Nebraska City Takes Action on Endowment Building
Nebraska City
The Nebraska City Community Foundation started its NCF affiliated fund in 2000. In its first five years it raised and granted over $1 million to 21 community projects. In 2005 fund leaders began planning for a permanent unrestricted endowment. They met for a planning retreat. Using NCF’s action planning format they created a good document, but the plan sat on the shelf for 18 months. Then newly elected chair, Scott VanderVeen, met Pete Peterson of the Keith County Community Foundation at NCF’s Rural Philanthropy Conference in February 2007.
Keith County’s success in building an endowment of $400,000 inspired the Nebraska City Fund Advisory Committee. They dusted off their plan and launched a capital campaign for their endowment. Nebraska City revised its case statement to focus on “investing in people” by supporting entrepreneurs, non-traditional students, leadership development, and especially youth. They adopted a policy to have 20 percent of their endowment allocated to youth issues and projects, and formed a youth advisory committee, which has proven to be a key component to their fundraising efforts.
Nebraska City developed a timeline with benchmarks and accountabilities. Work is divided among committees, and members have job descriptions that clearly identify expectations. One of those is the personal commitment of each member to contribute to the campaign before asking anyone else, which all of the members, including the youth, have fulfilled.
Members have been trained in NCF donor visitation techniques and have carefully crafted messages. The youth committee has been instrumental in reaching out to potential donors. “We may hear ‘no’ at first, but then we hear ‘maybe’ after the youth speak,” said Vanderveen.
The next step is to secure a major challenge grant, a proven catalyst for many endowment efforts.
