FOUNDATIONS UNITE TO BETTER SERVE CENTRAL KANSAS COMMUNITIES
The Central Kansas Community Foundation recently announced a partnership and affiliation with the Community Foundation of Greater Butler County. Board chairs Don Patry from Butler County and Bill Goering from Central Kansas made it official Wednesday by signing a formal affiliate agreement.
Butler County joins Hillsboro Community Foundation, Hesston Community Foundation and Peabody Community Foundation as organizations operating as regional affiliates of the "host" organization, Central Kansas Community Foundation, based in Newton.
Bill Goering believes in the strength of collaboration and commented, "The Community Foundation of Greater Butler County is a natural partner for us. We share a common county border, have similar philosophies, and deal with common issues. Donors in Butler County can be assured that this partnership will strengthen their local community foundation and allow them to provide an even greater level of service to their donors and charities alike."
Sandra Fruit, executive director of CKCF, welcomes the Community Foundation of Greater Butler County as a new affiliate and noted, "The trend across Kansas in the community foundation world is towards more partnerships and alliances. These associations allow us to operate much more efficiently and share overhead expenses that otherwise can become burdensome to smaller foundations."
According to Don Patry, chairman, the Community Foundation of Greater Butler County (CFGBC) was established in 2001 with a mission to assist donors in building permanent endowments to meet charitable needs in the greater Butler County community. Presently Butler County manages more than forty funds and has an asset base or more than $1,000,000. This year alone they awarded $55,000 in charitable gifts, bringing their total impact to more than $250,000 since their inception in 2001.
"The affiliation with Central Kansas Community Foundation will allow us to continue our work in Butler County with a renewed energy. By sharing accounting and investment management responsibilities we will gain significant operational economies, not to mention donor management tools that will provide our established fund representatives the ability to see balance details online, 24/7" said Angie Baur, executive director of the CFGBC.
Many of the quality services and benefits our partners have come to expect from the community foundation will remain unchanged; basically CFGBC is being provided with a stronger backbone of resources and services so their focus can remain on building endowments and providing service to their local donors.
"Of tremendous value and importance is our ability to maintain our local board of directors and continue to make decisions locally regarding staffing and grant recommendations. Butler County will have board representation on the Central Kansas Community Foundation board and on the Finance Committee. Basically, for the donors and the charities we support it's business as usual for the CFGBC. The only thing they are likely to notice is improved and enhanced services," concluded Angie Baur.
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The Community Foundation of Greater Butler County was founded in 2001: by local people, for local people. Originally spearheaded by leaders involved with the Leadership Butler project, the Community Foundation of Greater Butler County was seeded as part of GROW, a statewide initiative funded by the Kansas Health Foundation (KHF). CFGBC was established by local donor dollars along with a match from KHF.
The Community Foundation of Greater Butler County's mission is to assist donors in building a permanent pool of assets for the people, organizations and causes in the Greater Butler County area. Now, part of a regional system, they will be better able to serve this mission.
The Central Kansas Community Foundation now serves the citizens of Harvey, Marion, McPherson and Butler Counties. Together We Can Accomplish Great Things!
For more information contact Sandra Fruit, 316-772-2895, sandi@ckcf.net or Angie Baur, 316-733-0230, info@communityfoundationgbc.org .
