An anonymous donor has given $200,000 to be doled out by the Community Foundation of Grand Forks, East Grand Forks and Region to four local endowments. It's one of the largest single gifts to the foundation in its nine years, said Executive Director Sheila Bruhn on Wednesday in announcing the gift.
She doesn't know who the donor is, or where they live, except that it comes from "an individual," Bruhn said.
The $200,000 gift was designated for four of the 40 endowments managed by the foundation: ArtWise, Circle of Friends Humane Society, Greater Grand Forks Youth Orchestra and the Women's Fund.
The Women's Fund, for example, gives grants for building leadership to such groups as the Girls Scouts and the Community Violence Intervention Center, Bruhn said.
Former longtime publisher of the Herald, Michael Maidenberg, was key in forming the Community Foundation in the fall of 1997. He said at the time that one pattern to follow was a similar group in Fargo-Moorhead as a way to encourage organized and watchful philanthropy, especially needed following the devastation of the 1997 flood.
ADVERTISEMENT
Maidenberg was the first president of the Foundation, first named the Greater Grand Forks Community Foundation in November 1997. Its largest single source of funding has been the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, based in Miami, which has historic connections to the now-defunct Knight Ridder newspaper company of which the Herald was part of until last year.
Maidenberg, in fact, now is vice president and communities program officer of the Knight Foundation since leaving the Herald after 21 years as publisher in 2003. (The Knight Foundation is entirely separate from the former Knight Ridder newspaper company.) Bruhn said the Knight Foundation's giving to the Community Foundation has totaled about $1 million. After the latest anonymous donor's gift, the Community Foundation's assets are about $4 million, she said.
The foundation distributes 5 percent of its assets each year, based on a rolling average of the total assets during the past three years, she said. That means this year, the foundation expects to distribute about $170,000 to a variety of organizations in the region.
The foundation runs on an annual budget - for this year - of $99,000, she said.
For more information, see www.gofoundation.org , or call (701) 746-0668.
Lee can be reached at (701) 780-1237 or slee@gfherald.com .
