A Note From Our President

Friends,

It’s taken a lot of people to make The Community Foundation the valuable community resource that it is today. Donors’ support helps us grow and do more across the county. Grantees put grant funds to good use to make the community a place people choose to live. Volunteers give their time to lead the organization on the Board of Directors and to guide our growth and grantmaking by serving on our Finance, Investment, Grants, Scholarships, and other committees.

With the support of the people around us, 2019 was a year of development for the Foundation. Our Investment Committee celebrated a history of wise investing. That, paired with our donors making more than 1,100 gifts, helped us reach a new high mark on our endowment - $66 Million.

With the future in mind, the Finance Committee made a difficult decision that will reduce our spending policy allocation to protect our assets. They recommended an approach that reduced the percent available annually from 4.5 percent to 4.0 percent over five or more years based on market performance. This approach ensures that the dollar amount of grantmaking remains consistent during the transitional time. In 2019, the spending policy was 4.4 percent.

Collectively, our Grants Committees reviewed dozens of applications to award $992,055 in Competitive Grants, $190,000 in Strategic Grants, and $17,977 in Robert P. Bell Education Grants. Our Scholarship Committees recommend $204,763 in scholarship to students from across county. The Foundation granted more than $3 Million in 2019.

This year, the Foundation was awarded a planning grant for community leadership from Lilly Endowment Inc. Our Board of Directors guided us through a series of activities designed to gather community feedback on our most vital roles in the community. In 2019, we said goodbye to Board Members Michael B. Galliher, who will continue to serve on the Finance Committee, and Leland C. Wilhoite, who will continue to serve on the Competitive Grants Committee. We welcomed to the Board Magi Kirkpatrick Sikora, who serves on the Foundation’s Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship Committee, and Casey Stanley, a member of the Foundation’s Finance Committee.

In this report, we’ll introduce you to a few of the Faces of the Foundation. They are volunteers who serve on our Board and our Committees. They are your neighbors and friends. Through their service to the Foundation, they work with us to enhance the quality of life in Muncie and Delaware County. We hope you enjoy their stories, and we look forward to hearing your story, too!

Sincerely,

Kelly K. Shrock

President