Dan Davis
The board of directors of the Community Foundation of Jackson County approved a 5% grant rate for endowed funds it administers when meeting Feb. 22.
This is the fourth year in a row that the board of directors has approved a 5% grant rate, the maximum allowed by regulations and the organization’s spending policy.
Our investment performance over the last three years and our community needs merit the full 5% again this year, despite a less-than-stellar performance in investment returns during 2022. Part of that need is a realization that while the foundation did have another blessed year in terms of gifts during 2022, many nonprofits in our community and elsewhere did not as the lingering COVID-19 pandemic did make some donors hesitant to give at a time when the need for services from those nonprofits increased.
Earnings for the foundation’s investment portfolio over the past four years include a 7% drop last year and gains of 19.3% in 2021, of 11.2% in 2020 and of 21.2% in 2019 for an average of 11.17%.
The grant rate is anticipated to result in nearly $760,000 in overall granting dollars, up from $700,000 last year and $589,767 in 2021. That includes more than $315,000 in grants to be paid later this month to recipients of designated funds and just more than $126,000 in unrestricted and field of interest dollars for the fall grant cycle.
That increase is a clear sign of our increasing assets, both as a result of increased giving and of good investment performance over time.
Trish Butt, chairwoman of the foundation’s grant committee, said the increase in grant dollars through the fall grant process shows the efforts of the foundation’s focus in recent years on building endowments aimed at community funds.
Community funds, also known as unrestricted funds, provide grant money for a myriad of needs across Jackson County. Last year, the foundation approved 16 grants totaling more than $103,000 through the fall grant cycle.
Recipients of those grants include organizations such as the Boys & Girls Club of Seymour, Girls Inc. of Jackson County, Jackson County History Center , Driftwood Township Volunteer Fire Department and others.
Ryon Wheeler with the Boys & Girls Club was pleased to hear the grant rate was again approved at the maximum 5%.
“With our partnership with the foundation, we always budget below the 5% and are quite happy when the foundation can come in at that 5% max,” Wheeler said. “It provides a buffer for when something comes up. If the last few years has taught us anything, it’s that we need to be prepared for anything.”
The Boys & Girls Club benefits from annual grants paid by four funds each spring. Those checks and others paid to local agencies through agency and designated funds will be paid out later this month.
Foundation Treasurer Mike Fleetwood said he is convinced the increase in giving to the foundation in recent years is a reflection of the community responding to the good work being funded through the foundation.
That was seen in the giving to the foundation in 2020, again in 2021 and again in 2022. In a year that brought uncertainty because of inflation and waning yet still evident fallout from the pandemic, our donors responded, making more than $930,000 in gifts during 2022, more than $800,000 in 2021 and more than $1.1 million in 2020.
Gifts to the foundation totaled $932,676.71 last year, up from $849,113.94 in 2021. Individual gifts during 2022 totaled 600, up from 553 the year before and up from the 384 posted in 2020.
Eleven new funds were started in 2022, including one new community fund that will help finance the fall grant cycle. That’s great news for the community, generating more fall grant dollars moving forward.
We appreciate our donors and their generosity. We also appreciate our community partners — those agencies that benefit from the grant dollars funded through those gifts.
Dan Davis is president and CEO of the Community Foundation of Jackson County. For information about donating to the foundation, call 812-523-4483 or send an email to [email protected].