2024 has been a benchmark year for the Wet Mountain Valley Community Foundation (WMVCF). It has been 25 years since its inception, and the current Spirit Campaign is the 20th annual drive for donations to the countyâs 63 non-profit organizations. Individual donations are suppleÂmented by a percentage of the Foundationâs funds; every dollar donated has an add-on âMake-It-Moreâ gift guaranÂteed by WMVCF.
Over the 20-year history of the Spirit Campaign, WMVCF has overseen the distribution of $5,841,673 to local non-profits. Last year the Foundation augmented over 700 individual donations for a total distribution of $469,673 to the participating community non-profit services.
In addition to the Spirit Campaign Make-It-More Fund, the Foundation also administers eight other funds dedicated to the maintenance of the wellbeing of all Custer County citizens, infants to seniors: Excellence in Education ComÂmunity Fund, High Mountain Hay Fever Childrenâs Health Fund, Custer County Kidâs Council, Rebeccaâs Fund, Valley Strong Fund, and the Succession and Sustainability, Bluff Park, and Ula Cemetery Perpetual funds.
While the Spirit Campaign is known by residents as the flagship of the Foundation, WMVCF engagement with the community has recently expanded. Beginning with a thorÂough assessment of non-profit needs and services some years ago, the Foundation continues to honor that part of its goal to play a philanthropic leadership role âby helping create and provide efforts among citizens to improve the quality of life in the community.â
From the monthly âNoon Nuggetsâ conversations with local non-profit leaders, to assisting with volunteer recruitÂment and orientation, to its new Youth in Philanthropy proÂgram, to expanding its resources and training network, the Foundation is increasingly committed to support non-profÂits. (A visit to their rich website, wmvcf.org, provides some sense of the breadth of activities the Foundationâs Board of Directors oversee.)
The Tribune sat down recently with Dr. Jennifer HowÂerton, WMVCFâs Managing Director, to discuss these expanding services and the impact they hope to have on non-profits addressing the needs of, and protecting, the vulnerable in our community. Howerton, a lifelong eduÂcator and existentially immersed in family caregiving for her elderly parents, immediately spoke to âserving the underserved,â a dynamic that will most likely be increasÂingly present in the county in the years ahead. Across the entire range of residents in our aging community, HowerÂton noted mounting needs demanding community service attention, for starters, affordable daycare, housing, food supplementation, and veteransâ services.
She made it clear that equipping non-profits to rise to these growing and emerging needs is front and center for the Foundation. âThe non-profit services are vital to our comÂmunityâŚwe will expand to better serve the non-profits, who in turn then serve and support the community.â
Howertonâs enthusiasm and vision are indicative of the Foundationâs lean into the future. While celebrating a quarÂter century of service and two decades of gathering up the generosity of residents and visitors who contribute to the Spirit Campaign, there is no resting on laurels here. Rather, a moving on and into an immediate future fraught with âshift and changeâ in matters that directly affect the underserved and vulnerable. It bodes well for the county that WMVCF continues to fucus on serving those who serve, that quality of life here is promoted and enlivened.
In the meantime, the Tribune encourages bountiful genÂerosity again this year during the winter holiday Spirit CamÂpaign. The donation booklet and coupons were going in the mail when we spoke with Howerton, and by this time shall have arrived in your mailbox. Give, and feel good about it; all donations remain here in our local community. As HowÂerton noted, âWeâre all philanthropists!â
â W.A. Ewing