Please consider investing in WRWF’s future. Dig deeper and donate to the WRWF Endowment Fund, a permanently restricted fund that helps ensure the Foundation’s long-term sustainability. Since its inception in 2017, the fund’s value has grown to the point that it provides meaningful operating support. We are thankful for the generous gifts contributed by our Endowment Founders’ Circle, a group of more than 108 members, and to those who continue to make the endowment a giving priority. If you would like to contribute to the WRWF Endowment Fund, please click here. If you have additional questions about the Endowment Fund, please contact us at 208-359-2530 or wrwcf1@gmail.com.

The Wood River Women’s Foundation also welcomes legacy gifts in members’ estate plans. These expressions of confidence in our organization will have enduring value, both to our Wood River Community, and to the long-range mission of the WRWF. Through a bequest to the WRWF Legacy Giving Fund in your will or trust, you are continuing to ensure that the community enjoys our substantial support across the spectrum of needs.

Our sincere gratitude goes to those WRWF Legacy Giving Fund donors we are currently aware of including:

Lisa Adam
Judy and Kevin Cahill
Susie King
Ruthie Lieder
Sandy McCullough
Barbara Thrasher

Please contact the WRWF office at 208-359-2530 or wrwcf1@gmail.com if you have questions and to advise us if you’ve included WRWF in your estate plans; we will respect your privacy if you wish to remain anonymous.

You are invited to our next Education ZIP Session
to hear about WRWF’s largest 2020 grant.

September 24 at 5:00 PM
Zoom Virtual Event

Please join us for this important update on our innovative, collaborative $75,000 grant, awarded to a consortium of nonprofits to tackle a major environmental challenge. Look beyond the Covid crisis and hear about the progress being made toward an effective waste management and recycling program for Blaine County. Learn about why this project is so important for our future well-being. Presenters will be Sharon Patterson Grant, Ketchum Sustainability Advisory Committee (SAC), Lexie Praggastis of the Sun Valley Institute: A Center for Resilience (SVI), and Lindsay Mollineaux of the Environmental Resource Center (ERC).

Please click here to register for this session. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email with Zoom call information. We look forward to seeing you on September 24.

On September 14, Terri Bullock, WRWF President, sent an email to all members detailing the outcomes of the recent board retreat. Click here to read the email in its entirety. The following article is an abbreviated version of Terri’s email.

On September 8, the WRWF Board of Directors held a board retreat and adopted two policy revisions developed and recommended by the Grants Committee and one from the Membership Committee. At a time when our community partners are relying on us to help with the immense challenges they are facing, these policies present new opportunities for much greater impact resulting from WRWF funding in Blaine County.

For two years, the Grants Committee has been discussing and evaluating member input, researching best-practices for collective giving, examining funding impacts, identifying community needs and more. The onset of the pandemic made their work all the more critical and time-sensitive. The team proposed two policy changes that the board debated and enthusiastically approved.

1. Impact Grant. Beginning in the 2022 grant cycle, WRWF will offer one issue-based, two-year grant of $200,000. Investing $100,000 per year for two years in an area of acute and persistent need in Blaine County will, as we’ve been saying for so long, “move the needle” at a level we have yet to achieve. This is an exciting new opportunity for WRWF! A Task Force will be appointed to study potential areas for this grant and to recommend an implementation process which will include a vote of the membership on both the issue of focus and the final grant award. The balance of the annual pooled fund will continue to be granted under the current grants policy.

2. Member-Designated Funds. Beginning January 2021, new and renewing members who choose to designate a portion of their $1,000 WRWF donation to other nonprofits, will be able to designate up to $300 to one Idaho-based nonprofit of their choosing. Currently, members are able to designate up to $500 of their donation to up to two nonprofits located anywhere in the U.S. There are two key benefits of this revision:

It further amplifies WRWF’s purpose of supporting Blaine County nonprofits. We are aware that now, more than ever, WRWF, whose mission is to fund Wood River Valley organizations, needs to commit as much funding as possible to our pooled grants fund to ensure the continued viability of our community partners. The policy will allow donations to organizations headquartered elsewhere in Idaho since many provide nonprofit services in Blaine County such as the Idaho Conservation League and the Lee Pesky Learning Center.

WRWF and our working partner, ICF, will capture administrative cost savings as the number of checks that will have to be written and distributed to more than a hundred nonprofits across the country will be significantly reduced.

The Membership Committee has also been working over the past year researching membership traits at WRWF’s sister collective giving foundations and developing ideas around enhancing our members’ experience. The Membership team brought the following proposal to the board for consideration which was approved at the retreat:

3. 50-And-Under At 50%. Beginning January 2021, this optional WRWF membership program enables women age 50 and under to join and/or renew as voting members for 50% of the full donation cost. Members in this category would pay $500 into the pooled grants fund plus the $100 administrative fee. This category does not allow for member-designated funding of other nonprofits.

WRWF’s demographics are significantly underrepresented in the 50-And-Under age range; the board joins the committee in enthusiastically supporting this effort to encourage participation by younger women who will, after all, be necessary for the long-term sustainability of the organization. Please encourage and/or help fund the membership of your 50-And-Under relatives, colleagues, friends and neighbors—we need them as our future leaders!

In addition to a financially generous membership, WRWF is fortunate to have dozens of women who are willing to step-up to the volunteer work of this organization. Their creativity, dedication, professionalism and willingness to embrace new ways of thinking are making us stronger and setting WRWF up for even greater impact in the important work we do in Blaine County. On behalf of the Board of Directors, thank all of you for being women who care.

2020 has proven an especially challenging year for many of our local nonprofits. Due to the Covid pandemic, many of WRWF’s grant recipients have struggled to support those they serve. The Wood River Valley’s Senior Connection, one of our local nonprofits, has experienced an unprecedented surge in much needed services. Despite a 420 percent growth in the number of meals it has served so far in 2020, The Senior Connection has risen admirably to the occasion, even finding a way to maintain 100 percent of its staff. Recently, the Connection celebrated their success at a pandemic picnic hosted at Roberta McKercher Park in Hailey. Participants feasted on gourmet fare while enjoying each other’s company in a safe, outdoor setting. WRWF granted The Senior Connection $18,600 during this year’s grant funding cycle. Congratulations to The Senior Connection on finding a way to successfully support our community during these challenging times.

For a full report, read Eye on Sun Valley’s article about the Senior Connection’s picnic.

WRWF member Anne Jeffery was recently featured in an Eye on Sun Valley video report. The video, hosted by Lori McNee, focuses on Anne’s artistic melding of nature photography into fantasy forests. Her photomontages have been featured in the Berlin Foto Biennale and the FotoNostrum in Barcelona. We are also pleased to announce that Anne will be taking over as WRWF’s Photo Coordinator.

View the Eye on Sun Valley video, “Anne Jeffery Creates Fantasy Worlds Through Photographs,” here.

We are thrilled to share the exciting news that Little Caesar’s has renewed its WRWF sponsorship jumping from $2,500 in 2019 to a very generous $10,000 donation this year! We appreciate the vote of confidence in the work of our organization and look forward to our continuing partnership. Thank you, Little Caesar’s!

The Social Media Committee is seeking new team members. The committee is an active part of the Communications Committee, which oversees the Website, News Brief, Marketing, Sponsorship, Advertising, Media Relations, Photography, Publicity and ZIP. As a member of the Social Media Committee, you will learn more about WRWF communications, becoming part of a savvy group of women working to coordinate our mission-driven communications.

The Social Media Committee is a standing committee that oversees WRWF mission-centric communications via Social Media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Using these platforms, the team shares timely information about our community engagement, interaction with our grantees, our educational forums and our member activities with our membership and the public at large.

If you are interested in joining this amazing team or would like to hear more about the Social Media Committee, please contact Carrie Morrow at cmorrow1314@gmail.com or 858-922-8857.

The WRWF Finance Committee kindly reminds members to write checks out to the WRWF instead of the ICF. We also ask that you send checks directly to our P.O. Box 3686, Ketchum, ID. Please inform your charitable trusts of the change of address.

Christine Brumback – San Francisco, CA