February may be the shortest month, but at Legacy Fund, it was mighty! +Mark Robbins and I participated in six Community Leadership meetings to bring the story of Legacy Fund and CICF to new potential supporters and ask them to make a three year $5,000 or $10,000 annual commitment to support direct programming. As we have worked on this project for the last couple of years, we are moving further away from folks that are immediately inclined to be supportive because they already know of and support our work to people who may have heard of CICF or Legacy Fund but have very little understanding of them. Already in March we have scheduled several more and continue to believe that these meetings serve as a great way to introduce ourselves to potential donors and fund sponsors in cordial and low-stress (to the donor) environments.
Following many months of work, The Biddle Memorial Foundation and JBS United together announced the formation of the Sheridan Fund, to be directed by the existing Legacy Fund Grants Committee, for the improvement of the town of Sheridan and its environs.
We completed the third and final of our 2013 planning retreat meetings for Legacy Fund staff. Much attention was given to meeting the objectives of our Strategic Plan – development, community awareness and community leadership initiative (YAP). In addition to regular speaking engagements and posts to social media (Facebook alone: 28 Posts with 229 likes), +Mark Robbins presented to a group of business people assembled by a new fund creator about the power and importance of philanthropy. We can be most effective when we speak to groups brought together by people already committed to the works of a community foundation. Introductions to your contacts are always welcome.
Mark +Mark Robbins & I traveled to meet with our counterparts from the counties surrounding Marion (including Bartholomew and Monroe). We exchanged problems and solutions on a number of matters related to the day-to-day operations of a community foundation. +Kerry Byrne has begun work in earnest on the 2014 Celebration of Philanthropy; and we have secured a location, date and other details. We continue to meet with potential major sponsors for the event. Please let Kerry know if you have any ideas or would like a sponsorship packet to forward to your company or another that might benefit from placement in what has to be the biggest annual gathering of high net-worth folks in Hamilton County. We continue our work with the all-county chambers of commerce aimed at finding ways for cooperation and synergy to exist from the north end to our southern borders. Legacy Fund will introduce the all-county chamber meeting in April. Also, the Scholarship Committee met and did its work. Dozens of fresh-faced and highly qualified applicants passed through the office in hopes of being named a recipient. The results will be announced at the Board meeting on March 13. The Grants Committee’s leadership is meeting this week on Wednesday and the full committee on Friday morning to plan for the first grant round of 2014. There is never enough time or money to do all of the good work requested but we give our sincere thanks to the folks of these committees that are charged with making the tough decisions.
While this note could go on for many pages more of detail, let me add that the Legacy Fund office is undergoing some changes with the building’s sale to the Carmel school district. While we have lost our storage space, we hope to finally have a bathroom inside the office suite (right now we have to go outside and reenter the building to get to a facility). Thanks to +Kerry Byrne, +Mark Robbins and others who’ve been here to endure the noise dust and disturbance precipitated by remodeling.
Thanks to you, stakeholders of Legacy Fund, for your support and interest. Community foundations are unique among charities for the role that they play in the life of our city, towns and rural areas. Without your help, our work would be far more difficult (if not without point).
