HTC in Holt County
Holt County
In 2005 the Nebraska Community Foundation fueled the imagination of young leaders in Stuart and Atkinson with our new approach to community economic development called HomeTown Competitiveness. We started with a leadership program that brought people from both of these communities in Holt County, including adults and teens, together for the first time. Soon, O’Neill, the county’s largest city, joined in.
From there we organized four task forces to work on entrepreneurship support, leadership development, youth engagement and philanthropy. Each community had affiliated funds through the Nebraska Community Foundation. They launched “founders clubs” through which charitable gifts, large and small, could be endowed and directed to support their work.
Together with an expanded corps of young leaders we worked with elected officials, and in 2007 Holt County and its nine municipalities agreed to support a new economic development office and hire its first full-time director. The Nebraska Community Foundation helped to secure outside resources, such as a Building Entrepreneurial Communities grant and a Federal Home Loan Bank JOBS grant.
In less than two years, Holt County created 11 start-up businesses and 9 business expansions. It created or retained 110 jobs. It helped bring back 11 families and even more alumni have returned on their own.
The HomeTown Competitiveness youth task force is spearheading a countywide youth advisory council. And, as a token of its commitment to young people, the county gives each high school graduate a full-sized, personalized mailbox with a reminder that they are always welcome home and an invitation to come back.
The Nebraska Community Foundation continues to assist donors and financial advisors to secure major planned gifts and bequests to support continued success. Gifts from donor-advised funds of Paul and Karen Seger, Martha and Mary Linhart and Rudolph Elis, totaling more than $3 million, will provide a significant annual infusion of funding for Holt County far into the future.
Ultimately, the Nebraska Community Foundation has inspired local leaders and donors with renewed hope for the future prosperity of their hometowns.
