The Palisade Community Foundation Fund and Overton Area Community Fund played hosts to dozens of community volunteers throughout the region last week. Both Regional Networking events provided opportunities for passionate Nebraskans to explore Homegrown Challenges and planned giving as ways to build unrestricted endowment, teach and learn from their peers, and have meaningful discussions around communication strategies and high impact grantmaking.
Hometown hosts opened each session with a delicious meal featuring foods and treats prepared by local makers. In order to become more familiar with those in the room, attendees then engaged in an Asset-Based Community Development practice which involved sharing their gifts, skills, and passions with their peers.
Next volunteers explored the meaning of “Active Hope,” a term used regularly in the NCF network to describe the efforts of ambitious volunteers who are working diligently to better the future of their places.
“Active Hope is actively working on making my community thrive for future generations,” said Rachel Lorens of the Stratton Community Foundation Fund Advisory Committee.
“Active Hope is having a vision to plan and courage to do what is needed,” said Liz Ford of the Bertrand Area Community Fund Advisory Committee.
McCook Community Foundation Fund Advisory Committee and Nebraska Community Foundation Board member Cindy Huff had perhaps the simplest definition: “Active hope is endless opportunities.”
Planned giving and the Transfer of Wealth opportunity were also major focuses of the evening. For the past several decades, Nebraska Community Foundation has conducted extensive research on the Transfer of Wealth – an unprecedented opportunity that has to potential to transform the future of Nebraska forever.
In the next 50 years, hundreds of billions of dollars will transfer from one generation to the next. For over 25 years, Nebraska Community Foundation and motivated volunteers all across the state have worked tirelessly to harness just a portion of those resources to better our places and ensure that at least some of that wealth and abundance remains in the communities in which they were built. Planned giving is just one of the strategies NCF and affiliated funds employ to secure these abundant resources for the future.
As the evenings drew to a close, participants enjoyed the opportunity to engage in open space conversations around topics important to the future of Greater Nebraska among them youth engagement, recreation, the arts, homegrown challenges, marketing and communications, and early childhood education thanks to the help of partners at Nebraska Children & Families Foundation and the Communities 4 Kids initiative.
“Nebraska Community Foundation extends its deepest thanks to Palisade, Overton, and all of the amazing volunteers who participated in these Regional Networking events,” said Jeff Yost, President and CEO. “Having the opportunity to sit around the same table and learn from one another is critical to the work we do, and we are so grateful that these types of gatherings are once again possible.”
“Thank you to NCF for making Southwest Nebraska shine,” said Elle Thompson of the Palisade Community Foundation Fund Advisory Committee. “The support and community building was inspiring!”
With the help of the Boone County Foundation Fund and Shickley Community Foundation Fund, Nebraska Community Foundation is set to hold more peer learning opportunities in Albion on July 26 and Shickley on August 19. Reach out to your Affiliated Fund Development Coordinator if you’d like to learn more!
