The Pilot News - MCCF awarded 250K grant

By Carol Anders Correspondent
PLYMOUTH — John Zeglis, Marshall County Community Foundation (MCCF) board member, was overflowing with enthusiasm at a town meeting for the organization Thursday night as he told the audience that MCCF has received a $250,000 matching grant from the Lilly Foundation.
Zeglis said the foundation had submitted an application for a grant more than three years ago, but was turned down. The initial rejection did not keep them from applying again. A second request made in May of 2008 led five committee members to spending the next eight months working on a detailed plan to submit to the Lilly Foundation.
Jennifer Maddox, MCCF executive director, said the proposal submitted in January of this year was 40 pages long.
By March, the MCCF heard the good news that they were awarded a $250,000 grant. Stipulations for the grant were that MCCF provide matching funds and the plan would be reviewed every six months.
Zeglis sad, “We are on the brink of starting to plan to spend $500,000.”
However, he emphasized that the grant money was not a part of the allocations that are given out each year.
Zeglis said the approximate $25 million that was in the trust funds fell to $16 million when the stock market declined in October of 2008 and again in early 2009.

“The decline meant that we went from spending out five percent to three percent,” he said. “We had already cut out 20 percent from our budget and were preparing to cut another 20 percent.”
Board member Jack Jordan said MCCF has been giving out local grants for 17 years. He said they would be looking in the “rear-view” mirror a little to see what has worked in the past and also look forward to establish a systematic system to track the impact for future grants.
The Lilly grant now means that MCCF has been able to set up a “Generations Initiative” for not-for–profits in the county. The initiative will allow existing and new fund holders to receive a 25 percent match for monies put into the trust up to $20,000 per fund. As a part of the initiative, MCCF plans to hire a development director to help not-for-profit organizations with fund-raising efforts and other supports.
Jordan said MCCF is currently looking at seven fields of interest including: Arts and culture, community development, donor advised funds, environment, faith based, health and human services, youth and family, and education. He made in clear that new ideas and funds accounts would be welcomed as well.
This was the second town meeting for MCCF. The last one was held nine months ago.
Maddox also said the MCCF has received recognition for compliance with National Standards for the United States Community Foundations by the Council of Foundations. Included in a news release distributed at the meeting was the following: “National Standards were developed in 2000 by a group of community foundation practitioners to serve as a roadmap for legal, ethical, and effective practices within a philanthropic environment in increasingly affected by technology, competition for donors, and political and media scrutiny.”
For more information on the foundation call Jennifer Maddox at 574-936-3366 or email her at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .