Family & Friends Community Foundation is a locally-run public foundation that builds and manages endowment funds to support charitable events and activities in the local area.
endowment funds to support charitable events and activities in the local area. It is autonomous and governed by a volunteer board of local community leaders from all three municipalities. Family and Friends Community Foundation pools the charitable funds of its donors to create permanent, incomeearning endowment funds, which generate interest that the foundation uses to create grants to support deserving projects in the community. They have many different endowment funds people can contribute to, each with a different theme or focus. For example, there is a Health and Palliative Care Fund, which generates funds to support the health and palliative care facilities in Langenburg, Churchbridge and Spy Hill. There are also Cemetery funds, which support the upkeep and maintenance of cemeteries in the area. Over the past five years, the foundation has donated approximately $400,000
in upgrades to the Langenburg Care Home. “They’ve got it upgraded to very good standards now. They’ve brought equipment in like lifts and tubs, they have all automatic beds, and the kitchen has been totally redone to the tune of about $40,000,” says Mervin Kendel, chairperson of the board. Funds can be donated to the foundation in perpetuity or flow-through donations. Donations in perpetuity are added to an endowment fund in the form of principal, and help to generate more income for the foundation’s grants. Flow-through donations, on the other hand, are donations that are transferred to a project in full, ones that simply ‘flow through’ the foundation. Cherryl Kotzer, the foundation’s program administrator, advises that donors can do flow-through donations to a specific initiative that they want to support. “Quite often people have a specific project in mind before they donate to the
TOWN FEATURE CHURCHBRIDGE & LANGENBURG
foundation.” For example, one gentleman donated $300,000 to renovations at Langenburg’s community theatre through a flow-through donation. “The $300,000 was put within the foundation, and then as the building and the renovations proceeded, the foundation paid out the applicable bills,” Cherryl says. “So that’s how we have a huge, beautiful addition onto our theatre. Through that kind, flowthrough donation.” The board of directors for Family and Friends Community Foundation is made up of active members of all three participating communities: Langenburg, Churchbridge and Spy Hill. The foundation welcomes grant applications for community projects for all three areas, and accepts donations year-round. For more information visit their website, www.familyandfriendsfoundation.com or contact a member of the board.
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