W orking Together We Can Mak e A Difference - Whitefish ...

LETTER
From the President
It is a great honor to have been asked to serve as Board President of the Whitefish Community
Foundation following in the footsteps of Mike Jenson and Dave Stewart. Over
the past eight years the Foundation has served as a vehicle to channel over $2,000,000 in
charitable gifts to many deserving area nonprofit organizations whose work is so important
to make the community the special place that we all call home.
30 grants were awarded this year to local nonprofit organizations who had submitted
applications as part of our annual grants program. These organizations undergo a rigorous
approval process by a committee who examines not only need but financial responsibility.
We’ve included comments from some of our grant recipients in this report to illustrate the
impact of the grants program to these organizations made possible by your contributions
to the Foundation.
Total disbursements through the Foundation in 2007 exceeded $300,000, the fifth consecutive
year exceeding that amount. The majority of those disbursements, however, are
through Donor Advised Funds (“DAFs”). This means our grantees are depending on the
continued generosity of the relatively small number of donors who have established a DAF.
To reduce the Foundation’s reliance on DAFs, we continue to concentrate on building our
permanent endowment fund, which has grown to nearly $800,000 at the end of 2007.
To secure a permanent source of funding for grants, the Foundation Board has committed
to grow the endowment fund to a level at which earnings from the endowment would fully
fund our grants program and reduce our reliance on annual contributions to support our area
nonprofit service organizations. We have set a goal to grow the endowment to $5,000,000 or
more over the next 3 years and are confident that the community will respond. To achieve
this goal, we will be reaching out to a broad range of donors and potential donors, both big
and small, who have an interest in supporting the future of our community.
Our mission is simple, “The Whitefish Community Foundation is dedicated to fostering
philanthropy, building endowments, and helping donors and nonprofits benefit
our community.” For those who have contributed to our
mission, thank you so very much for your support. For those
who are interested in learning more about the Foundation,
please contact our office at 863-1781 or visit our website at
www.whitefishcommunityfoundation.org. Come join
us in enriching the future of Whitefish! You can make
a difference.
Paul Johannsen
President
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