2010 Chair and President's Report

 

Return to the 2010 Annual Report

2010 Chair and President's Report

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why Endowment?

If you are reading this, you should know that the main business of the North Dakota Community Foundation is the building and managing of permanent endowment. Usually, one hesitates to use statistics, but just a few might illustrate how well this Foundation and its endowments have served the citizens of North Dakota. Over the Foundation’s 35 year history we have:

 

These results have been accomplished with fidelity and perseverance through the financial malaise of the late 1970s, the farm crisis and oil bust of the 1980s, the go-go 1990s, the terrorist attacks and subsequent wars of the early 2000s and the deepest recession since the 1930s.

 

~ How often do we sigh for opportunities of doing good, whilst we neglect the openings of Providence in little things, which would frequently lead to the accomplishment of most important usefulness! Dr. Johnson used to say, “He who waits to do a great deal of good at once will never do any.” Good is done by degrees. However small in proportion the benefits which follow individual attempts to do good, a great deal may thus be accomplished by perseverance, even in the midst of discouragements and disappointments ~ George Crabbe

We provide a reliable, accountable vehicle for North Dakotans and those interested in North Dakota to give back efficiently and effectively to improve the lives of North Dakota’s citizens.

How has the NDCF served the people of North Dakota…here is but a sampling from the over 600 grants made by the NDCF just in 2010:

• Cavalier Park District - Save the Bandstand
  Enderlin Wellness Center - Purchase New Cardio Equipment
  Fingal First Responders - 5 Oxygen tanks with regulators and storage bags
  Grafton Parks & Recreation - Repair Baseball Fields to Make Safe
  Hope Early Learning Center - Support to Purchase a New Building
  Marion Community Café Association - Replace Old and Broken Tile Flooring
  City of Sherwood - Sherwood Public Library Improvements
  Oakes Community Hospital - Purchase Radiography Equipment
  Valley City Family Bridges - Visitation/ Exchange Program for Children
  City of Verona - Community Center Roof Repairs
  James River Humane Society - Construct Animal Exercise Building
  Tioga Senior Citizens Club - New Floor Coverings in Club Center

This list illustrates how the NDCF Board grants money to each community based on the need that the community brings forward, not the NDCF Board’s idea of what is important to the community. 

Give a man a horse he can ride,
Give a man a boat he can sail.
- Sunday Up the River—James Thomson, Scottish Poet

When you give to the NDCF’s unrestricted, field of interest and community funds, you can be assured that your gift will be used to meet the changing needs of North Dakota’s communities, not just today, but far into the future.