Park County Community Foundation Holds Two-Day Kick-Off Event

By David Nolt, 10-03-07

Park County Community Foundation (PCCF) board members and a diverse array of interested parties met for two days this week at the Mountain Sky Guest Ranch in Paradise Valley to discuss the future of the young philanthropic organization.

Over 80 attendees attended Monday and about 60 on Tuesday for strategic community building sessions with Bliss Browne of Imagine Chicago. The groups focused on growth, demographic and economic trends in the West to identify the best ways to involve all citizens in community development, especially in the areas of education, youth empowerment and poverty reduction. With Park County growing and more and more wealthy people buying second and third homes in the area, the group hoped to effectively reach out to potential donors to help address the county’s needs, such as reducing an 11.4 percent poverty rate.

David Eaton, vice president of the PCCF board of directors, emphasized the group’s role in engaging and serving the community’s needs: “This is just a first step…Our intent is to keep you guys really involved and continually getting knowledge for your community.”

Organizers formed the PCCF 501(c)(3) three years ago, but the board decided at a recent retreat it was time to hold a “kick-off” event to shore up new support and reinvigorate already involved parties. The Mountain Sky Guest Ranch and the Arthur Blank Family Foundation sponsored the event. Board President Tawnya Rupe, who is also director of the Mountain Sky Guest Ranch Fund, says the gathering entitled “A Community Conversation: “Foundations for Community Vitality,” was three-fold: 1) To introduce the community to the foundation; 2) To gather information to effectively invest in the community; and 3) To create a dialogue surrounding the role of the foundation in the community and its future.

“We want to find out where we’re at and where we need to be at” to give efficiently, Rupe said. “This has to be about the community for it to be successful. They have to feel ownership.”

Rupe says the PCCF is working to accomplish this through a board comprised of a wide diversity of geographic and professional backgrounds. Board members live in communities across the county from Gardiner to the Shields Valley. Board members’ backgrounds range from education and healthcare to ranching, government, outfitting and real estate. Rupe says it is the foundation’s hope such a board will both better represent the community as well as more effectively enlist donors and others interested in charitable giving and community development.

The foundation’s stated mission says the PCCF is “dedicated to enhancing the spirit of community and quality of life in Park County through stewardship of permanently endowed funds, grant-making and other activities. We connect caring people and key resources with community needs and opportunities.”

The foundation works with private individuals as well as non-profits, and Rupe says the PCCF approach is about meeting donors’ needs to widen the resource base for the community.

“It’s about making a bigger pie and creating more resources…and creating more sophisticated organizations,” Rupe explained.

At the end of the second day of talks the group focused on six main topics: supporting development of the non-profit sector; championing the development of expanded summer youth programming; convening and facilitating (civic leadership); helping with leadership training and capacity building; expanding social entrepreneurship; and building a larger resource pie.

The group then discussed specific implementation plans, which included expanded mentoring, developing a non-profit community calendar and/or resource center and working with the City of Livingston to create an expanded parks and recreation department to better organize and increase summer youth programs.

The session ended with the participants sharing their overall impressions of the dialogue. The attendees overwhelmingly said great amounts of positivity and inspiration came from the event, and several people urged the foundation board and those involved not to squander the energy created at the event.

Currently the PCCF is starting its first grant cycle, which will have a community vitality emphasis. The PCCF will award $20,000 in several grants. The grants are available to Park County non-profits only. Applications are due November 15th, and the board expects to announce the winners by the end of December. Applications can be attained by the end of this week on the PCCF website, www.pccf-montana.org. If applicants have questions they can call Dave Eaton at 222-2472.