It’s humbling when people choose the Community Foundation of Elkhart County as the way to make their generosity live on for future generations. Whether it’s helping young people better afford higher education or supporting the work of the great nonprofits who create a safety net in our community, the gifts to the Foundation make our community stronger and plant seeds that will grow and bloom in unexpected and remarkable ways. The real work of the Foundation is matching donors and worthy causes. It is work that our staff and volunteers take seriously. Watching them interact with donors and grant recipients Read More »

Even before Jayco Inc. was founded in 1968, Lloyd and Bertha Bontrager committed themselves to tithing and giving to charitable causes. Following the sale of Jayco to Thor Industries, the family’s new Bontrager Family Foundation will perpetuate giving for generations to come as part of the Community Foundation of Elkhart County. “We wanted to continue our ability to support charities as we have in the past,” said Wilbur Bontrager, chairman of the board and a member of the second of three generations involved in the business and its giving. Pete McCown, president of the Community Foundation, said the Bontrager family has been Read More »

Bethany Mullet has been singing since before she could talk and as a little girl she dreamed of being in a college choir. As the first graduate of Clinton Christian School to receive the Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship (LECS) through the Community Foundation, she’ll be able to study music in college and follow her dreams. “It’s such a blessing I wasn’t expecting,” she said of earning the full-ride scholarship to attend Bethel College in Mishawaka. “It means I can study music. I didn’t think it’d be possible for a while. Now I get to explore my passion.” The vibrant young woman Read More »

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 »