Lilly Endowment tripling donations through the end of the year
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A dollar doesn’t stretch very far these days, but how about three dollars? How about $2.25 million?
That is the very real goal set in front of the Community Foundation of Howard County. It is nearing the end of an auspicious funding campaign, but it needs help to hit its goal. The Foundation hopes to raise $750,000 by Dec. 31.
That amount is important because the Lilly Endowment, Inc., has pledged to bestow two dollars to match each dollar raised by the local community. That $750,000 suddenly becomes $2.25 million. There has never been a better time to give.
“Howard County has been really great raising funds,” said Emily Hemersbach, Marketing and Communications Director. “The two-for-one match from Lilly Endowment goes to our unrestricted community funds. Those funds support our grant cycles, which go directly towards the nonprofits in our community.”
Hemersbach explained that the Community Foundation holds four grant cycles each year, using unrestricted funds. They can be awarded to local nonprofits for programming, capital improvements, and other efforts to improve their organizations and their service to the community.
“If you’ve interacted with a nonprofit, they’ve probably interacted with us, whether it’s through a grant or through education, community leadership work, and all of the things to help them grow,” said Hemersbach. “Eventually, we would like to help them get out there and get dollars from other sources. Building the strength of our nonprofits is really important to us in the community.”
Recent Community Foundation grant recipients include Valley of Grace, the Turnabout Community Resource Center, and Meals on Wheels. In each case, the dollars granted will help people survive, thrive, and eventually become self-sufficient members of the community. But these aren’t easy times for anyone, and the foundation is aware of it.
“We’re aware of a lot of cuts right now, so we’re trying to stay connected to that,” said Hemersbach. “It’s going to make decision making harder as we move forward, because there are only so many dollars every year. We have a great committee that is really committed to looking at the needs in the community, looking at the aspirations of the community, combining those two things, and then getting the dollars where they need to go.”
The Foundation held an open house recently, inviting the community to visit and tour its home along West Sycamore Street. During the event, Howard County Historian Gil Porter conducted tours of the facility, showing off the newly remodeled second floor of the building. But Porter was there to share the history of the location.
“When the county agent began selling lots in 1844 and again in January of 1845, two of the original sales were to Methodist ministers,” said Porter. “They were among the first cohort of people who bought the original lots in the unincorporated township of Kokomo.
“One was Jacob Cole Clauser. He is well known to us as the circuit rider preacher who, along with Elizabeth Foster, helped to start what is today Grace United Methodist Church. The other was Rufus L. Blowers. He was the first to buy what is lot 92 where (the Community Foundation) is standing right now.”
Blowers didn’t stay in Kokomo, and eventually he lost the property through tax default. By 1885, there were eight homes built on the property. In 1909, the property became home to an undertaker and a coffin shop. And in 1916, it was used as a paint store.
In 1917, Lot 92 became more recognizable. According to Porter, it was then that the building standing on the lot today was constructed; first as a bakery. Photos from the 1940s show that the building once occupied the entire lot, though today a parking lot occupies a portion of it.
“It seems to have been home to dozens of organizations over the decades,” said Porter of the Community Foundation’s building. “This space was built as a commercial property, but the organizations that stayed here often represented service to the community. The Chamber of Commerce. A local union hall. The Red Cross was here in their first office. The Community Chest.
“A fascinating side note was that this was the second home of an early Kokomo radio station, WJAK. It actually began broadcasting from here from this space on the second floor on May 10, 1926. Their first broadcast had a live performance of the Kokomo Little Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Professor Dan Spalding.”
The open house raised more than $140,000, bringing it to 90 percent of the $750,000 goal. That total has crept closer to the finish line since then, but a final Christmastime push will certainly send the fundraising total over the top.
To help the Community Foundation obtain its goal, thereby injecting more than $2.25 million into the greater Howard County area, visit www.cfhoward.org/give-now.