation among community foundations for gifts per capita (Council on Foundations, 2011). We accept gifts of cash, stock, life insurance, real estate and more. Those gifts have allowed us to award more than $18 million in grants since 1992. And because we specialize in endowments, those gifts will go on giving long after you and I are gone.

If you haven’t already, I encourage you to see how people like you have used the Community Foundation to accomplish their charitable dreams. View our annual report, visit our website, or give us a call at 574-267-1901. We look forward to getting to know you.