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Pooling Resources The Yellow Springs Community Foundation (YSCF) and the Yellow Springs Endowment for Education (YSEE) are pleased to announce their collaboration to pool volunteer resources by forming an Advised Field of Interest Endowment within the Foundation. This agreement, effective July 1, 2009, represents a solution to the growing national trend of a shrinking volunteer pool. By dissolving its corporation, YSEE eliminated escalating administrative costs and the need for a volunteer board of trustees, but ensured that its mission to support the excellence and diversity of Yellow Springs Schools will continue. That was the purpose of the YSEE endowment, established at the foundation in 1996 by parents and teachers. Now, instead of a separate nonprofit organization, a five- to seven-member advisory committee will review grant applications to support curricular and extracurricular activities in the Yellow Springs Schools and present its recommendations to the foundation trustees for approval. Two recent grants have funded a Lego League team and D.E.A.L. (Drop Everything and Logic), a program to involve students, administrators, and teachers in solving weekly logic problems.
The Community Foundation’s mission is to enhance community life in Yellow Springs and Miami Township by providing means for charitable giving and grant making that fund a broad range of activities. Among its goals are serving as a catalyst and resource for philanthropy, stewardship of endowments to address the community’s evolving needs, and providing flexible and cost-effective ways for donors to improve our community. “This collaboration is an excellent example of how we can achieve several goals at once,” said YSCF Board President Bruce Bradtmiller. “We encourage other nonprofits who may be struggling with similar issues to contact the foundation about ways in which we might help them.”
All members of the school community—students, teachers, parents, administrators, and interested citizens—are encouraged to apply for school-related grants that may be eligible for funding from YSCF funds, including the YSEE Field of Interest Fund. Applications and grant guidelines are available on the Apply for a Grant page. -Press release, Dec. 2009
Community Foundation Awards Three Saul Young Grants At its June 23, 2009 meeting, the board of the Community Foundation voted to award three Saul Young minigrants. The grants, of $300 each, were awarded in honor of Pam Conine, for her work with special-needs students, to be given to a local nonprofit of her choice (she chose the Riding Centre's Therapeutic Riding Program); to the Yellow Springs Arts Council as a fiscal sponsor for Holly Hudson for her play Off the Press; and to the Yellow Springs Schools for the Power of the Pen, in recognition of their fine performance in a recent state-wide competition at Wooster College. The minigrants were named in honor of the late Saul Young who, as a foundation trustee, initiated the practice of awarding trustee-initiated small grants, to recognize and encourage outstanding contributions to the community by individuals or organizations. Conine retired in June after a 36-year teaching career, the past 30 at McKinney Middle School. She says her career was rewarding because she felt empowered by the school administration and school board, and felt deeply connected with her students. For the past year she was faculty advisor to the Youth Philanthropy Council, established by the Foundation in memory of Charlotte Drake, whose bequest funds small grants awarded by the students for student-initiated projects in the schools and community. Hudson's play about the role of the Yellow Springs News in our village was performed in early June at the First Presbyterian Church with an excellent cast of local actors. The play was conceived at an artist-in-residence workshop led by Mad River Theatre Works at Mills Lawn School in February. McKinney students scored well at this year's state finals of the Power of the Pen, Ohio's award-winning competition for young (seventh- and eighth-grade) writers. Language-arts teacher Aurelia Blake, who coaches the Power of the Pen teams, said, "We qualified for state. That in itself is a major achievement." Only 700 of the 7,000 who start each year do so. And McKinney students have a good record of bringing home awards. Building Better Boards Workshop - March 31, 2007
An Opportunity to Strengthen Local Nonprofits Serving on the board of a nonprofit organization is a great contribution to the community, but it can be challenging. To help boards and staff of the many nonprofits in Yellow Springs to forge high-performing teams, the Yellow Springs Community Foundation is sponsoring a workshop, led by Kathy DeLaura, called Building Better Boards. The workshop will address such issues as relationships between boards and staff, responsibilities of officers to their boards and the community, confidentiality and transparency, and much more. The workshop will be held on Saturday, March 31, from 8:30 to 12:30 at the Glen Helen Building. A registration fee of $10 per person includes a light breakfast, served at 8:30. The workshop will begin promptly at 9:00. Kathy DeLaura, the managing director at Partners in Change, LLC, has thirty years of experience in education, fund-raising, public relations, marketing, and not-for-profit management. She served as executive director and chief operating officer of the National Speaking of Women’s Health Foundation, executive director of the Cincinnati Ballet, and developed national fund-raising programs for the March of Dimes and the American Cancer Society. She has experience in creating programs for staff and board development. This workshop is limited to 40 participants, so early registration is encouraged. To sign up for the workshop, send your name, contact information (address, phone number, email), and organizational affiliation with your check for $10 (payable to YSCF) to YSCF, P.O. Box 55, Yellow Springs, OH 45387. For more information, call the Foundation office at 767-2655. Community Foundation Launches Pioneer Giving Program
In a bold move to serve all Village donors and nonprofits in a cooperative venture, the Yellow Springs Community Foundation has launched a pioneer Planned Giving initiative. “Our basic idea,” says Foundation president Bruce Bradtmiller, “is to educate our donors about their charitable options, especially their legacy gifts. By enlisting the cooperation of all our nonprofit organizations, we hope to save donors from multiple calls from multiple groups. To the best of our knowledge, such a volunteer-staffed, community-wide program is a first.” “The success of this ground-breaking program is dependent, really, on the courage of our nonprofits,” says Development Committee Chair, Staffan Erickson, “and whether they can embrace the revolutionary notion that legacy gifts will not be based on who gets to the donor first with the best pitch. We hope to inform prospective donors, encourage them to leave a legacy, and facilitate their wishes through the resources of the Foundation.” Specifically, the Foundation offers written material as well as the no-strings-attached consultation services of the trust department of US Bank. In November of 2005, the Development Committee of the Foundation invited all community nonprofit organizations to an information meeting. Out of this meeting came the idea of a Planned Giving Council, a consortium of those groups who were prepared to work with each other and the Foundation. To date, they include Friends Care Community, Leadership Institute of Yellow Springs, Riding Centre Association, Tecumseh Land Trust, Yellow Springs Arts Council, Community Children’s Center, Dharma Center, Home, Inc., YS Library Association, YS Senior Center, and YS Kids Playhouse. This group continues to meet, and make decisions about how the program should proceed. The central model of the program is a planned gift that culminates in an endowed fund at the Foundation whose income would pass to one or more Village nonprofits. “But we’re here to serve our donors,” says Erickson, “and we will offer an overview of options, and try to facilitate whatever a donor wishes to accomplish.” “If it can’t be done in Yellow Springs, it can’t be done,” says trustee and program architect, Dorothy O. Scott. “We know that most Village donors who might be interested in a legacy gift are on many of the same lists. And we know that most of our organizations can’t afford to staff for Planned Giving. It makes sense for the Foundation to give this our best shot.” For more information, and a brochure about the program, contact Virgil Hervey, Foundation Administrator, at 767-2655, or at yscf@yscf.org., or at P.O. Box 55, Yellow Springs, OH 45387.
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