NEWS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 21, 2005

For more information:      Tammy Williams

                                       VP Communications & Marketing

                                       (920) 830-1290 ext. 22, twilliams@cffoxvalley.org   

Record contributions drive Community Foundation’s growth

Appleton, WI – A record level of charitable giving last fiscal year fueled a 44 percent increase in the assets that the Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region uses to support local nonprofit projects and organizations, Board Chairman Walter S. Rugland announced at the public charity’s annual meeting today.

More than $49 million in contributions to endowments and other charitable funds – led by a
$16 million bequest from an Appleton couple’s estate – increased the Community Foundation’s total assets under management to $146.5 million for the fiscal year ended June 30, up from $101.4 million the year before. Contributions totaled $16.7 million in 2003-04.

“This is an astounding chapter in the amazing story of the Community Foundation,” Rugland said. “The underlying theme of this story is that the people of the Fox Valley area care deeply about their communities and look to the Foundation as a lasting way to give back.”

Individuals, families, businesses and organizations have established more than 650 charitable funds within the Community Foundation to support causes they care about. About five percent of the total assets in the endowment funds is awarded to nonprofit organizations each year, leaving the principal untouched as a perpetual source of future grantmaking.

“The significance is that this record level of assets, prudently invested, will generate more grant dollars in the years to come to fulfill donors’ intensions, thereby maintaining and advancing our fine quality of life in the Fox Valley,” Curt Detjen, Community Foundation president and CEO, said.

The year of giving began in dramatic fashion in September 2004 when it was announced that Donald and Violet Himebaugh of Appleton, who died with no direct heirs, had left $16 million to their endowment fund within the Community Foundation. Even apart from their gift – the largest ever received by the 19-year-old Foundation – the rest of the year’s contributions were double the previous year’s total.

The Community Foundation also reported for 2004-05:

·        Donors established 79 new charitable funds, increasing the total funds under administration to 659.

·        Grants totaled $12.6 million for the year, benefiting 541 nonprofit organizations.

·        The Community Real Estate and Personal Property Foundation, a supporting organization within the Community Foundation, received its first charitable gifts of real estate.

·        The move to the new Community Foundation office at 4455 W. Lawrence St. in Grand Chute was completed in September 2004.

·        Management and general expenses remain at a level of less than 1 percent of assets.

Attendees at the annual meeting at the Bridgewood Resort Hotel and Conference Center in Neenah heard from Barbara Younger about why she decided to honor her late husband, Bret, by establishing a scholarship fund within the Community Foundation. Bret, executive program director for the YMCA of the Fox Cities and former race director of the Fox Cities Marathon, died in an automobile accident April 3, 2003, at age 41.

Cha Xiong of Valley Packaging described how a $25,000 Community Foundation Opportunity Fund grant made possible by the Himebaughs’ bequest helped a multi-agency effort to teach English skills to Hmong refugees displaced when Thailand closed its last refugee camp in 2004.

The meeting marked the end of Rugland’s three years of service as board chairman, though he remains on the board. He is succeeded as chairman by Wyon Wiegratz, an attorney with Remley and Sensenbrenner in Neenah.

New board members Dr. Natalie Gehringer, a pediatrician with Affinity Health Group, and Rollie Stephenson, co-owner of Town and Country Electric, were elected to one-year terms. They replace departing board members Amy Cebulski and Ron Musil.

Copies of the Community Foundation’s 2005 annual report are available by e-mailing a request to: cffvr@cffoxvalley.org or by calling (920) 830-1290.

The Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region, Inc., is a tax-exempt, public charity established in 1986 to manage donors’ financial gifts according to their wishes and distribute grants from investment income to support a variety of charitable community causes.  With more than $145 million in assets and 660 charitable funds under administration, the Foundation is the second-largest community foundation in Wisconsin.  More information is available at www.cffoxvalley.org. 

# # #