Duluth-Superior Foundation Meets $1.2 Million Fundraising Challenge

The Duluth-Superior Area Community Foundation announced that it has successfully met the challenge made by the Bush Foundation, St. Paul, in November 2000 to raise $1.2 million in unrestricted endowment by December 31, 2004. As a result, $1.2 million in additional matching funds will be added to the community foundation's unrestricted funds, for a total of $2.4 million in new unrestricted grant dollars.

"We are very proud that area residents have responded to the challenge and invested in the future of their community," said Thomas B. Wheeler, chair of the community foundation's board of trustees. "These generous donors have seen the value of helping increase a permanent endowment that will continue to benefit the community in perpetuity. And we are proud to also announce that we met the Bush Foundation challenge fully six months ahead of schedule."

"By contributing to the unrestricted fund, donors have shown their confidence in the leadership of the community foundation to address changing or recurring needs," said Peter L. Boman, chair of the foundation's development committee. "The unrestricted fund allows the board of trustees to determine over time what is most needed and will best benefit our community."

Unrestricted funds are used for a variety of projects that exemplify the Duluth-Superior Area Community Foundation's goal of "Private Giving for the Public Good." For example, the foundation recently made a $22,000 grant to the Duluth Area Family YMCA's True North Volunteer Center, which focuses on building community by promoting effective volunteerism and connecting people with opportunities to serve via its Web site and telephone referral. The Center is a collaborative of the YMCAs in Duluth and Grand Rapids, Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College, UMD's Department of Psychology, Boise Forte Reservation and the former AmeriCorps Northeastern Minnesota Program.

Another example of the foundation's use of unrestricted funds is a $8,300 grant that it made recently to the Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin (NRF) for its Leaders Explore Natural Areas program. The NRF has embarked on a ten-year campaign focused on environmental stewardship of 408 state natural areas through cultivation of volunteer community leaders. The first three years of the campaign will focus on the plants, animals, geological features, archaeological sites and habitats of the Great Lakes Coastal Region.

Other recent examples of grants made from the community foundation's unrestricted funds to benefit the local region include a $10,000 grant to Arrowhead Regional Corrections for the Duluth Drug Court; a $7,500 grant to the Girl Scouts, Northern Pine Council for its "Studio 2B Program," which involves a major redesign of programs targeted at specific age ranges of girls; and a $4,000 grant to ISD #698, Floodwood Public Schools, for its Maternal and Child Community Health Program.

"By making contributions to the community foundation's unrestricted funds, many people in our area have chosen to make a difference in their community," said Holly C. Sampson, president of the Duluth-Superior Area Community Foundation. "By choosing the Duluth-Superior Area Community Foundation to fulfill their philanthropic intent, our donors have created a lasting legacy that meets both the needs of today and also the challenges of tomorrow."

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