March 2, 2017 Meeting of West Bay Rotary - Knox County Fund, Maine Community Foundation

Kristen Lindquist, chair of the Knox County Fund, introduced Hannah Whalen, Sr. Foundation officer, Cathy Melio, Senior Program Officer of the Maine Community Foundation.

9 members of the community serve on the committee of the Knox County Fund, including Sandy Cox and Ken Gardiner of West Bay Rotary with Kristen currently as chair. The average grant size is $4,100 to support organizations that apply to the Foundation. The Knox County Fund has approximately $6M in assets that are the source of grant funding for local organizations like the Knox County Homeless Coalition, also supported by West Bay Rotary, the Farnsworth, Vinalhaven Elder Care program, Vinalhaven Land Trust and Vinalhaven Literacy, Maine Coast Heritage Trust, Hurricane Island Foundation’s Fisherman’s academy, Penobscot School among many others.

The Foundation staff is currently 35 with offices in Ellsworth and Portland, and a state-wide board of directors. They are a steward of permanent charitable resource and statewide convener. As a public foundation, it receives funds from individuals, families and businesses to make grants and scholarships throughout the state. Community Foundations got their start in 1914 in Cleveland, and now there are more than 700 community foundations. MCF started in 1983 and has over 1800 funds that represent assets of over $450,000,000, and has made grants of approximately $300,000,000 since its founding. 2016 saw $33.3M in grants and scholarships, from competitive grant and scholarship programs and donor advised funds.

Cathy Melio served on the Waldo County committee before joining the staff at MCF. There are 22 competitive grant programs statewide, and about 10 provide eligibility for Knox County organizations.

Largest among them is the Community Building Grant Program, and the Foundation uses volunteers to review its grant applications. The Knox County Fund is almost 25 years old. MCF’s focus areas are early childhood development, education, economic, racial equity and entrepreneurial development. FMI visit www.mainecf.org.

Buckets on the table are for the Oncology Department of Waldo County Hospital in honor of Vera Gardiner.

Peter Berke has 1000 Rotary business cards that members can use to invite guests to meetings.

District Conference is May 19 and 20 in Quebec. Registration is still open.

E Waste is being planned for Saturday, April 22 at the RES location in Rockport. Tom Albertson is again in charge of planning, and it will again incorporate shredding by the First, and adding paint recycling, if possible. They’ll need help with promotion and on the day of the event volunteers to help unload cards, direct traffic and collect donations of money to the club.

Susan Dorr reported on the International Committee meeting that took place this week. This year the club supported 14 students attending the Camden Conference, and the committee is considering other projects to fund with money from this year’s budget.

The April 1 deadline for requests for grants from the WBR Charitable Fund, and people should talk to Mik if they have any questions. Procedures for submission and applications are on line at www.westbayrotaryofmaine.org.

Next week’s speaker is Joel Lafleur, about shared electronic medical records.

Rotary Service week is March 25 – 31 to encourage Rotary Clubs to work together or with other service clubs to plan or do a service project in the community.

Next Wednesday Community Service will meet at Quarry Hill, and after April 1 they will review all the applications for charitable funds, and they continue to work on the walking path at the Hospitality House.