For more than 35 years, Jane Moreland has helped people find their place in southwest Nebraska. As the owner of Moreland Realty in Imperial, Jane assumed an important role—one that involved cultivating a deep understanding for the area and passionately relating its virtues to future residents. Thankfully, being an evangelist for southwest Nebraska came easy for Jane.
“You’re on the front lines of people moving to town,” Jane said. “You’re always selling your community and making it everything it can be.”
The Moreland family is passionate about Imperial. Jane and her husband, Mike, returned to Chase County after Jane’s graduation from UNL and settled down to raise crops, cattle, and thoroughbred racehorses. They passed their love for the area down to their children, and now their two sons both own small businesses on Imperial’s Broadway Street, where their daughter-in-law also owns a veterinary clinic.
That appreciation for Imperial naturally brought Jane within the orbit of the Imperial Community Foundation Fund (ICFF). Her values and passion for the community aligned perfectly with the fund’s mission of long-term prosperity and progress.
“When I was asked to join the Imperial Community Foundation Fund, it was a nice fit for me,” Jane said. “I could be on the front line helping determine what our community needed.”
After years of serving with ICFF, Jane joined the Nebraska Community Foundation Board of Directors in 2017. In the last three years she’s seen firsthand the potential of the network’s more than 250 affiliated funds.
“It’s such a gift to see how volunteers throughout our state are doing what they can to make their community better and help it be the best it can be,” she said. “It’s been wonderful to visit different communities and to see the impact.”
Jane’s experience as a realtor taught her much about building stronger communities, including the importance of long-term planning. She learned the value of having an eye for the short-term details as well as the big picture, which inspired her to make gift of a life insurance policy to NCF for the future benefit of ICFF’s endowment, NCF’s endowment, and First United Methodist Church in Vero Beach, Florida, where the Morelands have a home. Knowing that she’ll have a positive influence down the road is a reassurance.
“It’s wonderful to realize you can make a decision now that will be impactful for decades to come,” Jane said. “That’s really special.”
She said she would encourage others to make similar planned gifts to their local affiliated funds, as they are one of many effective ways to have a positive influence on the places you love. Nebraska Community Foundation offers a bounty of options to best match your giving needs.
“I think we need to be intentional in making a difference,” she says. “I think everyone tries annually to make a difference, and I think a lot of the tools that Nebraska Community Foundation has set up help us be impactful. There’s just one example after another. People can a make difference.”
