December 1, 2020 – Fort Wayne, IN – Every year the Community Foundation of Greater Fort Wayne challenges all nonprofits with endowment funds at the Community Foundation to participate in the #GivingTuesdayFW Challenge. The Community Foundation asks the community for gifts to the nonprofit endowments to help them be sustainable for years to come. This year, the Community Foundation of Greater Fort Wayne helped raise $209,000 for local nonprofits! The nonprofit to raise the most money in each of our four giving areas received a surprise $5,000 check on Giving Tuesday.
The four nonprofits and their giving area are:
The Embassy Theatre in Arts and Culture
YMCA of Greater Fort Wayne in Health and Human Services
The Allen County Courthouse Preservation Trust in Community Development
The Questa Education Foundation in Education
“We want to express a resounding ‘thank you!’ to the donors who go above and beyond to help the organizations that they are most passionate about,” said Alison Gerardot. “No matter the size of the gift, this new record total for the #GivingTuesdayFW Challenge proves that the roots of philanthropy run deep throughout this county. We continue to be inspired and energized by the continued generosity of this community.”
In this time of COVID-19, sustainability through an endowment is more important than ever for our nonprofit community. There is instability in government grants, the transfer of generational wealth and tax laws changing, so it’s important for a nonprofit to have a long-term sustainability plan. Nonprofits are doing vital work and improving lives in our community, and we at the Community Foundation want to be a resource to help them in becoming sustainable for the long-term, a piece of which is endowment building.
All four surprise check presentations can be found online on the Community Foundation of Greater Fort Wayne’s Facebook Page.
For nearly 100 years, the Community Foundation of Greater Fort Wayne has been a public charitable foundation serving Allen County since 1922. The Community Foundation had assets of approximately $169 million at December 31, 2019 and awarded more than $6 million in charitable grants and scholarships in that year. The Community Foundation of Greater Fort Wayne does three things: help people make their charitable giving more impactful, connect funding to nonprofits through effective grantmaking, and provide leadership to address community needs to improve quality of life. Every day we connect people and resources to build a more vibrant community.