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February
24, 2003 Community Foundation Established for CreightonCREIGHTON—A community foundation for Creighton has been established as an affiliated fund of the Nebraska Community Foundation. Creighton now joins 80 other rural towns and counties in Nebraska in attracting charitable gifts for community and economic development projects. Curtis Keck of the Creighton Development Corporation is the president of the new foundation. Jim Howe, President of Midwest Bank, is vice-president; Carmen Jacobs, the city clerk, is secretary; and Steve Schindler is treasurer. Other directors are Richard Salmen, Lyle Larsen, Phyllis Beck, Dale Morrill and Wally Sukup. Also instrumental in forming the Creighton Community Foundation are Judge Merritt Warren and Terry Johnson, Knox County Development Agency. The foundation has been established to receive tax-deductible gifts of cash, property, bequests and other gifts supporting the betterment of Creighton and the surrounding area. Other community foundations in rural Nebraska have used charitable giving to help build community centers, parks and recreation facilities, medical clinics and other community facilities. They have supported the projects of various local organizations and have established scholarship funds. There are also 54 communities that are actively beginning to build permanent endowments of substantial size. The yearly earnings from those endowments enable the foundations to make grants to local projects and programs, each year. Those communities now have nearly $17 million in assets and expectancies, an increase of 60 percent in the last year. At a regional meeting of 56 people from 12 communities in Atkinson on February 12, leaders of those foundations shared their recent successes. Burwell Community Fund representatives told of their broad grass roots support, with more than 600 individual contributions to the community, totaling more than $275,000. Only one of the donations has been more than $25,000 and 83 percent of the donations have come from local residents. Bassett leaders told of the recent announcement of an anonymous bequest, confirmed by a local resident in his will. A $100,000 gift annuity has already been funded and another $2 million or more is expected through the will. Jan Krotter Chvala of Atkinson, a member of the Nebraska Community Foundation Board of Directors and an attorney specializing in estates, and Doug Friedli of Nebraska City, the Foundation’s Development Director, led the discussion. Chvala told the community leaders, “Most of you are like me. We have chosen to make our home in rural Nebraska because we love it here. Our area is a wonderful place to live, to raise families and to enjoy life. But our lifestyle as we know it, and the future of our hometowns, are in jeopardy. We need to find solutions and find them now.” She said the regional meeting was organized to share those solutions. “Our local community foundations offer us some solutions. We need to know and understand what our local foundations can do for us and our communities, and to put them to work for us in our hometowns.” Friedli presented information on the intergenerational transfer of wealth that is now occurring in the United States and Nebraska, and provided information on the 50 year wealth transfer amounts expected in each of the five counties represented. “The Nebraska Community Foundation continues to support the efforts of local communities such as yours as you build endowments to keep some of the wealth at home,” he said. Friedli also reported that the Foundation has helped its affiliated funds raise nearly $50 million since its beginning in 1993. More than $30 million has been distributed back to community betterment and economic development projects and programs. Current assets are $17 million. Another $15 million in expectancies (planned gifts and known wills and bequests) have been designated by other donors. “This generous outpouring by Nebraskans and former Nebraskans is completely opposite of what might be expected in light of the doom and gloom stories of the drought, declining stock market, terrorism, threat of war and government budget deficits. Perhaps it is in fact because of those things that donors are being so generous to their Nebraska hometowns,” Friedli said. The Nebraska Community Foundation is a non-profit, charitable organization that provides financial management, strategic development and education/training services to communities, organizations and donors throughout Nebraska. It was incorporated in August 1993 and received its 501(C)(3) charitable foundation status from the Internal Revenue Service in 1994. It accepted its first affiliated funds in 1994 and now has over 154 affiliated funds operating in about 70 of the state’s 93 counties. For more information on the Creighton Community Foundation, please contact Curtis Keck at 402-358-3437 (e-mail: chkeck@gpcom.net) or Jeff Yost, Executive Vice-President of the Nebraska Community Foundation at 402-323-7332 (e-mail: jeffyost@nebcommfound.org.) --30-- Return to TOP |
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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 |
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