Glenn Stutzman knew how to read a spreadsheet and manage employees as chief financial officer at a manufactured home builder. When he took over as executive director of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Elkhart County in 2015, he got some help from the Community Foundation of Elkhart County on how to lead a nonprofit organization. Several programs in the Community Foundation’s  Organizational Effectiveness Resource Center gave Stutzman and his staff at the organization tools to do their jobs better. “That’s just huge,” he said. “This was totally foreign to me. This would have been a really challenging year for me to do this Read More »

Some people worry that Elkhart County spreads the seeds of its best and brightest to the winds. But plenty of those seeds take root right here. Consider Melinda “Mindy” Park. As Fairfield senior Mindy Whitehead, she had aspirations to become a teacher and felt a tug to go out of town. Her parents hadn’t gone to college, and the New Paris farm family didn’t have the means to make her dream of on-campus living a reality. But in 2002, the Community Foundation of Elkhart County awarded the Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship for Elkhart County to Melinda, and that changed not Read More »

Sustainability. Longevity. Strength. These are all goals that nonprofit organizations seek as they endeavor to change the community around them for the better. The Community Foundation of Elkhart County provides those qualities. We help many organizations pool their investments together to get access to better performing, long-term financial products. We also serve as a shade tree under which likeminded groups can get together and put their heads together to figure out how to improve our community. Ask Ritch Hochstetler, the president of uLEAD, a 17-year-old character-bulding organization. Hochstetler and his board this year decided that the Community Foundation offered them Read More »

The Community Foundation of Elkhart County is able to do an amazing amount of good for our community, working with many wonderful donors across Elkhart County. But many of them wouldn’t have connected with us and our reach and resources without their financial planners, who provide an absolutely vital link between us and those who want to do the most good with their resources, but don’t know where to turn. The work that the professional advisors do to help link givers to us and to our work can’t be overestimated or over appreciated. From referring clients to us for today’s Read More »

The Healthy Hearts program for elementary students in Elkhart County was expected to produce lower body mass index (BMI) results within three years. “In year one, we are already seeing that BMI reduction,” said Liliana Quintero, executive director of the Northern Indiana Hispanic Health Coalition, which runs the program in Elkhart County intended to educate and improve nutritional and exercise habits for elementary students. Indiana health officials approached Quintero and her organization to run a program emphasizing healthy habits and heart health. She looked at curriculums, but was not happy with any of them so she wrote her own aligned with American Heart Read More »

I happen to like Giving Tuesday a lot more than Black Friday. I would rather that we focus on charitable organizations and how to help them advance their mission rather than buying something. Before you start spending money on Christmas presents, I encourage you to think about your giving and the causes that are important to you. As adults, we learn that giving gifts really is more enjoyable than receiving them. At the Community Foundation of Elkhart County, we are servants to help others give to causes they value. It is what we get to do year-round, not just a Read More »

When an individual, a couple or a family wish to establish a fund with the Community Foundation of Elkhart County, deciding on the level of active engagement is one of the first steps. Some donors choose to remain actively engaged in the annual grant-making decisions, while others prefer to establish an endowment to benefit a specific organization and maintain assets to help ensure the sustainability of the organization. The latter, a Designated Fund, is one type of gift Dick and Linda Armstrong were confident in making. Dick wanted to create a fund that would have a long-term impact on the Read More »