ICF fills funding gap for communities

SANDPOINT — Federal grants — once a financial mainstay for schools, community improvement projects and arts organizations — have become as rare as non-partisan debate on Capitol Hill.

State funding? Forget about it. As federal largesse disappeared, state governments became too busy putting out budget fires to concentrate on anything but the bare necessities.

In the throe of these lean times, state and federal governments have come to look like a pair of down on their luck dowagers wrangling over a nickel in the bottom of a purse.

Fortunately, cooler heads and smarter investments have prevailed on a different front. In states all over the U.S., more than 700 non-profit, permanent endowment funds have filled the gaping hole left by a lack of previous government support.

In Idaho, this past week carried an announcement of how successful that kind of organization can be, as the Idaho Community Foundation released the names of nearly 60 community groups and arts organizations which, between them, were awarded a total of more than $600,000 in grants from the Gladys E. Langroise Advised Fund.

Locally, Kinderhaven received a $20,000 grant, while the Festival at Sandpoint and the Boundary County branch of the University of Idaho Foundation were awarded $4,000 each from the Langroise Fund though the ICF.

For Kinderhaven — a community organization that provides a safe home for children in crisis due to things such as physical or sexual abuse — the ICF funding literally helps to keep the doors open.

“We don’t get much from the state or federal government; we’re 86 percent funded by the generosity of the community,” said Phyllis Horvath, Kinderhaven’s executive director. “But everybody’s hurting these days, so having the ICF there to help fill in the spaces has been very useful.”

According to Horvath, the ICF takes time to learn about Idaho’s communities and organizations and has become an advocate for their wellbeing. That first-hand knowledge, she explained, translates into a personal relationship for non-profits like Kinderhaven.

“I always feel like the ICF is looking after us,” the executive director said. “They’ll take the initiative and let us know if there’s a grant they think we should apply for.”

North Idaho is well-represented on the ICF board of directors, with Doug Chadderdon and John Magnuson of Coeur d’Alene; Marc Wallace from Hayden; Tricia Swartling of Ketchum; Jean Elsaesser from Priest River; and the organization’s newest director, Sandpoint attorney Bill Berg, helping to steer the group.

Berg, who founded the Panhandle Alliance for Education, is familiar with how the ICF operates through the nearly $2 million that PAFE currently has invested in the overall endowment fund. While he describes himself as being squarely in the learning mode at this point, Berg likes the way the organization manages and administers its funds.

“I’m impressed by the concept that it provides a way for people who have a particular passion to share their money and support that passion,” he said. “When you have declining resources through taxes and so forth, these kinds of organizations are essential.”

Berg serves on the ICF board’s investment committee, which oversees an investment group that has managed to outpace the market while walking a tightrope that requires the management of an extremely safe portfolio. Because 5 percent of the ICF’s endowment fund gets dispersed in the form of charitable donations each year, additional growth of approximately 3 percent is needed to fund operational expenses.

“To get your money properly protected and earn 8 percent on your investment is no mean trick,” said Berg.

Still, the ICF has managed to realize that rate of return over time, leaving it with a fund that, this year, is approaching the largest asset level in the group’s history.

“Even with a wrenching downturn, our total assets are approaching $75 million and the endowment itself is at about $57 million,” said Bob Hoover, the former University of Idaho president who has been the organization’s president and chief executive officer since mid-2009. “It’s not just about distributing the dollars — it’s about an organization with an investment strategy that works.”

The ICF now has more than 400 funds under its umbrella, the majority of which are endowed funds that allow the donors to advise how the money will be distributed to specific causes, institutions or individual scholarships.

A pool of discretionary funds — such as the Greatest Need Fund — gives the ICF license to provide greater community support for a wide variety of needs, from a few hundred dollars for very small projects to several thousand in the case of larger-scale undertakings. Those dollars are distributed through the input of community advisory panels, comprised of members from throughout the state who are familiar with the groups involved and the grant requests they have made.

In the northern region, panel members include Donna Hutter and Jean Elsaesser from Bonner County, along with Wanda Quinn and Anna Rolphe of Kootenai County.

“Those requests include everything from radios for volunteer fire departments to health care facilities, recreational needs and education programs,” Berg said.

The grant applications and the advisory panel’s subsequent recommendations have created a kind of crosstalk between donors and the communities they call home, providing a multi-year picture of the level of need and the resources available to meet it.

In turn, endowed funds often use the same lists to make future grant donations.

“It gives us a sense of what a community’s priorities are over time,” Hoover said. “We’re really trying to focus on sharing that information with funders as a way of connecting the dots, so that their dollars can have more power in the communities they serve.”

Hoover’s 13-year career as a college and university president gave him ample opportunity to make fundraising pitches. At the ICF, that ability to raise money and manage office staff is being put to good use, he said, though the pitch is inherently different. So, too, are the results.

“I’ve always had fun doing what I do and it’s a joy to work with the ICF because you get to see the incredible work being done by these non-profits,” he said. “It’s exhilarating to see what these hundreds of organizations accomplish across the state.

“When you see the impact a small amount of money — and in some cases, a large amount of money — can make, it’s exciting,” he added.

Dyno Wahl, executive director for The Festival at Sandpoint, points to ICF support as an important source of funding for the arts organization. Beyond its summer concert series, the Festival maintains year-round educational programs that would not be possible without ongoing grant support.

“The Idaho Community Foundation has been a longstanding, key supporter of The Festival at Sandpoint, especially assisting with our community educational mission, including our 5th Grade Outreach and Instrument Assistance programs that are so vital to the musical education of local students,” Wahl said. “We are thankful for all the ways that ICF supports what communities care about throughout the state of Idaho and also for the resources and direction they offer to philanthropists who want to give to the arts in an effective and impactful way.

“For example, our educational support this year comes from a new source within the ICF, the Gladys E. Langroise Advised Fund in the Idaho Community Foundation,” Wahl continued. “She cared deeply about children, education and the arts, and through the ICF she could be sure her support would go to programs that matched her interests.”

The fund established by the Boise philanthropist — who died in early 2000, just prior to her 100th birthday — also is a reflection of changing economic times. This year’s $600,000 list of grant recipients was generous to the arts, but included a hefty share of schools and learning programs, libraries, health care groups, food banks and children’s care organizations on the funding roster.

The ICF’s discretionary funds have shifted in much the same direction, according to Hoover, who said increased need and a dearth of government funding has routed more grant dollars to schools, emergency response groups and social services in Idaho.

“With the cutbacks in state budgets and some very deep cuts in education, we’ve started to see applications for funding requests we hadn’t seen in the past,” he said. “I think it’s a reflection on the kind of time in which we find ourselves.”

Since 1988, the ICF has provided more than $48.9 million to Idaho communities, with recent annual grant totals averaging about $5 million. Endowed funds can be created with $25,000, with non-endowed funds starting at $5,000.

For more information on local organizations that have received ICF grants, as well as details on how to establish a fund, visit: www.idcomfdn.org