Originally published on 10/11’s Pure Nebraska program.
Nebraska Community Foundation’s Annual Celebration and Training took place this month in Lincoln, and local leaders from affiliated funds around the state came away with new ideas and tools to help their communities thrive.
For local leaders, the NCF annual celebration is a great chance to connect. “I love the Nebraska Community Foundation annual event,” Calamus Area Community Fund Chairperson Megan Helberg said. “I come every year. It energizes me, it motivates me, it reminds me of why I care so much about rural Nebraska or Greater Nebraska.” Megan is from Taylor. She says the local NCF affiliated fund there is doing great things for Loup and Garfield counties. “The Calamus Area Community Fund basically exists to help our communities not just survive, but thrive into the future,” Helberg said. “We do this with an unrestricted endowment which is basically like a savings account for the communities. Each year, we can spend the principal, which is the interest that the endowment earns each year, for community related projects.”
Megan’s story is like many others at the annual celebration and training. Local NCF affiliated funds around the state are using money from their unrestricted endowments in strategic ways to make community improvements. NCF serves as a guide them in the process. “To me the affiliation means, I am connected to this larger organization, the Nebraska Community Foundation, so that I don’t have to figure things out on my own,” Tammy Day said. Tammy is with the Norfolk Family of Funds. “NCF means I’ve got the administrative support to navigate donations, tax law and charitable giving. And, you’ve also got support from their staff to help with fundraising or impact making, or just what is it like to make a really impactful grant.” Matt Sehnert, who is with the McCook Community Foundation Fund, says “They don’t tell us what to do or how to do it,” Sehnert said. “But they give us ideas, guidance, tools, facilitation, and peer learning.”
People come from all over the state to be a part of the NCF annual celebration and training. As you might imagine, when attendees leave, they are fueled up with ideas to try in their communities. Local affiliated funds are focused on a wide variety of topics. “I’m from Norfolk, and in Norfolk we have a lot of things going on, just like any place,” Day said. “We have some of those major issues like child care capacity, housing, workforce development. But then we have groups working on how do we make our community better. My current role in the NCF network is really helping our current group of Norfolk funds come together and figure out what we can do together that might not be possible alone.”
People attraction in our Nebraska hometowns was a popular topic at the celebration. As Nebraska Community Foundation marks 30 years, local affiliated fund leaders say they are seeing positive change in their communities through the help of NCF, and the idea of using unrestricted endowments. “A lot of these small towns are getting early childhood development centers, and lot of the youth are returning to the community,” Helberg said. “I kind of see this shift over time since I’ve been involved, and it’s really exciting and invigorating. That’s one of the main reasons I come to this event.”
Local fund leaders say the annual celebration and training is something they never want to miss, because of the connections they make, and the tools they can take home with them. “I feel like the value of this collective gathering is that, you have all of these experiences and ideas in one place,” Day said. “So, what might take me hours to drive across the state and back, I can learn and hear about and connect with people all in one day, which I think is a great benefit to people.” For those attending the annual celebration and training, it’s time well spent. “Ultimately, I leave inspired and ready to go and tackle more of our challenges,” Sehnert said.
Over the past three decades, thousands of Nebraskans in every corner of the state have dedicated their time, talent, treasure and talk to NCF’s community-building work. Since 1994, the NCF network has amassed $256 million in assets – $164 million of which are endowed—to further its mission to unleash abundant local assets, inspire charitable giving and connect ambitious people to build stronger communities across Greater Nebraska. Since NCF’s establishment, the network has reinvested more than $553 million into rural hometowns, forever transforming the philanthropic landscape of the state and the lives of future generations who will call Nebraska home.
Through the years, NCF has remained staunchly committed to its values of keeping its work community centered and locally controlled. NCF’s 24 staff members provide expertise in accounting, legal work, investments, IRS compliance, planned giving, fundraising, communications, marketing, data management, group facilitation, leadership training and decades of experience in complex community development work. Above all, the organization supports local volunteers in their efforts to build unrestricted endowments—financial resources that grow in perpetuity and are available for whatever challenges or opportunities Nebraska hometowns face in the future.
While Nebraska Community Foundation’s impact has grown exponentially across the state, so has its reputation and influence in both the national and international non-profit realm. Not only is the organization known for its innovative community-building work and massive volunteer-led network, it has become increasingly well known for its studies on the intergenerational transfer of wealth as well as statewide youth surveys designed to better understand the perspectives and desires of young Nebraskans as they choose where they want to build their futures.
