Annual Dinner Celebrates Record Year

Wayne County Community Foundation (WCCF) held its annual dinner at the Pines Restaurant and Banquet Facility on Oct 12 to celebrate several key performance measures including ending its fiscal year with $41.7 million in assets, receiving $4.9 million in donations, awarding $4.7 in grants and scholarships and a generating a nearly 19% net return on their investments.  Twenty-five new funds were created to finish its fiscal with a total 315 funds supporting eight major grant making categories.

“While we certainly had a successful year, I think I is important to note that despite the economic volatility, we have been able to make nearly 3100 grant and scholarship awards valued at $16.7 million in the past 5 years,” said Ferenc M. Relle, Jr.  Executive Director.  “This says much about the commitment from our Board and donors to this community,” Relle added.

J. C. Johnston III, WCCF Board President, inducted David Briggs, Donald Buren, James Gerber, and Mildred Workman as Emeritus Trustees for their extraordinary service to the WCCF.  In addition, Maribeth Badertscher, William Robertson, and Stephen Shapiro were introduced to the audience of 220 guests as new trustees.

Kathy Tschiegg, the evening’s keynote speaker, used her experiences in the Peace Corps and then later as the founder of CAMO (Central American Medical Outreach) to explain the differences between an act of pure charity and an act of sustainable support.  What happens after a youth group goes back home from their week long mission trip?  What happens when the volunteer doctors and nurses return to their jobs?  What happens to the school building a charitable organization helped build? 

She took the audience through a four point strategy on how donors, volunteers, and mission groups need to evaluate their planned actions to help them make charitable commitments that have lasting impacts. These four points included understanding the need… Why send a truckload of blankets to an area where people are starving because they lack food and water?  Does the organization have a plan to not only handle the immediate need effectively, but help reduce or eliminate the root cause of their needs? The third question is about accountability, reporting, and oversight… in other words, what processes do they have to keep your trust?  And finally, where is the follow up to ensure that the needs are being met properly?

“So you have a choice,” said Kathy, “You can experience the pursuit of pure charity and may feel good and the organization may feel good, but the impact may not be great… or you can make a long term investment and your impact will be more sustainable by helping more people help themselves and others.”

Whether the cause or need is in the community, or in the state, or this country, or in the world, these key points apply.  As reference, Tschiegg suggested that donors become familiar with the 20 standards for charitable organizations that is published by the Better Business Bureau. “I overheard a couple discussing her presentation in the lobby with the comment that she ‘hit the cover off the ball’ and then a couple of others chimed in with their praise and admiration,” said Relle.  “After all, how can you not admire a person whose passion for a cause reaches over 90,000 people annually with lifesaving medical support?