Joanne’s Accomplishments

Prior to joining the Wood River Women’s Foundation, Wetherell was a familiar face in the Valley’s nonprofit sector as an active volunteer and a board member of The Advocates.

“From my work with the Advocates, I knew how to give of time and talent, but was still learning about philanthropy,” she said. “Pooling together financial resources was a new concept to me. It seemed like such an important thing to do. I learned that it is so much more impactful to nonprofits to give collectively, rather than smaller donations, and that nonprofits can leverage that funding from the WRWF to seek more grants.”

Wetherell was one of the three dozen attendees at a summer-afternoon tea in 2005 organized by WRWF founders Barbara Thrasher and Jo Murray. She was thrilled to find a community of fellow women who shared a commitment to grantmaking at this event that laid the groundwork for the Wood River Women’s Foundation.

“It was really fun to meet people and have the opportunity to share ideas—like-minded women sharing like-minded ideas—and gain more understanding of the Valley’s needs,” Wetherell said. “I have always loved the idea that every member would get one vote, regardless of their donation, allowing each member a right to say where money was going.” 

In 2006, the funding movement accelerated. A board was assembled, bylaws were written and WRWF’s 30 new members—lawyers, teachers, financiers—picked up tasks based on their strengths. Wetherell handled checks and financial records and continued to do pro-bono secretarial office work for the Foundation over the next decade. 

“We were only a volunteer-run organization in our formative years. My RE/MAX Sun Valley office was our main headquarters for 13 years, until I timed off the board,” Wetherell recalled. “I’d use my office staff, the copier, and even our bookkeeper to help. Our board ran everything on such a slim budget and we really prided ourselves on that.“

Around 2016, Wetherell and other board members determined that the organization had enough money in its budget to fund an administrative position without needing to raise membership fees.

“I was, and still am, a really a strong proponent of keeping membership fees as low as possible, because if we can run a lean budget and not have a lot of overhead, then more people can join our foundation,” she said. “The pro-bono work was really fun but a lot of work. When I look back, I wonder how we did it.”

During her tenure, Wetherell recalled receiving a $25,000 donation.

“I thought, rather than just putting this into pooled funds or into some type of administrative fund, why don’t we use this as seed money to create an endowment—a fund to help sustain the Foundation into the future and keep our administrative fees low,” she said.

She pitched the idea to the board and to the past Presidents, who responded with overwhelming enthusiasm.

“Just like pooling our resources, we pooled our talent and found many members with expertise in that area. It was a team effort!” Wetherell shared.

She noted that Kathy Edwards—a part-time Valley resident, WRWF member and Washington Women’s Foundation member—was instrumental in educating the team on endowments.

Wetherell imparted a piece of advice she received from Edwards: ‘Don’t limit yourself by setting a small goal to raise $100,000 or $250,000, because you’ll be surprised by how many people will step up to be a part of this.’ 

“Great advice, as it turns out,” Wetherell said. 

In August 2017, WRWF celebrated the beginnings of its endowment fund. Last month, the fund surpassed $1 million.

“In our first year, we almost immediately raised half a million dollars. It was just incredible. Now, here we are in 2022 and we’ve doubled that,” she said.

Wetherell added that the Idaho Community Foundation was a critical ally to WRWF from the start, serving as an anchor to the Foundation. (At the time of her presidency and in prior years, WRWF members paid their annual contributions to ICF, which then managed grant distributions.)

Aside from creating the endowment fund, Wetherell said another proud accomplishment during her presidency was helping WRWF achieve 501(c)(3) nonprofit status. 

“One of the reasons we wanted to do that was to have more control of the administrative fees that we were collecting, because at that point we were still running on a very, very tight budget,” she said. “Nonprofit status allowed us to have more flexibility to create an endowment that would be a foundation for our future and to potentially do multi-year grants.”

“I count the endowment and our 501(c)(3) status as my biggest accomplishments while president. I’m really proud of how progressive we were at that time.”

Among her other contributions, Wetherell formed the Presidents’ Council as an advisory arm to the board of directors.

“It was a way to utilize the knowledge of the past presidents—Barbara Thrasher, Marcia Liebich, Janet DeBard, Peggy Grove and myself—and continue to work on endowment fundraising. We’d seen the ups and downs and knew what worked and what didn’t,” she said.

Wetherell also helped create a Facebook account and a private Facebook group for members and organized the Foundation’s Meet & Mingle events to allow members to get to know one another and ask questions without feeling they had to do business.

“People could post things that they were doing and invite others, who could invite their own guests. A lot of groups were formed—hiking, snowshoeing, and book clubs,” she said.   

Wetherell identified the biggest challenge to the organization over the last two years as not having in-person meetups.

“We used to have après skis, brunches and ‘new member-tinis,’ where new members could get together with more seasoned members to talk, meet and learn,” she said. “These events really give a sense of connection to the community.” 

Just as in 2005, we are a community of fellow women who shared a commitment to grantmaking. Our in-person events are returning. We thank Joanne Wetherell and all the past presidents for their enduring contributions to the Foundation.