The board of directors of the Community Foundation of Jackson County approved a 5% grant rate for endowed funds it administers when meeting Feb. 28.

This is the fifth year in a row the board has approved the organization’s maximum grant rate allowed.

Our investment performance over the last three years – five, really — and our community needs merit the full 5% again this year.

Part of that is a realization that while the foundation saw another blessed year in terms of gifts during 2023, many nonprofits in our community and elsewhere did not as lingering inflationary pressures made some donors hesitant to give at a time when the need for services from those nonprofits stayed steady or grew.

Earnings for the foundation’s investment portfolio over the past five years include a 7.2% increase in 2023, 7% drop in 2022 and gains of 19.3% in 2021, of 11.2% in 2020 and of 21.2% in 2019, for an average of 10.38%.

The grant rate is anticipated to result in nearly $804,000 in overall granting dollars, up from $760,000 last year. That includes $269,112 in grants to be paid later this month to recipients of designated funds (up from $261,764 last year) and just more than $137,000 in unrestricted and field of interest dollars for the fall grant cycle (up from more than $125,000 last year).

All of which is a sign of our increasing assets, both as a result of increased giving and of good investment performance over time.

Donald Schnitker, chairman 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 21 grants totaling more than $125,138 through the fall grant cycle.

Recipients of those grants include organizations such as the Boys & Girls Club of Seymour, Girls Inc. of Jackson County, the Jackson County History Center, Community Provisions, Anchor House and other organizations.

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.

Gary Myers, a member of the foundation’s board of directors, 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.

“People are responding to the good work being done with the help of our grant dollars throughout the entire county,” Myers added.

Based on the work of the foundation’s grantees, last year’s fall grants, scholarships and other grants clearly touched the lives of people in every township in Jackson County, a primary early and continuing goal of the organization’s founding Board of Directors, which included Myers.

Last year, gifts to the foundation totaled $1.056 million, up from $932,676 in 2022 and $849,113 in 2021. The foundation saw a record high giving in 2020 of $1.1 million.

Fifteen new funds were started in 2023, including six new community funds that will help finance the fall grant cycle and lead to greater granting power in the future.

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, 107 Community Drive, Seymour, IN 47274. For information about donating to the Foundation, call 812-523-4483 or send an email to [email protected] . The Foundation, established in 1992, has paid out more than $13 million in grants and scholarships.