Start-up foundation needs more grounding

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opinions

May 4, 2015 - 12:00 AM

Saturday’s “Allen County Gives” needs a do-over.
Sponsored by the Allen County Community Foundation, attendance was feeble. Despite the ideal location on the Iola square, few passersby stopped in to learn of the area’s non-profit organizations.
That’s not to say it’s without merit. And those who manned the dozen-plus booths had a good time visiting and learning a bit more about the others’ goals. Iola has a lot of volunteers who devote countless hours to good causes.
Saturday was a prime opportunity, for example, to visit with Carolyn Krohn, director of the Pregnancy Resource Center, to learn how effective they are at teaching young parents to adequately provide for their newborns.
Many of the Center’s clients are ill-equipped to be parents and benefit from classes that teach anger management, nutrition and safety measures.
They don’t really have a budget per se, Krohn said, but somehow the funds continue to trickle in.
“It’s a God thing,” she said.
The biggest gathering were supporters of the Iola Alumni Endowment Association. Parents, teachers and staff manned tables chock full of information about the association’s efforts to raise funds to purchase needed equipment and curriculum for the local school district.
The emphasis is on developing a more current curriculum that stresses science, technology, engineering and math.
To see the predominately young crowd of teachers give a good chunk of their Saturday to the effort is commendable.

PERHAPS COUPLING the event with other larger events such as the county fair or Farm-City Days would help it get roots.
Fundraising is a sophisticated science these days. That said, nothing is more effective than face-to-face contact and the opportunity to show how someone’s gift can make a difference, be it to the local animal shelter or public library.
Begun in 2012, the community foundation is still in its infancy.
The idea is to be the fund-raising umbrella, which not only provides local organizations strength in numbers but also keeps the public from being hit up time after time by individual efforts. One check to the foundation can be directed in multiple ways.
If properly supported, it has the potential to raise funds that will exponentially benefit other organizations.
Here’s to hoping the foundation regroups and rethinks its outreach. It’s a resource with limitless possibilities.
— Susan Lynn

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