In November of 2008 the Elkhorn Fund awarded a $750 grant to Hope Now, a community based non-profit dedicated to providing short-term assistance to families living within the Elkhorn School District. The grant was to provide a weeks worth of basic food staples to households who are at risk for insufficient food supplies during the time when schools are on break.
Elkhorn Fund Advisory Board Members help volunteers pack Easter food baskets for Hope Now Clients.
Elkhorn Fund Advisory Board Member Jeff Rosendahl spoke with Elkhorn area Elementary Schools about the Elkhorn Fund. As a result, Tibbets Elementary School held a Spring Basket raffle to benefit the Elkhorn Fund. Each of the five classes created a different theme based basket. Members of Tibbetts Elementary School PTA presented a $500 check to the Elkhorn Fund Advisory Board Members.
Left to right: Jeff Rosendahl, Elkhorn Fund Advisory Board Member, Charlene Zurn, PTA Treasurer, Lori Ahler, PTA Secretary, Stacy Jacobs, PTA President, Karen Ramsett, Elkhorn Fund Advisory Board Chair.
The Elkhorn Area Womens Club gifted $1,000 from the proceeds of their 2008 Holiday Home Walk to the Elkhorn Fund. Giving and accepting the gift is Judy Knight, Womens Club member, Karen Ramsett, Elkhorn Fund Advisory Board Chair, Virginia Paulsen, Womens Club Member, and Jane Duesterbeck, Community Foundation of Southern Wisconsin liaison to the Elkhorn Fund.
What You Always Wanted to Know About the Elkhorn Fund
I’m local.
I help you give where you live.
I know our community.
My advisory board is made up of people like you. People who keep in touch with the needs and concerns of Elkhorn.
I’m concerned about the things that you’re concerned about.
Education for youth and adults, health & human services, access to arts programming, and much more.
I’ll never give up.
I’m built on the concept of permanence. I’m an endowment fund that starts small and will I continue to grow. You can give to me knowing that I’ll be working for a better Elkhorn. Principal is not spent. A portion of the income earned is granted back to the community. When community needs change, and they will, I’ll be here to respond. I’m here For good. For ever.
I carry a big umbrella.
Actually, I’m under the umbrella of the Community Foundation of Southern Wisconsin, Inc., a 501 c 3 not-for-profit public charity. The Community Foundation helps me and more than 450 other charitable funds make a difference in the quality of community life, wherever ‘community' might be.
I’m Elkhorn’s ‘nest egg’.
Like your own nest egg, I grow too. Gifts to the Elkhorn Fund are pooled with other gifts (like a mutual fund) providing higher yield and more diverse investment instruments. With the help of the Community Foundation of Southern Wisconsin and seven investment banks, I enjoy some very attractive investment opportunities.
I accept gifts from everyone.
Most of my gifts come from working families, kids and small businesses. What they share is a common desire to lift the lives of their fellow citizens and see change in Elkhorn. By combining our resources we maximize the impact of modest gifts (see nest egg).
I can wait till you die.
I don’t want to-but, you don’t have to give now. You can leave a little something to me in your will. A percentage is best. Nothing extravagant. I want you to take care of your family first. How about 5%?
I give with care.
Each year the Elkhorn Fund advisory board will review grant applications submitted by schools and not-for-profit organizations providing services to Elkhorn. The grant-making goal of the Elkhorn Fund is to fund, strengthen and encourage projects likely to make a clear difference in the quality of life for the citizens of Elkhorn. The Elkhorn Fund favors projects that propose practical solutions to current community needs, in addressing positive changes, promote volunteer involvement, strengthen an organization’s effectiveness and stability, and address prevention as well as intervention.
I’ve got my priorities straight.
Individual not-for-profits focus on one specific issue. The Elkhorn Fund’s role is to consider all the needs of Elkhorn: education, health & human services, environment, historic preservation, the arts.
I play well with others.
I am dedicated to Elkhorn and the creative people that make it thrive. Collaboration ensures that the best minds are put to use generating wise solutions.
I can save you money.
As a component of the Community Foundation I can help you save money while benefiting Elkhorn. Gifts to the Elkhorn Fund are tax deductible to the maximum extent allowed by law. For example, in most cases you may deduct up to 50% of current income for gifts of cash and you may deduct the full appreciated value of securities and property up to 30% of annual current income.
Giving is really the easy part.
Imparting philanthropic wisdom and values are equally important.
