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Foundation 
News Archive

Includes past press
releases, news 
articles, annual
reports, and
newsletters.


FOUNDATION NEWS

 

2007 Annual Report

 

Spring 2008 Newsletter

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

September 2007

 

Tapping into Wealthsprings - Homegrown Assets

Rural America is rooted in individual ingenuity; sitting on this asset is risky business.  At Aquinas High School in David City, Nebraska, students are learning lessons honed by their community's founders.  

 

 

February 2006

 

A Hometown Effect

Rural Nebraska counties will see a gigantic transfer of wealth between generations in coming decades.  As land, businesses, investments and other assets are passed on, the amount will be in the billions of dollars.  

 

 

A Rural Wealth Success Story

Shickley, Neb., is one of the elite five in rural Nebraska's 5-year-old effort to keep some of the money that leaves with city-dwelling native sons and daughters as they drive out of town after their parents' funerals.  

 

 

March 2006

Reviving hope in rural communities

The Nebraska Community Foundation (NCF) proves the transformational power of the collective. Today, over 1,400 community leaders serve as advisers to NCF affiliated funds. In the last five years, nearly 25,000 individual donations have been given to these funds. Since being formed in 1993, NCF has reinvested over $51 million in Nebraska and its hometowns. Most importantly, community leaders are now telling us – and each other – that they believe they can be successful. NCF thus incorporates a community-driven system that goes far beyond traditional fundraising and endowment building.

 

 

December 5, 2005

Foundation Makes Rural Dreams Come True

Statistics don't lie.  Rural America is losing its human and financial capital to its urban centers.  Talented young people are leaving for better paying jobs off the farm and ranch with no one to replace them in their communities.  Just don't tell Jeff Yost that the problem can't be corrected.  He'll tell you otherwise.

 

 

December 1, 2005

Ord in the Spotlight

Founders club, strategic plans build economy, rate national attention.

 

 

November 14, 2005

Rural America:  In Ord, Neb., the Latest Success is 20 New Residents

A new approach to grass-roots philanthropy is trying to help stem the debilitating demographic downturn that afflicts much of rural America.

 

 

November 10, 2005

Remarks by Susan V. Berresford of the Ford Foundation

at the Nebraska Community Foundation’s Annual Banquet in Norfolk, Nebraska.

 

 

November 2005
Foundation looks to give young people reason to stay
Tremendous giving is helping to provide tremendous opportunities for rural areas across NebraskaAt the Nebraska Community Foundation’s annual meeting in Norfolk on Thursday, stories were shared and awards presented for communities’ ingenuity in raising funds or helping to make towns more attractive to young people.

 

 

November 11, 2005
Community foundation blazes trail for other states to follow
The next time Gov. Dave Heineman needs help promoting Nebraska, he might want to consider four speakers from other states who heaped praise on the state Thursday in Norfolk.

 

 

May 20, 2005
Small-town survival program gets $2 million
Jan Krotter-Chvala said she's seen rural development programs come and go in her hometown of Atkinson, Neb.  Experts visit, give advice, leave. In the end, not much gets done.  But Krotter-Chvala, an attorney whose family has operated lumberyards in north-central Nebraska for 113 years, said her town now has found a survival strategy that shows promise.  As published in the Omaha World Herald on May 20, 2005.

 

 

May 18, 2005
Kellogg Foundation Chooses Nebraska Initiative for National Grant
HomeTown Competitiveness, a Nebraska initiative currently working in seven counties and communities in Nebraska, has been chosen as one of six recipients of grants provided through the W. K. Kellogg Foundation’s 75th Anniversary Entrepreneurship Development Systems for Rural America.  The $2 million award, over three years, was approved by the Kellogg Foundation Board of Directors meeting at Battle Creek, MI last month. More than 180 applications were received for the grants to develop six national models in rural entrepreneurship.  To learn more about the HomeTown Competitiveness Initiative please see the FACT SHEET.

 

 

May 17, 2005
Another Nebraska Legacy Legend: "Appreciated Stock" Boosts Hopes for Diller  

Al Svajgr gave Diller, his hometown in Southeast Nebraska, 48 heifers, and the community is mighty grateful, not to mention surprised. "Speechless!" was how Beth Roelfs put it. Roelfs is chairperson of the Diller Community Foundation, who accepted the gift on Diller’s behalf. "It made my day," she said, "And, in essence, it made Diller’s future."  The Diller Community Foundation is using this gift as a challenge grant to build its unrestricted community endowment.

 

 

April 26, 2005
Valley County Grants from Wozab Trust Near $300,000
With $42,460 in 2005 grants announced at a special celebration last week, the Valley County Community Foundation has now awarded $294,089 to area organizations from the Wozab Trust.  The grants are awarded from the interest income from a $1.2 million bequest made by John and Alyce Wozab in 1998.   A permanent endowment was set up by the Valley County Foundation, through their affiliation with the Nebraska Community Foundation.

 

 

April 2, 2005
Jump-start to the Diller Community Endowment Fund
A newly established Diller Community Endowment Fund got a jump-start today with the announcement of a $50,000 gift in honor of Ed and Bessie Svajgr who were members and leaders in the Diller community for many years.

 

 

March 7, 2005
McManigal Family Fund scholarships to benefit Homer residents, graduating seniors

Graduating seniors at Homer Community Schools and non-traditional students from the Homer community will benefit from the new McManigal Family Fund established at the Nebraska Community Foundation.  The first scholarships will be awarded this year, for the 2005 fall semester. The McManigal Nontraditional Scholarship application is available HERE

 

 

Febrary 20, 2005
Rural Town Offers Reason to Come Home
When Trent Wilson headed off to auto mechanics school in 1998, he figured he'd left his remote ranching town in the rearview mirror.  Like many rural Nebraska kids, he was seeking brighter lights than his hometown population 491.  But Wilson is back.

 

January 4, 2005

Kellogg Foundation Awards Grant to HomeTown Competitiveness Program

A $100,000 grant has been awarded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to support the work of the HomeTown Competitiveness (HTC) Program in Nebraska. 

 

 

December 21, 2004

Nebraska Community Foundation President Emeritus, Maxine Moul, visits Berlin

Maxine Moul, President Emeritus of the Nebraska Community Foundation, was among 170 community foundation practitioners, researchers and experts chosen to attend the first international conference of community foundations in Berlin, Germany. 

 

 

December 15, 2004

2004 New Board Members Press Release

Nebraska leaders from Callaway, Waverly, North Platte and Lincoln were elected to the Board of Directors of the Nebraska Community Foundation at its annual meeting in Nebraska City in November.  New officers of the Board were also elected and four new affiliated funds were accepted. 

 

 

November, 2004

Heartland Council of Community Foundations Celebrates Giving in Nebraska

More than $46 million in grants paid out by community foundations throughout Nebraska.  

 

 

November 28, 2004

Looking Homeward:  Nebraska foundation plan seeks to plant seeds to reverse 'brain drain.'

There's a factor driving the "brain drain," in Nebraska and the Midlands, that no tax incentive or government program can fully overcome.  It's an attitude that sometimes comes over young people nearing adulthood, especially if they grew up mostly in one place.  As published in the Omaha World Herald November 28, 2004.

 

 

November 17, 2004

Carol Russell To Receive International Ketchum Award

Nebraska Community Foundation Board member Carol Russell is receiving a prestigious award from the Association of Fundraising Professionals at their Baltimore meeting next spring.  The Ketchum award is an international award, given that the Association of Fundraising Professionals includes members from Canada and Mexico.  

 

 

November 15, 2004

Towns Bank on Memories

When Jeff Yost explains the work of the Nebraska Community Foundation he borrows words from Delores Brenneman, a rancher and community leader from Hyannis.  As published in the Omaha World Herald November 15, 2004.

 

 

April 18, 2004

Nebraska Community Foundation Noted by Omaha World Herald as a "Model of Rural Philanthropy"

Over the next 50 years, roughly $94 billion will be passed down from one generation of rural Nebraskans to the next - much of it occurring in the next 20 years.  

 

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Nebraska Community Foundation

PO Box 83107

Lincoln, NE  68501

Phone: (402) 323-7330    Fax: (402) 323-7349

E-mail: webmaster@nebcommfound.org