Donors have rare chance to leverage gifts to community

When you do good, don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.

Quite a few generous residents have evidently taken that advice to heart, quietly pledging $408,000 toward $500,000 needed locally by Dec. 31, 2015, to qualify for another $250,000 from the Sherwood Foundation to the McCook Community Foundation Fund.

By contributing toward the local goal, donors can leverage each dollar into a dollar and a half to be used by the McCook Community Foundation toward projects to benefit youths, services for the elderly, educational and cultural activities and whatever large and small community projects the local group deems worthy.

Names of the donors should sound familiar -- the lead gift of $100,000 came from MNB (McCook National Bank, MNB Financial Group and MNB Insurance Services) and the Graff/Thomas Family entities (Graff Family Inc. and the Graff Charitable Foundation).

"We're thrilled to support the Commitment to Community campaign and to do our part in meeting the challenge laid to McCook by the Sherwood Foundation," said Chairman Mark Graff. "The campaign is designed to invest in people, and that is MCFF's primary focus -- the people who live, work and play in Southwest Nebraska."

The names of the people behind the Sherwood Foundation should sound familiar as well. It was started by Susan A. Buffett, the eldest child of Warren Buffett and Susan Thompson Buffet.

Directors of that foundation began casting about for charitable opportunities outside of Omaha, and wisely chose to partner with local entities such as the MCFF in determining how best to serve those localities -- McCook, Shickley, Nebraska City and Norfolk are the towns they chose.

But local charity officials are wise as well.

They're now asking a wide range of people to contribute as well -- those who were born in McCook, those who grew up here, and those who got here as soon as they could.

By targeting unrestricted funding, the Commitment to Community campaign has the potential to double McCook Community Foundation's endowment fund, which would mean MCFF would be able to invest up to $60,000 per year back into the community, through grants that benefit our area. In essence, each contribution received is a gift that keeps on giving.

"We want to help make McCook and Southwest Nebraska a better place to live and work by providing funds for projects and causes that would otherwise go unfunded, growing those funds so we can help even more, and showing our children and grandchildren the importance of doing charitable work and giving to those in need," MCFF Chair Leigh Ann Miller detailed. "All of our grant decisions are made locally and in response to community opportunities and needs," says MCFF Vice Chair Dale Dueland. "When an idea comes, you have to have the capacity to fund it. That's where MCFF comes in. If we don't seize the opportunity, it will pass us by."

"The MCFF advisory committee embraces the idea that positive changes flow through trust, mutual support and relationships, not just dollars," says Matt Rezac, director of Rural Community Partnerships for The Sherwood Foundation. "The unrestricted endowment is a resource that will live on in the community and provide another asset in the community's control. It's an innovative way for McCook to help sustain their hometown to pass it forward to future generations."

Do you have a good life here in McCook? Would you like to make it better for yourself and others, younger or less fortunate? Then consider a generous gift to the Commitment to Community endowment fund.

For more information, visit nebcommfound.org/fund/McCook, email foundation@mccookne.org, "like" facebook.com/McCookCommunityFoundationFund or call (308) 344-9363.