The Scioto Foundation held its annual meeting on March 26 at the Scioto County Welcome Center to review highlights of 2008 and share forecasts for 2009. Debra Esham, chairwoman of the SF Board of Governors, welcomed Foundation shareholders and stakeholders including local representatives from non-profit organizations and school
districts who are both grantseekers and donors, SF committee members and volunteers, local business and community leaders, donors with funds invested in the Foundation and the community at large.

Esham recognized donors in attendance and presented them with lapel pins and seed packets representing growth and a prosperous future. Past Scioto Foundation Board Chairman Dr. Wayne Wheeler introduced and recognized Pat Russell and Joan Phillips as new members of the SF Legacy Society established in 2007 to acknowledge and thank donors during their lifetimes for their gifts benefitting the community. Volunteers members and chairpersons of the Scioto Foundation’s four standing committees – the Scholarship Committee, the Investment Committee, the Donor Services Committee and the Nonprofit Services Committee – were also recognized, along with Foundation staff members.

Looking at the past year in review, Dr. Wheeler reminded those present that the Scioto County Foundation was established in 1974 as the result of a gift of $200,000 from the first donor, Bertha T. Johnson. Today the Foundation is a collection of approximately 180 separate funds ranging in size from $1,000 to $2.1 million.

In 2008 the Scioto Foundation received 939 individual contributions, excluding individual contributions from five school districts with payroll deductions. The contributions totaled $755,000. Like many other foundations across Ohio and the nation, the local foundation had a decrease in assets of approximately 25%, said Wheeler. However, he added that despite the market downturn, the Scioto Foundation accepted 14 new funds in 2008, the largest number ever received at the Foundation in a one-year period.

In 2008 the Scioto Foundation awarded 51 grants for a total of $341,973, with the average award equaling $6,705 and the largest grant amounting to $55,000, according to Wheeler. He noted an increase in grants for education, community development and social services.

Wheeler pointed out that the Foundation maintains a consistent redistribution policy of a 4% payout to investors and has to take a hit if investments don’t turn out the way they are supposed to. Monitoring investments has been the Foundation’s theme for the past five years, he said, also noting that operating expenses are contained at a level less than 1_ percent.

In the past year the Scioto Foundation also awarded 164 scholarships in amount of $214,608 to local students. During 2008 the Scioto Foundation paid out a total of $939,196 in the form of grants and scholarships to area nonprofit organizations and universities, the largest one-year payout in its history and an 18% increase from 2007, Wheeler reported.

Before Dr. Wheeler presented a look ahead, SF Executive Director Kim Cutlip gave an update on the Scioto Foundation’s new UCAN or University/College Access Network, a new initiative launched in the fall of 2008 dedicated to providing financial assistance for local youth to attend college. Of the 11 Scioto County high schools committed to the UCAN program, the Bloom-Vernon, Clay, Portsmouth and Notre Dame School Systems have met the $10,000 match for 2009 offered by the Foundation for the participating schools’ scholarship endowments. With a goal of reaching the first-year maximum match by the fall, East, Green, Minford, New Boston, Valley and Wheelersburg are carrying out a variety of fundraisers to increase their endowments, and six school systems are growing their funds by payroll deduction plans ranging from $1 to $26 per pay, according to Cutlip.

She also reported that the Foundation awarded mini-grants to 9 school districts to provide assistance to students for the costs of pre-college and Advanced Placement exams in 2008, and announced an April 30 deadline for schools to reapply for 2009. With support from an OCAN (Ohio Can Go To College) grant, the Foundation has sponsored two endowment building training programs for schools participating in the UCAN plan during the 2008-09 school year, and two more sessions are planned. The Foundation worked with Shawnee State University and the South Central Ohio Educational Service Center to present two pre-AP training workshops for staff and faculty of UCAN schools at no cost.

For the first time, an AP Summer Institute offering AP Teacher Certification will be offered at Shawnee State University this summer at no cost to the educators, due to a grant from the Ohio Education Department and stipends from SF mini-grants. With the services of Miami University’s Center for Public Management and Regional Affairs, the Foundation will establish a centralized database to help local students locate all scholarships available to them in Scioto County by September, 2009, Cutlip said, concluding that a marketing campaign to encourage college savings plans is also in the planning stages for this year.

Wrapping up the annual meeting with a look ahead, Dr. Wheeler announced that the Scioto Foundation’s allocation budget for 2009 is $623,284, and the scholarship allocation will be approximately $159,146. The Foundation’s Nonprofit Services Committee and the Scioto County OSU Extension will continue a series of “Lunch & Learn” training programs to assist non-profits in building their capacity. Upcoming sessions include “Customer Service Basics” on May 19, “Dealing with Difficult People” on June 9 and “Win/Win Solutions” on September 15. After covering conclusions reached through a UCAN Scholarship Feasibility Study conducted in the fall and winter of 2008-2009, Wheeler said the Scioto Foundation plans to spend the next 12 – 18 month further communicating the UCAN program to it donors, potential donors, school districts and the community at large.

Wheeler closed his forecast by announcing that the Foundation plans a $4 million UCAN endowment campaign in 2010 to raise funds to continue UCAN challenge matches for school scholarship endowments beyond the first five years.