'Seeds for Success' program gets early jump start

SWITZ CITY -- Sometimes even in the philanthropic business there are some very pleasant surprises.

Such is the case with the Greene County Foundation's 'Seeds for Success' program that kicked off earlier this month.

When announced, the goal was to raise $100,000 for favorite area not-for-profit agencies for each of the next three years.

Under this program, the Greene County Foundation will match donations to an endowment for a charity at a ratio of $1 for every $3 raised.

About week prior to fund drive starting, foundation executive director Kerry Conway, got on the telephone and contacted some "key people" around the county -- past donors and Foundation board members -- and she asked them about contributing to the project in an effort to "kick start" the fund drive.

Her appeal netted some good results.

Before the program formally kicked off on Sept. 15, $100,000 had been raised and the goal was increased to $200,000 for the first year.

"What happened was a lot of donors were apparently very interested in doing that. We kind of put the word out and made a few calls and within just a very few days we had over $100,000 that we raised," Conway stated. "I then e-mailed the board and we did some budget re-arranging and we found some more match money, so we raised the goal to $200,000."

The results were amazing, but not totally surprising to Conway.

"Nothing in Greene County surprises me when it comes to generosity. It's one of those things where the type of fundraising that the Foundation has done really isn't income based fundraising. We tend to get gifts that are assets as compared to income. There are a lot of very generous benefactors who have a lot of assets. A lot of the gifts that we got were from appreciated stock and by basically gifting that stock to the Foundation, the donors don't have to pay capital gains tax on it. They get a tax advantage to it," Conway explained. "The tax advantage is a good thing and I'm glad we are able to offer them that, but the truth is that generous impulse is really why they do it. People don't do it for the tax break; they do it for the generous impulse."

Conway says the 'Seeds for Success' program is a way to champion permanent, local philanthropy; help build the capacity of agencies to meet their operating needs; address diverse needs through expanded grant making; and grow the foundation's capacity to serve as a convener and leader.

The program will continue until the second $100,000 is raised -- on a first-come-first-served basis. About $80,000 still needs to be received before the goal is met.

"My hope would be that it would be raised by mid-November," Conway said.

So far, the program has raised $89,614 in actual gifts and coupled with the match amount of $29,871.33 -- the total is $119,485.33.

The largest gift -- $50,000 was earmarked for the Saron Church Endowment, followed by $20,090 to the Saron Church Youth Fund. The Owensburg Cemetery Fund received $5,750. Other endowment gifts included: $5,000 to Middle Way House, $5,000 to Pioneer Families Memorial; $3,000 to the Linton Heritage Fund; and $774 to the Greene County Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) fund.

"It has been wonderful. Some of the donors have set up new funds. We now have an endowment fund for Middle Way House. We have an endowment fund for CASA and we have endowment funds that were set up for the Greene County Historical Society -- one called the Pioneer Family Memorial Fund and the other one is the Linton Heritage Fund. Obviously, people have thought about these things, because it is not like they are saying 'how show I spend my money?' It's more a question of I'd like to this. They have been pretty directive and I think that is wonderful."

She added, "It's wonderful that they are so involved with the non-profits agencies that they have a real good idea of exactly where they want to invest. I am just very, very happy."

Three additional informational meeting are planned to more fully explain the program -- Oct. 12, 7 p.m. at the Jasonville Library; Oct. 16, 7 p.m. at the Greene County Extension Service conference room at the fairgrounds near Switz City; and Oct. 19, 7 p.m. at the Worthington Library.

This matching grant program is made possible through a grant from discretionary funds of the Foundation, and will be implemented in three phases; Phase One -- 2006; Phase Two -- 2007; and Phase Three -- 2008.

Agencies entering into the Seeds For Success Matching grant program will be required to start an endowment fund (if they do not already have one). All gifts (donations) for that agency will be deposited into an endowment fund established in their name.

Also, all donors interested in donating to non-profit, 501 (c) (3) agencies serving the general public in Greene County, are eligible for matching funds.

To be eligible for matching, the minimum gift is $100, the maximum is $50,000.

Agency endowments are funds established to benefit a particular non-profit organization in Greene County. Gifts made to the fund remain a permanent asset at the Foundation designed to support the organization. This permanent pool of assets generates income and grows over time. It is designed to provide a stable source of revenue as part of the organization's funding mix. Fund distributions can be utilized for agency operations in many ways: Administrative overhead, including salaries, capital campaigns, emergency needs such as funding shortfalls, and new opportunities that arise from time to time, Conway said.

For further information about the Seeds for Success program or any of the other endowments, contact the Greene County Foundation, R.R. 2, Box 38X, Bloomfield, Ind., 47424, or by calling 659-3142, or by e-mail at

Also, visit the foundation's Web site at www.greenecountyfoundation.org for more information.