Five years of philanthropy – The Whitefish Community Foundation

The David Olseth Memorial Skate Park, the Central School auditorium and Smith Fields all have something in common — they received money from the Whitefish Community Foundation. Established in May of 2000, the foundation is celebrating five years of service to the city and continues to see growth.
The idea for a community foundation was hatched over weekly coffee meetings between David Stewart, Don Nelson, Rox Rogers, Mike Jensen, Connie Heckathorn and John Kramer. The foundation’s vision was to build a permanent resource for the needs of the future. According to the numbers, it seems to be on its way.

The foundation awarded more than $330,000 in donor-advised grants and $36,000 in Whitefish Community Foundation grants in 2004. The cumulative grant history from 2000 to 2004 totals more than $921,000, given to 79 different organizations. The goal is to reach $10 million in charitable gifts and bequests by 2010.

"I feel that the first five years of the foundation have been extremely successful," said Stewart , president of the Community Foundation. "In the coming year, we plan to increase the number of donor-advised funds as well as contributions to our endowment fund."

By ERIC PERO
Whitefish Pilot

Full Story: http://www.whitefishpilot.com/articles/2005/10/06/news/news02.txt