Idaho Community Foundation – Giving in Idaho

Last week we talked about considering making a charitable contribution as a method for holiday gift-giving.  Whether through a national online service or through a specific nonprofit, giving a donation is a way of ensuring that your gift is returned to the global or local community, never to a store.

Another way of giving is to focus on the needs of Idaho.  An organization that provides both broad and specific support throughout the state is the Idaho Community Foundation.  Whether as a charitable holiday gift or as part of your own year-end giving, ICF can help provide good stewardship and allocation of resources with an eye on the needs of our state.

The Idaho Community Foundation is a statewide nonprofit organization composed of over 370 individual funds, pooled together for efficient management. To achieve its mission of enriching the quality of life throughout Idaho, ICF accepts and invests funds from donors and grants the funds for a broad variety of philanthropic projects statewide.

Since its inception in 1988, ICF has made charitable distributions in Idaho totaling more than $31 million.  In the last calendar year alone, the Foundation awarded grants totaling $4.5 million to nonprofit groups in all of Idaho’s 44 counties.

You can choose to donate to one of the hundreds of existing funds, a list of which is available on ICF’s website.  Such funds include scholarships for particular areas of study, support of regional area or local needs, assisting in statewide conservation, and others. 

You can also choose to establish your own fund and determine its objectives and guidelines.  The kinds of such funds, as well as information on initial monetary requirements, are available on ICF’s website.

If you don’t have a specific philanthropy in mind, you can make a donation to one of the “Greatest Need” funds which address the ever-changing needs throughout Idaho, including regional needs.

For more information on the Idaho Community Foundation, go to www.idcomfdn.org or call 342.3535. 

Best Practices: Collaboration

We got news today of a prime example of collaboration among our local nonprofits.  The Idaho Humane Society, Idaho Foodbank and Meals on Wheels are teaming together to help feed our community's pets.

The Humane Society started seeing a huge uptick in the number of families who were dropping their pets off because they could no longer afford to feed them. In some cases, these families were going without food themselves to purchase food for their pets.  The Humane Society brought in the Foodbank and Meals on Wheels - organizations that already have sophisticated distribution channels - to find a way to collect pet food and then get it out to the families in need.

The result?  Hopefully more pets will stay healthy and with their families.

The organizations will be coming together to inform the community about this on Monday.

Looking for a way you can help?
Collection sites have been established all over Ada County (we'll try to get that list up here). The food will be collected and stored at Camp Bow Wow near the Foodbank.

Only sealed bags or canned food please.

Who: The Idaho Foodbank, the Idaho Humane Society and Meals on Wheels
What: News conference to announce the Pet Food Pantry
When: Monday, Nov. 24, 11:30 a.m.
Where: Boise City Hall
Why: To assist those in need feed their family pets

If you would like to be involved in this humane effort, contact:

Idaho Foodbank – Chris Wiersema, 336-9643, ext. 254, cwiersema@idahofoodbank.org

Idaho Humane Society – Christine Moore, 331-8554, cmoore@idahohumanesociety.org

Meals on Wheels – Dave Fotsch, 327-8639, dfotsch@cdhd.idaho.gov

Deadline Approaching to Submit Inquiry to Idaho Women's Charitable Foundation!

Calling southwestern Idaho nonprofits! Don't miss the chance to get your fantastic program in front of the Idaho Women's Charitable Foundation!

The deadline to submit your Letter of Inquiry is December 1, 2008.  Selected applicants will then be asked to submit a complete project proposal. 

If your program fits into one of their main criteria and eligible categories, you are crazy if you do not apply!

Are you looking for information about whether you may qualify?  Check out their website here.  Perhaps you want to know what to include in your letter?  The IWCF has an amazing breadth of categories for programs that are of interest, and they show incredible clarity and transparency for how they select organizations to later submit proposals.  They truly are to be commended for their processes!