Wabash Valley Community Foundation makes largest-ever grant
$150,000 challenge grant establishes operating endowment
for Terre Haute Children's Museum
May 21, 2009

The Board of Directors of the Wabash Valley Community Foundation today made the largest grant in Foundation history, a $150,000 challenge grant to the Terre Haute Children's Museum. The grant will be used to build the museum's endowment fund.

The Community Foundation plans to match $1 for every $2 added to the Terre Haute Children's Museum Endowment Fund between April 1, 2009 and March 31, 2012.

In announcing the grant, David R. Bolk, Vigo Superior Court Division 3 Judge and chair of the Foundation's distribution committee, said, "This challenge grant is being provided to assist the museum in meeting its overall fundraising goal and is specially targeted to help it raise an operating endowment. The Foundation wanted to be a part of the museum's capital campaign, and we decided to structure our grant so it would have a major impact for the long term. An endowment fund is an excellent way to give the community a chance to support the future operation of the museum."

Museum board president John Thompson, expressed the board's gratitude. "We sincerely want to thank the Community Foundation for this challenge grant," he said. "As we shift our focus from the present, and our initial building project, we feel it's important for the Community Foundation to play a role in our focus for the future, serving the community."

Explaining the value of an operating endowment, Foundation board president Dr. Mary Ann Carroll said, "Any agency serving our community needs a constant income, in good times and bad, to assure that it can continue to provide the services it is intended to provide. That is where an endowment fund, with its continuing income, can be so important. The board saw this as a wonderful opportunity to assist the museum in achieving its goal by helping it create an endowment, which, in fact, is the day-to-day business of the Foundation."

Ron Reeves, retired Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology vice president of development, pointed out that an organization's operating endowment needs to be quite large, because it has to have at least $20 endowed for every $1 in annual return that can be granted.

Reeves, who contributed the initial $2,000 to start the Children's Museum' endowment, said, "Anyone can contribute to this endowment, not only with individual donations, but for example, people can choose to put it in their will. The income generated will provide continuous operating support for the museum facility and for its programs as well."

Individuals wishing to make gifts to the Terre Haute Children's Museum Endowment Fund may do so directly to the Children's Museum or to the Wabash Valley Community Foundation, Inc., 2901 Ohio Blvd., Suite 153, Terre Haute, Ind. 47803, with a designation on the check that the contribution is for the Children's Museum.

[visit the Terre Haute Children's Museum web site]