Imperial Community Foundation
Imperial
In 2006 the Robert and Jeanette Hunt Donor-Advised Fund, the family foundation of the founders of Great Plains Communications in Nebraska, offered up to ten $50,000 challenge grants to communities served by the company. The challenge promised to award up to $50,000 if the community could match the amount, three-to-one, over a three-year time period. Six community foundations affiliated with the Nebraska Community Foundation accepted the challenge. Imperial (population 1,982), an HomeTown Competitiveness community located in southwest Nebraska, accepted the challenge in January 2006 and is the first to reach its goal.
In August 2007, the Imperial Community Foundation successfully completed the $50,000 Hunt challenge by raising over $150,000 in 20 months—16 months ahead of the deadline. As of June 30, 2008, the fund had $485,000 in endowed assets and expectancies of nearly $30,000. Imperial is now focusing on their long-term goal of raising $1 million for its endowment fund by 2015.
The Nebraska Community Foundation assisted the Imperial Community Foundation by training Fund Advisory Committee members in techniques for building a community endowment campaign. The first step was to achieve full Fund Advisory Committee member participation with contributions from each member. NCF also advised the foundation on starting a founders club and provided training in effective donor visitation.
The Imperial Community Foundation launched its campaign by establishing a “Star Builder” program, a founders club allowing donors to become a Star Builder by pledging to contribute at least $1,000 or more to the foundation over a three-year period. Upon completion of the Hunt Challenge, the program had 83 Star Builder members, and an additional 47 gifts in the form of memorials and other contributions.
Raising and maintaining broad public awareness was a key ingredient to the success of the challenge campaign. The weekly newspaper, the Imperial Republican, published frequent editorial opinions and stories encouraging the establishment of an unrestricted community endowment. The paper ran monthly updates on the campaign’s progress including a list of contributors’ names. The Imperial Republican’s co-publisher, Russ Pankonin, contributed $9,000 from his stipend as a recipient of the Omaha World Herald Frank Partsch Editorial Leadership Award.
Another major gift that caught the eye of the public was a $10,000 contribution from Pinnacle Bank, presented at its grand opening festivities. A ribbon of one hundred $100 bills was cut in front of Pinnacle Bank and then given to the foundation by Pinnacle president, Kelly Hammerlun.
Fund Advisory Committee members became adept at making personal donor visits. Elsie Newman and Elna Johnson admitted that they were hesitant to make ‘the ask’ at first, but gained confidence after visiting with their friends and neighbors in living rooms and across kitchen tables. Fund Advisory Committee members reached beyond the city’s limits to include farmers, ranchers and former residents who still care about the Imperial area.
In March 2008 the Imperial Community Foundation celebrated success at a public event attended by 50 people, including members of the Hunt Family, Casey Garrigan and Mick Jensen. The foundation distributed $12,000 in grants for early childhood education, public recreation and a scholarship. Foundation president Dan Reeves congratulated the community for contributing to the tremendous growth of the foundation in just one year. And Fund Advisory Committee member Lori Pankonin reminded the crowd that raising funds for an endowment is a marathon, not a sprint. By continually striving forward, she said she had every expectation the community would hit its $1 million goal.
