Midwinter News From PCF

December 28, 2019

Midwinter Newsletter—Some Firsts It’s been a busy year for the Foundation. In late winter, we registered a new trade name, Pacific Community Foundation, to make it easier for all of us to remember. Our original name, South Pacific County Community Foundation, still works. Other firsts:   Opened four new donor-advised funds.  In November more than $50k was donated to several funds by more than thirty donors.  Remodeled our logo, going back to a look that was first proposed by Laila Brown, Salt Hotel and Pub, in 2012.  Added on-line donation alternatives, including one-time and recurring (monthly or annual) options. As in the past, when you donate online, you can make several donations to different funds at the same time.  Tribute and Memorial options were also added, with a note field so that donors can tell us more about their donations.   This capacity is made possible by Community Suite, an accounting program that was purpose-written for community foundations. To learn more about Community Suite and its parent organization, Foundant, go to https://www.foundant.com/, which also offers online grants and scholarship management programs.   New Funds Opened in 2019: Abundant Salmon Futures Fund Sea Resources opened this fund to help finance salmon habitat and production far into the future. Right now the hatchery is busy refitting the incubation room and preparing for its first eggs in several years. For more about the Sea Resources Hatchery, see their website: Chinook Hatchery For donations:  https://spccf.fcsuite.com/erp/donate/create?funit_id=1027 Sports Excellence Fund A group of donors opened this fund to bring outstanding coaches to Ocean Beach School District to teach . . . coaches. When coaches learn improved coaching skills, their students do better. We look forward to expanding this program from cross country and track programs to other sports, and supporting coach training throughout southwest Washington. For donations: https://spccf.fcsuite.com/erp/donate/create?funit_id=1028 The Martha and Mya Afterschool Fund The Boys and Girls Club of Long Beach Peninsula was hit by declining donations in 2018-19, and the Foundation enthusiastically supports a new fund that will promote multiyear funding. For donations: https://spccf.fcsuite.com/erp/donate/create?funit_id=1060 Wellspring Community Network Fund Wellspring Community Network is another important organization that helps provide services to families and children. This fund will eventually become an endowment, and initially helps cover funding gaps between grants for a variety of programs. For donations: https://spccf.fcsuite.com/erp/donate/create?funit_id=1022 Spring Grants Catalog In 2020 we will take a big step forward and open two grants catalogs, one in Spring, the other in Fall 2020.  Watch for a winter meeting in late February to review how to submit your organization’s grant request proposal to the Spring Grants Catalog. This process is online, and it helps to have all content ready when you start, so that you can complete this in one session. This meeting will help you get organized. We will open the grant proposal process on line during March, review proposals in April, and open the list for donations during May 2020.   In Fall 2020, we will repeat this for the fall grant catalog, which will open for proposals from organizations in October, be reviewed in November, and open to take donations in December.  New Finances Support Group What is the one board officer position that can be hardest to fill? Treasurer comes immediately to mind.  To help local nonprofit treasurers, we started a support group in December 2019.  Bring your questions, and we’ll discuss everything from budgeting and charts of accounts to line items. Interested? Contact PCF Treasurer Kathleen Sayce, ksayce@willapabay.org or 360-665-5292.   Next Class—Grant Writing, March 27, 2020 By popular request, our next class will be Grant Writing, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., March 27, 2020, at Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum, Ilwaco, WA.  Washington Nonprofits provides the instructor, with a grant from the Medina Foundation. Medina has been a committed grantor for nonprofit education programs in Pacific County for many years. If you meet Jessica Case, program manager, Medina Foundation, please thank her for this support.  Also consider joining Washington Nonprofits to have access to the great online content and the member’s rate for class fees.   https://washingtonnonprofits.org/membership/join-renew/ Officers for 2020 and a New Board Member Our officers for the coming year are:  Todd Wiegardt, President, Nansen Malin, Vice-President, Jerry Macy, Secretary, and Kathleen Sayce, Treasurer.  Jerry Macy is our newest board member, retired after jobs with U.S. Navy, school district, nonprofit management, and winery management in California. He and wife Sally still travel back and forth to California, but are here often enough that we were able to persuade him onto the board. They live on Willapa Bay south of Nahcotta.  Kathleen is thrilled to have another board member who likes numbers as much as she does!

Copyright © 2019 South Pacific County Community Foundation, All rights reserved.  You are receiving this email because you opted in via our website.  Our mailing address is:  South Pacific County Community Foundation PO Box 75 Nahcotta, WA  98637-0075

Our Newest Fund: The Martha and Mya After-school Fund

PCF is pleased to announce this new fund is open and ready to accept donations:
https://spccf.fcsuite.com/erp/donate/create?funit_id=1060

The Martha and Mya After-school Fund was established to help maintain funding for an important after-school program.

Why Martha and Mya?

Martha Murfin was one of the founders of the Coastal Alliance For Youth, which became our local Boys and Girls Club. She understood the absolute necessity of creating a program to ensure that the kids of our community had a safe place to go after school. In those first days, she said that funding should be easy. 

       "We just need 200 people in this community to give $1000 per year, and our kids will be taken care of after school," was her motto.

Mya is one of the kids who has grown up being able to spend time after school at the Club. When Mya learned of the closing she said 

        "Mom, money doesn't grow on trees but sometimes it grows on roses." 

She had taped her summer clam raking earnings ($152) to a rose she has been preserving since her 11th birthday and asked her mom to bring it to Club. She said, 

        "I know this won't solve the problem but every little bit helps, right?"

These two amazing ladies show the spirit that our community needs to fund a sustainable after school program. We are much stronger and safer if our kids have a safe place to go after school. While the current board is committed to making sure that they do the work to reopen the Club, our community needs to show that we can and will support an after-school program for our kids.

Funding Details

A group of community members opened this fund through South Pacific County Community Foundation to ensure ongoing support of an after school program. 

It costs approximately $200,000 to run an after school program on an annual basis. In donating to this fund, money will only be released once there is at least $100,000 in the fund and an additional $100,000 secured in grants and other funds to operate. If we do not reach that goal, money will be returned to donors. 

Annual donation levels are as follows:

     Martha's Legacy      $10,000 and above

     Corporate Sponsor  $5,000-$9,999

     Business Sponsor    $2000

     Platinum Sponsor    $1000

     Gold Sponsor           $500

     Mya's Club               $152-$500

Annual donations are encouraged. You may make monthly recurring donations. 

The foundation accepts donations from donors who wish to be anonymous. 

Please consider becoming an enduring donor, someone who donates every month, year after year. 

https://spccf.fcsuite.com/erp/donate/create?funit_id=1060

"The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate action of its members" Coretta Scott King

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Keeping Current with Compliance

October 18, 2019

Kathleen Sayce

Think you are fine with your organization’s registrations? Luckily for all of us, there’s some leeway of months to years to get caught up if you let important registrations drop. But why not review it all again, just to be sure, in the local class next week?

The next local class, Let’s Go Legal, is Friday, October 25th, 1-4 p.m. at the Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum. You can sign up on line, or walk in. The fee is $15 for members of WNP, or $20 for not-yet-members. 

This is a return to the topic of our very first class, three years ago:  Compliance.

Make sure that your organization is properly registered in the state as a nonprofit, as a charity if it takes donations and issues tax receipts, and with the IRS. 

WNP works with Washington Secretary of State on the course material to ensure it is current and accurate, WA SOS also underwrites part of the cost. The speaker can come here because it is also supported by grants from Medina Foundation. Pacific Community Foundation is very grateful that WA SOS and Medina make it possible for them to be taught in person in our community. 

This column could be subtitled “Practice is Never a Waste of Time”. 

When I worked for ShoreBank Pacific, annual recertification in dozens of topics, from safety and security to how to watch for signs of money laundering, was required. The first year was interesting; the next couple of years were annoying, and after that, I understood that if I did not revisit these topics regularly, I would slowly drift away from good practices. Now at a community foundation, I realize that regular reviews are just as important here as they were at the bank. 

At the bank, we had online courses to take, with tests, and certificates, proof that we had done the time. In the nonprofit sector, we are on our own for tests and certificates, but there’s a great resource available for any nonprofit officer or board member, at Washington Nonprofits. For a nominal annual fee, you can watch classes online or attend classes in person where it fits with your schedule. 

WNP link to courses: https://washingtonnonprofits.org/learning/

The foundation is also helping the Chinook Observer review the list of nonprofit organizations that go in its Giving Back insert, which we hope will come out in late November or early December this year. 

When I reviewed the organizations in last year's insert, checking to see who is still active, I was startled to find some had closed down a decade ago. So I requested the current nonprofits list for Pacific County from the Secretary of State—and I was startled all over again by the organizations that are now gone, and the new ones that have appeared. 

Another discrepancy is those organizations that operate on donations, but are not registered as charities. 

Do your organization a favor. Take this class, then plan to re-take courses regularly, just to make sure you aren’t overlooking something that might be critically important. 

It’s Spring—and time to think about Summer Programs and Gardens

In spring, planning summer programs for school children is underway.This year we have a proposal to fund an additional week of STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics) education for the Boys and Girls Club. 

Also in spring, our taste buds start remembering what really fresh, ripe food tastes like:  fragrant, sweet tomatoes, crunchy lettuces, tiny new potatoes, and crisp parsley that radiates green flavor, to list a few garden foods that are just not the same in winter. 

I’m ready for a BLT right now, with garden-ripe tomatoes!

See all the proposals in the grant catalog: 
 https://spccf.fcsuite.com/erp/donate/list/grant.

Boys & Girls Club of the Long Beach Peninsula asks for support to expand their Summer STEAM Program. This organization offers four weeks of summer activities; this proposed fifth week is filled with training in STEAM [science, technology, engineering, arts, mathematics] curriculum activities that both entertain and teach participating students important science concepts, tied to the school curriculum. Arts are not left out—this includes several art classes during the week. 

Donations go to help purchase equipment, supplies, food, and travel expenses to several local sites. Help make this summer the best ever for our local school children. 

Ocean Park Community Garden is a new nonprofit that supports a community garden in Ocean Park. The interest in plots for growing food and flowers was so big this spring that the organizers outgrew their first location before anything was planted. 

So, just a few weeks ago they moved, quickly, to a new location which has already been cleared, tilled and had some initial soil amendments added. Water is being laid in for irrigation, and plots set out. 

Donations will go to buying tools, fencing (lots of hungry deer in this community, a fence is important), hoses, storage space for tools, and other materials and equipment. There may be a pumpkin patch for the school too. The new location is north of the post office and south of Sheldon Field. 

Help OPCG get new roots in the ground with your donation.

All the grants are at https://spccf.fcsuite.com/erp/donate/list/grant. Make donations on this webpage for each grant you wish to support.  

Not happy using online services? Send a check instead. Write a note on the memo line of the check for the grant it is to go to, or if to more than one grant, include a note to tell us how much goes to each one. 

Make the check out to SPCCF. Mail to ‘SPCCF, PO Box 91, Nahcotta WA 98637.’ 

Your community and its many active nonprofit organizations thank you!

It’s Spring—And Building Season

Several proposals in this spring grant catalog focus on designing and building new facilities. These are important for tourism, which is one of our main income sectors. We have 1.3 million visitors per year—and they all use bathrooms, have trash, need directions, parking, and other amenities.  

See the Spring 2019 Grant Catalog at https://spccf.fcsuite.com/erp/donate/list/grant 

Friends of Willapa National Wildlife Refuge asks for support for a new bay and wildlife viewing platform in the South Bay Unit. Design and planning funding is needed to get started on building a new viewing platform that is ADA accessible and has educational signage for visitors. 

Willapa Bay is a critically important hemispheric reserve for birds, and feeds millions of migrating birds each year in spring and fall. Thousands of birders visit annually to watch birds. There are very few public spots to view the bay that are not along Highways 101 or 105 and pullouts are limited. 

The South Bay Unit is accessed from 95th Street east of Sandridge Road. There is a trail over and around the hill to a viewpoint next to Tarlatt Slough, where it turns north to Willapa Bay. The view is spectacular, more than thirty miles up the bay to Tokeland, with the Olympic Mountains on the north horizon. 

Website: https://friendsofwillaparefuge.org/ 

City of Long Beach asks for support for its Dune Boardwalk.
The present boardwalk is more than 20 years old, and needs more than decking replacement--some of the supports need to be replaced as well. This is a big project, so in this grant catalog, the city is asking for support to provide unrestricted capital matches for grants from our state and federal governments.



Help Long Beach put a good foot forward by donating to this project. One of the greatest features of the board walk is that it is universally accessible--this means all ages, and all physical capacities can use it. 

Website: http://www.longbeachwa.gov/ 

All grants are posted at https://spccf.fcsuite.com/erp/donate/list/grant. You can make donations there for each grant/organization you want to support.  

Not happy using online services? Send a check instead. Write a note on the memo line of the check for the grant it is to go to, or if to more than one grant, include a note to tell us how much goes to each one. 

Make the check out to SPCCF. Mail to ‘SPCCF, PO Box 91, Nahcotta WA 98637.’ 

Your community and its many active nonprofit organizations thank you!

It’s Spring—and the Community Grants Catalog is Open

I love reading grant requests in the Community Grants Catalog each Spring. It reminds me every time how much our local nonprofit organizations do to help people of all ages, animals, and environmental issues in our community. This year is no exception. The real work to make this community livable and dynamic happens with these organizations. Financial support from all of us is key to their continued success. 
See the full catalog at https://spccf.fcsuite.com/erp/donate/list/grant.

Where would we be without South Pacific County Humane Society? And what would our community be like without their no-kill policy? Humane treatment of animals is as important as humane treatment of humans. This organization urgently needs to install their commercial washer and dryer. I can’t tell you how many household units they’ve gone through over the years, but it’s a lot, and their grant request this year helps fill the final gap between units (already purchased) and installation, which needs some concrete and framing work, as well as electrical, to complete. Website: http://beachpets.com/

Pacific County Immigrant Support helps those who are being treated like criminals or worse. The vast majority of Americans are descended from immigrants. In my own family, one side immigrated here a couple of centuries ago; the other, only two generations back. Please open your hearts, and checkbooks, and help counter the appalling abuse of this vulnerable, and yes, American population—we are a nation of immigrants, after all. Website: https://www.pcisupport.org/ 

Pack2School is one of several programs that help children in our community. Every fall, this group puts together hundreds of backpacks with school supplies for the coming year, grade by grade, to help families who are struggling financially. Over 400 school-age children get backpacks of supplies each year.  Healthy, well-educated children are our greatest local product. 
Website: https://www.pack2school.org/

All the grants are at https://spccf.fcsuite.com/erp/donate/list/grant. Make donations on this webpage for each grant you wish to support.  

Not happy using online services? Send a check instead. Write a note on the memo line of the check for the grant it is to go to, or if to more than one grant, include a note to tell us how much goes to each one. 

Make the check out to SPCCF. Mail to ‘SPCCF, PO Box 91, Nahcotta WA 98637.’ 

Your community and its many active nonprofit organizations thank you!

Winter: Applying For College Scholarships

Kathleen Sayce,

January 18, 2019

Below is the current list of scholarships that are offered by the Foundation. All scholarships are paid directly to the school or training program the student attends. 

Standard supporting information is required in the submission packet, including transcripts, work and life goals essays, letters of recommendation, statement of financial capacity, and a resume. A cover letter must state which scholarship you are applying for. A separate, complete packet and cover letter is required for each scholarship as the selection committee for each one is different. 

Most scholarships are for graduating seniors of Pacific County high schools. Students at Naselle High School who live in west Wahkiakum County are eligible for all scholarships applicable to Naselle HS.

The application period opens now, and closes March 31st. Decisions will be announced at gradation or an awards ceremony (whichever is the process for each high school). 

The last scholarship is for medical-studies students who graduated from Pacific or Clatsop County, and are finishing their first year in college this spring. This one has an open period from April 1st to May 31st; the decision is announced in late June for the following fall term. 

College Scholarships:

Some are in two groups, one for north county [Raymond, South Bend, Willapa Valley] 

and one for south county [Ilwaco, Naselle]. 

1. Silent Key Scholarship-STEM majors* only, north and south groups, with two awards per year, one in each group. This scholarship does not include medical studies. 

This scholarship is paid after the first term of college, with a transcript to confirm attendance. $500 per award

2. Sid Snyder Scholarship—Any major, north and south groups, with two awards per year, one in each group. 

This scholarship is paid in the first term. $500 per award

This scholarship has a special application form and requires an essay on democratic values. Contact the Foundation for a copy of this form.

The Wilson STEM Scholarship is offered to graduates of South Bend and Raymond: 

3. Wilson Scholarship for South Bend HS

4. Wilson Scholarship for Raymond HS

Both are for STEM majors* only; one award to a student at each school. 

This scholarship does not include medical studies, and is paid at the start of the first term. $5,000 per award

5. Schwartz Medical Scholarship is for medical students from any high school in Pacific County, WA and Clatsop Co, OR, for their second year of studies. This one is open for renewal every year after the first award is made, for a total of 3 years. Application is made at the end of the first year of college. 

This scholarship is for medical studies only, it is renewable; it is open to students in college who graduated from high school in Pacific or Clatsop county, after their first year in college. 

Studies may be pre-med, nursing or medical technology. $750 first award, $1,000 for each subsequent award. 

This scholarship requires a statement of prior work and interest in a medical profession, and a statement of commitment to medical area studies in addition to a college transcript, letters of recommendation and statement of financial capacity. 

No non-medical majors will be considered. 

*****

* STEM majors include:  Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. If you have any question about your planned area of study and its consideration as an STEM field, contact the Foundation.

Applicable Science majors are in natural and life sciences, including Environmental Studies, Biology, Botany, Chemistry, Genetics, Forestry, Geology, Physics, Zoology, etc. Medical studies and social sciences are excluded. 

Technology majors include Materials Science, Architecture, Computer Science;  programming, or gaming majors are excluded. 

Engineering majors include all major areas of this field.  

Mathematics majors include all major areas of this field.  

*****

For more information about any of these scholarships, please contact: 

South Pacific County Community Foundation— Scholarships

PO Box 75

Nahcotta WA 98637

360-665-5292

info@spccf.org 

Current Edition of Giving Back Arrives

Have you recycled your newspapers since Christmas? If not, go look for the handy guide to local nonprofit organizations, printed by the Chinook Observer each year. 

It doesn't look like a real estate ad this year:

Inside, you will find information about many local nonprofits, including a list in the back, and featured pages for several organizations in the main section. 
I'm happy to say the Foundation is one of the featured organizations. 

Note that ads support many pages. Please support those local businesses in return!

If you have already recycled your paper, the newspaper has a few copies available in their office in Long Beach. 

Building a community of enthusiastic philanthropists is key to our mission and key to the success of this annual insert.