NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — After receiving a proclamation for Community Foundation Week at Tuesday's Hutchinson City Council meeting, Hutchinson Community Foundation President and Chief Executive Officer Aubrey Abbott Patterson took the opportunity to talk about how widely spread the foundation's work has been since its founding more than three decades ago.
"The community foundation was established in 1989," Patterson said. "Next year will be our 35th year in this community. We have grown our funds to 349 in total. Our assets have grown to around $90 million today. Our grants have exceeded that. We've given away more money in 35 years than we hold. We've given away nearly $100 million."
Patterson explained that the foundation's mission is about more than money.
"We use five forms of capital to make a difference here," Patterson said. "Those are our social, moral, intellectual, reputational and financial capital. We use those to identify gaps, connect donors and create solutions to adaptive challenges facing our community."
A good opportunity to give to your community is coming up next week.
"Next Tuesday is the day to give back," Patterson said. "It's national philanthropy day, Nov. 28. I'd like to encourage everyone to do so and to think about how to support our local non-profits. This is the time of year when we also ask for gifts to the Fund for Reno County. It's an unrestricted savings account, if you will, for our community, that our founders started back in 1990. We have a goal to build that fund to $20 million by 2030. I believe we're at about $9 million now in that fund. With a $20 million endowment of unrestricted funds, we'd be able to grant back $1 million every year, back to our community, from that fund alone."
That fund has already been responsible for $5.3 million since its inception.
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