January 2015

~WRWCF Presents ~

New Opportunities for Involvement for Each of Our Members

Committee Descriptions

Capacity Building Fund for Non-Profits Committee: Launched by Barbara Thrasher and Marcia Liebich several years ago, the mission of this Fund is to provide funding for education and services that can enhance non-profit organizations’ governance and internal effectiveness in achieving its mission of sustainability. Examples of capacity building grants include: information technology support and training, fundraising training, PR/communication skills training, financial and governance training, and training regarding ways to measure impact. The Committee is responsible for receiving and evaluating applications for grants from this fund. This is a new committee whose immediate responsibility is to establish specific guidelines for approving grant applications. Members are needed to help establish these guidelines and are encouraged to serve on this committee. If you are interested in joining this committee, please contact Sara Nelson saranelsonsv@msn.com.

Events Committee: The Events Committee plans four major events each year for the WRWCF. Our four events are: The Educational Event, which usually occurs in February, The Summer Social in July, The Annual Meeting in August, and the Holiday Social in December. The Educational Event is planned in conjunction with the Educational Committee and the Annual Meeting is planned with the Grants Committee and the President of the WRWCF. Two of our events are purely social to give our members a chance to get to know each other better, the educational event is planned to educate our members on philanthropy and the annual meeting is when we distribute our grant monies. Our committee meets on an as needed basis and often uses email to coordinate events rather than meet in person. This allows committee members who are in the Wood River Valley on a part time basis to participate on the committee. To join our committee you can sign up at any event as well as by going onto our website, www.wrwcf.org to sign up. We can always benefit from additional members on our committee. If you have any interest in helping to plan, coordinate, and put on our member events please join the Events Committee! We welcome you!

Grants Committee: The Grants Committee is at the heart of the Wood River Women’s Charitable Foundation as it oversees and governs the process of vetting grant applications. This selection process culminates in the presentation of a slate of finalists on which the entire membership is eligible to vote.  When the membership has voted, grants are awarded to the top vote recipients. The Grants Committee is lead by an Executive Grants Committee:  Peggy Goldwyn and Lynne Heidel, co-chairs in charge of volunteers; Charlotte Unger, co-chair in charge of contact with the nonprofits; and Gail Wilkie, Co-chair in charge of Impact Teams.  There are subcommittees which read and evaluate grant applications divided by the broad categories of Arts, Education, Environment, Health, Social Services, and Recreation. Each of these subcommittees is led by a team of two co-chairs. Each subcommittee is made up of 10 to 12 WRWCF members.  We welcome the participation of any member who wishes to be involved in the grant selection process. Much of our work is done via email which allows members who travel to have a voice in committee work. Please contact Lynne Heidel at heidel.lynne@gmail.com or Peggy Goldwyn at pegegee41@mac.com if you would like to be part of this dynamic, decision making committee.

Governance Committee: This Committee advises the Executive Committee regarding all board and organizational governance matters. It oversees and manages the board member nomination process and is responsible for ensuring that all board members complete a conflicts of interest statement annually. The committee reviews the annual plans of each committee. It welcomes input and ideas from all of our members as governance issues are far reaching and can arise in every aspect of WRWCF’s work. Some examples of our work in 2014 include a review of our bylaws, the development of a job description for the secretary of the board, and a process to solicit nominations from members for replacement board members when a board vacancy arises mid year. The committee meets annually one month before the annual meeting to review the state of board and organization governance and we also meet periodically, when specific issues arise. Current members are Janet Debard, Joanne Wetherall, Marcia Liebich, Lesley Andrus, and Elizabeth Mathieu. Please contact any one of us if you would like to join this committee or have ideas or questions about a governance matter.

Impact Teams: The recently implemented Impact Team program gives members an opportunity to see WRWCF dollars at work. The teams serve as community liaisons to current grantees with awards above $10,000. Their role is to build collaborative relationships that support grant projects and follow their progress.
Their three main responsibilities of each team are:
(1) to attend special activities or events of grantees to further understanding of the nonprofit‘s mission, the grant project, its objectives and potential for community impact.
(2) to conduct a mid-year site visit to discuss the progress and effectiveness of each project and to note any changes necessary.
(3) to hold a debriefing with grantees at the end-of-the grant year providing guidance for the grantee’s submission of final reports which focus on outcomes and community impact. All reports are circulated online to the WRWCF membership. To get involved, contact Gail Wilkie at 720-5935 or wilkietwo@cox.net.

Membership Committee: Talk about a growth spurt!  As many of you know, membership in WRWCF has grown dramatically in the past year.  So it seems the membership committee’s efforts in recruiting new members is working.  However, we’re also charged with making sure our members are engaged in our organization and in retaining our members.  We accomplish our threefold task through a variety of member/guest orientation-recruitment events, through our mentor program for new members and (coming soon) through smaller “pop-up” events for members. The “team” meets the second Monday of each month; we are a busy group and can use your help!  E-mail Dede Huish at dedehuish@me.com.

Publicity and News Brief: Women who love to write are wanted for this committee. If you like to write and send out interesting articles, the local newspapers and magazines would love to hear from you as a representative of WRWCF’s publicity committee. Cover the social events of the Foundation, use your photography skills to document events, gather information from WRWCF committees and from the President and publish these monthly in the News Brief. Committee meeting dates are flexible each month, with most communications and editing done via e-mail. We interact with and share information with the Social Media Committee and attend their joint meetings. Members of this committee should also plan on attending many of the WRWCF events for this is one of the ways we gather information for publication throughout the month. Creativity is encouraged. Contact Peggy Grove at peggygrove@aol.com if you are interested in joining this committee.

Social Media: Twitter, Facebook and Website content management and design, what more could one ask for? On this committee Facebook and Twitter are constantly updated with interesting material relative to our Foundation, newsworthy articles are posted, pictures are taken at social events and posted… Website pictures and content are switched out periodically and new ideas for growing our “Friends” and “Followers” base are welcome. If you have experience, great! If not, but would like to learn, please join in. Meetings happen when needed, but a lot of work can be done via email, text or a call. Have a look at our social media sites to get an idea of what it’s all about. Please contact Leslie Silva at leslie.j.silva@gmail.com if you are interested in becoming a committee member.

Site visit training for Grants volunteers and Impact Team members will be held on Wednesday, Jan 14 at 9 a.m. at the Light on the Mountain. The session will be video streamed for volunteers unable to be present.

In Jan. and Feb., the Grants volunteers will make site visits to nonprofits that have been invited to submit full applications which are due on January 23, 2015. Selection of our finalists by the volunteers will occur at a meeting on March 4th.

All WRWCF members are urged to attend the presentations of the Grant finalists at Light on the Mountain to be held on March 18th.

The Impact Teams assigned to the 2014 grantees will make mid-year visits to the nonprofits during the months of January and February. The purpose of their visits is to discuss progress of the grant projects, any unexpected delays or problems, and the projectʼs potential impact on the population being served and the community. Assignment of Impact Teams to the 2015 grantees begins in May 2015.

Thursday, February 5, 2015
Registration at 5:30 p.m.; Program Begins at 6:00 p.m.
The Community School Auditorium, Ketchum, ID.
RSVP: Look for your Paperless Post Invitation via E-Mail
Guests and the Public are Invited & Encouraged to Attend

Achieving Early Childhood Literacy in Blaine County:  What Can Work?

Did you know that reading at grade level by the end of third grade is the most important predictor of school success?  So it’s alarming that last year 45.7% of the children starting Blaine County Kindergarten scored below grade level and 94.1% of the low–income students scored below grade level on the Idaho Reading Indicator Test.

A little girl with a story mat ~ a learning tool in an early childhood class.    Photo courtesy of Evelyn Johnson @ The Lee Pesky Learning Center

An expert panel will discuss with you what can be done in Blaine County to prepare our children to read. Louisa Moats, Ed.D., (and WRWCF Member) will talk about the science-based research that documents what will work. Beth Oppenheimer, Ph.D. and Executive Director of the Idaho Association for the Education of Young Children, will talk about programs in Idaho, and Evelyn Johnson, Ed.D., Executive Director of The Lee Pesky Learning Center, will show us some of the exciting work happening in the Blaine County Head Start program funded by WRWCF.

The forum will be followed by a Q and A.

Generously sponsored by Marcia and Don Liebich, the next NEI speaker will be @ theCSI Community Center in Hailey on January 22, 1:00-5:00 p.m.  This topic will be of particular interest to the Impact Team, as well as all members of WRWCF.

Messaging Impact
Nell Edgington of Social Velocity, Austin, TX.

May you enjoy a year filled with contentment and joy, knowing that you are engaged in the power of collective giving.

Janet  DeBard
President