Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Smith talks to Rotarians

The Clark County Community Foundation is a tool to accomplish what your passion is, according to Blain Smith, executive director of the organization.

Smith was the speaker at the Gurdon Rotary Club meeting on Thursday, June 21. He said there are numerous ways the foundation helps organizations around Clark County with funding needs.

The foundation was started in 1997 after a tornado destroyed much of downtown Arkadelphia. Smith said community leaders found out that a foundation was needed to accept the donations being given to help in the rebuilding process.

Today, the foundation has $1.2 million in the bank, and $132,000 has been paid out to help fund projects around the county over the last two years.

Smith said there are four ways in which people can give money to the foundation in endowments. The first is to establish a field of interest endowment in which the money could be used in any area in that field.

Another endowment is the donor advice endowment. These endowment allow the donor to give direction each time money is taken from the endowment.

Directed endowments are specified to a specific cause, Smith said. There are several endowments set up for churches.

The final endowment type is unrestricted. It can be used for any purpose.

The Clark County Community Foundation is governed by a board that decides what local projects to fund. Anita Cabe and Stephen Orsburn of Gurdon are on the board.

Cabe said there has historically been very few applications for grants from the Gurdon area.

Individual projects are usually funded at $1,500 to $2,000 each, Smith said.

Grant applications from the foundation are available Dec. 1 through Jan. 31.