Columbus Collaboration Highlights HTC
Columbus
The Columbus Area Community Foundation Fund (CACFF) presented its first HomeTown Competitiveness grants in 2008 in front of a capacity crowd of more than 1,000 people. The ceremony was held in conjunction with the annual Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce Banquet. Nebraska head football coach Bo Pelini was the guest speaker.
“We felt that because this was the first year of our Founders Club and the HTC endowment, it was important to have a significant crowd,” said K.C. Belitz, CACFF Treasurer/Secretary and Executive Director of the Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce. “Yet because we’re just starting, we knew that probably would not happen if we did it on our own. The timing was right …and we knew the right people would be there.”
According to Belitz, combining the two events was a natural fit. Much of the event’s publicity through newspapers, radio, and Chamber newsletters promoted the Foundation Fund’s grant awards. Articles explained the HTC pillars and the way they align with the Chamber’s community development mission.
A poster display at the entrance of the hall featured CACFF Founders Club activities and listed its growing number of members and sponsors. Each attendee received brochures about the foundation fund, its HTC endowment and how to become involved.
Immediately following the dinner, Rick Chochon, Chair of the HTC charitable giving task force, explained to the audience how HTC and the Chamber are working to achieve the same goals.
He then presented grants to the HTC youth task force program, Tomorrow’s Leaders Today, and to establish a youth foundation. The Leadership task force received a grant for its community-wide visioning project. The Entrepreneurship task force will use its grant for a business succession seminar and ongoing training programs.
By providing these strategic grants for community development at a packed public event, the Columbus HTC team raised awareness among a broad based of new potential donors. Strategic grantmaking demonstrates that philanthropy is a tool for economic development, and it is one of the best forms of donor development.
Numbers were posted around the room to celebrate the progress Columbus is making toward recruiting and retaining a skilled workforce and achieving economic growth: “8” for the percentage of retail sales growth; “157” for the number of workers recruited or retained; “$500,000” for a housing grant; and more.
According to Belitz, collaboration rather than competition is the key to making rural places succeed. “We have to find natural partnerships. No matter how small a town is, potential partnerships exist. Organizations in small towns simply don’t have the resources to compete with one another. We have to get past worrying about who is going to get the credit for what is being done, and just get the work done.”
