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 Each
issue we highlight one or more of our local community funds. We do
this for a number of reasons. This year, we use Connections as a way
to show others how these funds do work in very different ways to
accomplish their goals. A note of interest is that in 2002, we added
the communities of Finley and Rolla to our growing list of connected
communities. |
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The two we
highlight this issue are Casselton and Richardton. While these two
community funds are quite different in their locations, one in the
fertile, pancake-flat Red River Valley, and the other in the more
arid ranchland of western ND; they have quite a lot in common. Both
have been successful year after year in building their local
endowment funds. |
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They have accomplished this in quite
different ways. In Richardton, Ralph Weisenberger, the local
advisory committee chair, brings his committee together for an
evening in the fall to call their friends and neighbors and ask for
gifts to build the Richardton Community Endowment Fund. Ron Mueller,
the Casselton Committee Chair, and his committee members make
face-to-face visits with donors and ask for donations for the
Casselton Fund. |
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The North Dakota Community Foundation,
of course, offers its challenge dollars (dollar for dollar up to
$5,000) as additional incentive for the local donors to give. Every
time one of Ralph’s phone-a-thon donors gives $100.00, NDCF matches
it, which gives a $200.00 increase for the Fund. In the same way,
when Ron’s volunteers sit down at the kitchen table on their calls,
they tell their potential donors that their gift will be a double
benefit for the Fund. |
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In 2002, Ralph and his committee
solicited and received 118 gifts for the fund. That’s a pretty
impressive number of gifts, especially when you consider that the
population of Richardton is 625! In Casselton, Ron and his committee
member received 51 gifts. In fact, Casselton actually raised $25,000
which means that they qualified for an additional $5,000 match from
the NDCF. |
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 I
think that these two examples show that communities across the State
can successfully build permanent endowment in a variety of ways. We,
at the North Dakota Community Foundation offer one-on-one assistance
to all of our community funds at whatever level the local committee
feel that they need. Contact Kevin Dvorak at the Bismarck Office
701-222-8349, or Amy Warnke in Grand Forks at 701-795-1541, if you
have questions about how we can help your community build a
permanent resource for the future. |
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Amy Warnke
e-mail
701.795.1531. |
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