HTC in McCook
McCook
One of the most exciting HTC efforts is happening in McCook, Nebraska.
Concerned because of population losses and declining retail sales, McCook launched HomeTown Competitiveness in 2007 and established its four Pillar task forces around leadership, entrepreneurship, philanthropy and youth.
NCF helped to resurrect and restructure its community leadership program, which had been inactive for several years.
We worked with the McCook Economic Development Corporation to recruit and train a business coach to help local entrepreneurs get the guidance and financial support they needed to expand their businesses.
We assisted our affiliated fund, the McCook Community Foundation, in dramatically increasing its assets through a Founders Club and challenge grants from a local patron. The Fund now has more than $3 million in assets and expectancies.
We helped to arrange major planned gifts from a local couple, Andy and Geri Anderson, to fund youth engagement activities. The Anderson endowment now exceeds $576,000. Funding is available to provide entrepreneurship training for teachers, curriculum for the schools, and day camps in the summer. The endowment supports a new youth advisory group named Youth Change Reaction, and will continue to provide funding to support programs that attract young people back to McCook for generations.
HomeTown Competitiveness is a household word in McCook because of collaboration across the community. The hospital, the library, the college, the economic development corporation, and other organizations meet monthly to keep lines of communication open and progress moving forward.
These changes did not occur overnight. HTC requires an ongoing, intentional working relationship between NCF, its partners and its communities.
It takes a great deal of time, money, and commitment on the part of NCF and the communities involved. But we’re not interested in moving on or moving elsewhere. That’s not the Nebraska way.
