Originally published on 10/11’s Pure Nebraska program.
The Clarkson Future Fund started about a year ago as an affiliate of Nebraska Community Foundation (NCF), and through NCF’s Homegrown Challenge Grant, the fund is already close to having $1,000,000 that can be used for future projects.
Members of the fund say they care about their hometown. “My husband and I were both born and raised in Clarkson,” fund Vice President Tami Sayers said. “We both knew that after we went to college we wanted to come back.” Clarkson is a community of hospitality, and residents want to keep it strong. The Clarkson Future Fund is looking to help with that. “When I heard about the fund, I was really excited because I wanted to be a part of that for our community,” Sayers said. Fund secretary Tiffiny Baumert says she, too, wanted to be a part of this movement. “I really wanted to get involved with this fund because of myself growing up here,” Baumert said. “When I graduated, I went off to school in a big city on the east coast, and it was great. But I knew in a quick hurry that I would not want to raise a family there. I was really fortunate to come back here, have kids here, and to be able to raise them in a place where we feel safe.”
The idea of building an endowment fund to keep Clarkson strong started back in January of 2024. “Randy Vavrina approached me and said we needed to get a town foundation going,” Clarkson Future Fund Treasurer Adam Cerv said. Community leaders built an advisory committee and decided to affiliate with NCF. Then in July of 2024, a well-attended meeting at the Opera House got the ball rolling. “We had about 138 people show up for that,” Cerv said. “NCF, I think, was blown away by the amount of people that came to the meeting. It really showed how many people in this town care about Clarkson.”
After the meeting, Clarkson was encouraged by Nebraska Community Foundation to take on a Homegrown Challenge Grant. The grant guidelines were that if Clarkson found a $100,000 donor, NCF would provide another $50,000. It turns out, Clarkson was able to generate $300,000 right away. “Randy and Mitzi Vavrina were a lead donor, well as Doernemann Construction, Dr. John and Ruth O’Neal, and we had an anonymous donor to get to our $300,000,” Cerv said. With the local homegrown challenge sitting at $300,000, the town was challenged to raise another $700,000. “Our goal is to raise the $700,000, and right now, if all is said and done, we’ll have $1,050,000,” Cerv said. “Right now we are sitting at $956,000.”
Technically, the full amount doesn’t have to be completely raised until December 31, 2027. Things are going so well that another donor wants to challenge the community for more. “We had another family come forward, Ron and Janette Vavrina, and they said when we get to our $1,000,000, they want to challenge us again,” Cerv said. “They are willing to contribute another $150,000 if we can raise another $300,000. That would then be another $450,000 on top of the $1,050,000 we have. If this happens, our annual payout will be $67,500 a year forever.” That payout would come from the Clarkson Future Fund, which is an unrestricted endowment. “Our endowment is basically a savings account where that million dollars will never be used,” Cerv said. “We will just use the earnings off of it.”
Now that the Clarkson Future Fund is making huge gains, local residents are starting to dream about how the money could be used. “Not only are we trying to maintain the opportunities and what we have here in town right now,” Baumert said. “We are also planting those seeds for the future of what it could look like.” Sayers says it’s going to help elevate the community. “We want people from out of town to come here and see what we have going on,” Sayers said. “So when people are driving down Highway 91, they see Clarkson, and they think of positive things going on. Maybe they’ll want to move here, and they’ll want their kids to go to school here.”
“I think this endowment says we believe in the future of Clarkson,” Baumert said. “Not just today, not just tomorrow or in five years. We are saying we believe in the future of Clarkson indefinitely.”
