Clallam Community Foundation

What is the Clallam Community Foundation?

• A way for people to leave a permanent legacy for health and human care needs in Clallam County
• A permanent endowment fund with only the earnings distributed
  
• 4 Charitable Gift Annuities
  
• 8 donor advised funds:
  • The James E. Whatton Family Fund
  • The Mac Ruddell Family Fund
  • Community Service at Work
  • The Hillside Fund
  • The Michael Sindars Scholarship Fund
  • The Karen Byrd Scholarship Fund
  • The Bright-Haygood-Copsey Fund
  • The Hull Family Fund
    
• 11 partners:
  • Boys and Girls Club Foundation of the Olympic Peninsula
  • Clallam County Family YMCA
  • Clallam County Literacy Council
  • Dungeness Valley Health & Wellness Clinic
  • First Step Family Support Center
  • North Olympic Timber Action Committee
  • Peninsula Community Mental Health Center
  • Port Angeles Food Bank
  • Serenity House of Clallam County
  • St. Andrews Place
  • United Way of Clallam County
    
• Value on 3/31/07: $2,182,425
  • United Way Fund: $713,426
  • Named Funds/Charitable Gift Annuities: $1,130,741
  • Partner Agencies Funds: $338,258
    

Why did United Way start the Community Foundation?

• Clallam County didn’t have a Community Foundation
• It fits with United Way’s goals of strengthening local non profit agencies and helping people give to our community
• No local vehicle in place for people who wanted to leave a lasting legacy to the community but didn’t want to set up their own family or business foundation

How long has it been in existence?

• The seeds were planted in 1981 when Chuck Applegate donated his sailboat to United Way. It was sold for about $25,000.
• That money was placed in CDs with earnings used to buy equipment for the United Way office – our copier, first computer, fax machine, 2nd phone line
• The second donation – a mortgage-free home which we sold for $125,000 in 1991.
• First operating guidelines established in 1994

When did it become a Community Foundation?

• 1997 with our first Named Fund – The James E. Whatton Family Fund

What is the value to the agency partners?

• Share in administrative and marketing expenses
• Earn more by combining funds yet track separately
• Vehicle in place for their donors
• Partners continue to own their funds

What’s the value to the donor?

• Ease of giving
• Cheaper and easier than setting up own foundation
• Stability of United Way
• Low administrative fees
• Ability to designate where the earnings go
• Donor can have as much or as little involvement as he/she wants
• All the same tax benefits as with other donations
• Work with qualified financial advisor and funds manager – Jim Hallett
• New policy allows for donors to invest in the Clallam Community Foundation through their own personal brokers.

What’s the value to the community?

• Some of the items United Way Fund grants have been used for:
  • First dollars in to annual fundraising campaign
  • Fund to pay for grant writers to help agencies bring in grants from outside the peninsula to provide for local human service needs
  • Baby car seats in Forks
  • Teen centers in Port Angeles & Forks
  • Volunteer trainings
  • Helping to find adoptive homes for children in foster care
  • Playground equipment for Headstart preschools in Joyce, Neah Bay, Sequim, Forks
  • Cots for emergency shelters
  • A truck to deliver food to local food banks
  • Lawn care equipment for Boys and Girls Club
  • Technology grants in 1999 to prepare for Y2K
  • Equipment upgrades
• These are all items that local agencies didn’t have other funds for
• Reduced agency fundraising in the community
  

For more information on the Clallam Community Foundation contact Russ Bonham, Resource Development Manager, at United Way, 360-457-3011, or click here to email