Funder Focus: Linda Hart and the Beautiful Plains Community Foundation
December 5, 2005
By Elisa Birnbaum
This month in the Funder Focus, we feature the Beautiful Plains Community Foundation of Manitoba, which was established in 1995. Representing the Town of Neepawa, the Rural Municipalities of Rosedale, Langford, Lansdowne and Glenella, and the Village of Brookdale, the foundation has a mission to preserve and advance the quality of life in the community. It accomplishes this goal by developing permanent endowment funds, establishing responsible grants, and acting as a catalyst for community philanthropy and leadership. CharityVillage spoke with executive director Linda Hart about the challenges and benefits of being a rural foundation, some of the foundation's most recent initiatives, and its vision for the future.
CharityVillage: Your mission is pretty broad. What types of activities and organizations do you support?
Linda Hart: The foundation gives grants to many charitable organizations in Neepawa and the four surrounding municipalities. It supports youth, agriculture, health, seniors, heritage, culture and others. In its nine years of granting, the foundation has given 220 grants totalling $718,000 to over 75 organizations in Neepawa and the area.
The Beautiful Plains Community Foundation has several designated funds that support areas such as education, the local museum, the hospital and personal care home. The Community Fund supports organizations that apply for funding. Examples of such grants include the Neepawa Lily Festival, Neepawa Salvation Army, Neepawa Nursery School, Beautiful Plains Agricultural Society, and many more.
CV: One of your goals is to be a catalyst for community philanthropy and leadership. How are you working to achieve this?
LH: The foundation is trying to encourage donors to recognize how the community is supporting them in their jobs, businesses and other activities and to encourage them to give back to the community that has nurtured them.
For example, [we] started a Youth Advisory Committee at Neepawa Collegiate that is in its fourth year of operation. The committee members research charitable organizations in Neepawa and surrounding area and then distribute $2,500 in total grants to projects that are important to them. The students are learning about philanthropy and the importance of community. The committee has already distributed $4,500 in its first three years of existence.
CV: What are the specific community needs you are trying to fulfill that are not being addressed otherwise?
LH: The foundation was first started with the idea that other types of grants were becoming harder to get. Government grants were drying up and local organizations, such as arts councils, sports agencies, museums, were applying for grants and being declined or were receiving much less than they had in the past. So this was a way to build up a fund in our own community where these local organizations could depend on consistent money.
Donations to the Beautiful Plains Community Foundation stay in the community and are used to benefit only the people of this area. Organizations in the area can apply for grants and have a good chance of receiving some support since grants committees in smaller areas are aware of the ongoing needs of the community and what these organizations are doing to benefit the community.
A lot of funding is one-time grants and some organizations apply every year. As part of a small community, this is one place where they know there's funding available. In general, our grants are not that big, although we've had some special grants over the years. Our regular grants range between $1,000 and $5,000. But when it comes to the budget of a small organization, getting even a thousand-dollar yearly grant is a big help.
CV: You just celebrated your tenth anniversary. Do you find it a challenge being a relatively new foundation on the block? Has your mission stayed on its original course over the decade?
LH: In Manitoba there are over 30 community foundations and the majority are relatively new. There are only a few older foundations. The main challenge is to develop awareness in our own community about what a foundation is and what it does. As a newer foundation, the administration budget is limited and money is not always available to promote the foundation.
The goal has always been, and still remains, to support the organizations in the community and make it a better place to live. There are only about 12,000 people in this community so we want to appeal to every group and you can do that by giving grants to different organizations. The foundation is trying to develop local funding that will be available now and in perpetuity.
CV: As a rural community funder, do you face any special challenges or benefits?
LH: We cover an area with a population of approximately 12,000. Some of our challenges include the limited number of large companies in the area that we can approach for donations and sponsorships. There is also a limited number of high net-worth philanthropic citizens. We do not receive donations in the millions of dollars, such as some of the urban foundations do. And, as a small foundation, we have a limited budget.
Some of our benefits include the fact that the foundation can get to know the community and its needs more thoroughly. Also, the volunteers in small communities are phenomenal and many are willing to work to help the foundation with its fundraising and events. There really isn't any money to hire paid staff so volunteers take on jobs that a larger foundation would hire people to do.
CV: The foundation was created as a community foundation. Why did you decide to go this route?
LH: The Thomas Sill Foundation, based in Winnipeg, was providing seed money to those who wanted to start community foundations in Manitoba. So it was through their contributions that we got started, and it was through them that the whole idea of a community foundation began. For the first $200,000 that our foundation raised, the Thomas Sill Foundation gave $100,000 and it has done that for many foundations in Manitoba. It really supports the rural areas.
CV: In 2000, the foundation started the Community Fund Challenge and this year, to mark your tenth anniversary, you initiated the Tenth Anniversary Family Fund Challenge. Can you explain the impetus behind both initiatives and what they entail?
LH: The Community Fund Challenge was started in 2000 to raise $225,000 as a challenge from an anonymous donor, and to increase awareness of the foundation in the community. The Community Fund Challenge Committee initiated several fundraising events that have become annual events - two of them being the Shane Hnidy Charity Golf Tournament and Ladies Night Out. The committee also made presentations to many municipal groups and service clubs. [The challenge] was successful in both raising money and awareness.
The 10th Anniversary Family Fund Challenge began as an idea from our board. To recognize the 10th anniversary in 2005, the board wanted to do something special. When the foundation first started, founding members who donated $1,000 were recognized as part of the Founders Club. The board decided to do something similar in the tenth anniversary year to recognize donations of $1,000 or more and to emphasize the family aspect of the donation. The donation didn't have to come from one individual, but rather, from a family. The fund could be added to at any time and the family name would be recognized forever. The goal for 2005 was to raise $50,000 and to date the foundation has raised $35,000 in the Family Fund Challenge.
We are trying to get people to give back to the community. We want to show that by giving us a donation, we're going to be supplying grants to the community forever; that's the idea we're trying to get across. It's been really nice bringing families together to honour each other, particularly their parents, through the creation of this Family Fund. And along the way we also developed a lot of awareness of the fund in the community.
CV: In the past decade, you've raised almost $720,000 for all kinds of community initiatives. Where do you see the foundation going/growing in the decade ahead?
LH: Over the next decade, the foundation will continue to accumulate donations and allocate grants to the community. We are fortunate to have had board members over the years who are hardworking and committed to the foundation's mission. In a small community, it is these board members and other volunteers who determine the success of the foundation. In the future, the foundation hopes to continue to support local organizations, but also to become more proactive in searching out the needs of the community and initiating social justice projects that would help people who are not benefiting from current projects. We're aiming to be in existence forever and support the community forever.
Prior to becoming executive director of the Beautiful Plains Community Foundation, Linda Hart worked as a math teacher. In 1998, she joined the foundation in a part-time capacity, devoting the rest of her day to being a stay-at-home mom. She has since returned to teaching part-time and remains the only paid employee of the BPCF - still on a part-time basis. For more information about the foundation, visit: www.manitobacommunityfoundations.ca/beautifulplains.
Elisa Birnbaum is a freelance print and broadcast journalist living in Toronto.
