Create value-added K-12 educational opportunities

A community endowment used for value-added K-12 education would allow your hometown to:

1)  Build local curriculum to better connect students to their hometown

2)  Provide enhancements to teacher packages in order to retain valuable teaching resources

3)  Offer classes in response to individualized demands – such as entrepreneurship classes

A community endowment for leadership would allow your hometown to:

·         Connect leadership development to community needs

·         Build individual skills 

·         Incorporate skills learned into community leadership opportunities

·         Maintain and enhance your leadership development strategy for years to come

·         Develop a broader leadership base

A community endowment to support entrepreneurship would allow your hometown to help:

·         Existing businesses grow

·         New businesses to start

·         Current businesses transfer to new ownership

·         Support youth entrepreneurship

·         Fund staff support for local entrepreneurs

A community endowment for affordable high-quality childcare will result in:

·         Safe nurturing places for children 

·         More children prepared for school

·        Better salaries for providers

·         Increased employee productivity

·         More entrepreneurial ventures

Building an endowment to fund non-traditional scholarships would allow your hometown to: 

·         Empower people from your hometown

·        Fill community needs for specially trained workers (nurses, teachers, electricians, etc.)

·        Give young people a reason to return to their hometown after college  

A community endowment for youth engagement would allow your hometown to: 

·         Empower youth to take greater ownership in their hometown

·         Show community commitment to youth issues

·         Make strategic grants back to the community that have a youth focus

A community unrestricted endowment would allow your hometown to:

·         Have the greatest amount of  flexibility to combat the issues your community may face in the future – long after current residents are gone

·       Use the endowment for any of the strategic purposes above 

·         Adapt to meet future community needs

A community endowment used to supplement capital campaigns is not the best use of endowment resources because the projects typically funded through traditional capital campaigns – while worthwhile projects such as park improvements or swimming pools –  could be a hindrance to community economic development efforts because:

·        The funding to build these things can usually be found without tapping into a community’s endowment

·        Once built, without an endowment it is sometimes difficult to properly maintain a “brick and mortar” project

·        Buildings do not create economic opportunities for community members whereas investing in the people of your community will pay off in many different ways

Available loan funds are often times necessary with many community or economic development efforts. However, the primary reasons communities should not use endowment funds to capitalize loan funds are:

·         Loan funds can most often be found outside of your community – regardless of the intended purpose.  It is better to use outside funding for these projects and save hometown funds for projects or needs that the outside world will not fund