IWCF Summer 2022 Newsletter

Letter from the President

We celebrated our IWCF Annual Meeting & Grants Presentation at a lovely event at Barber Park in May. It was so nice to be together again in-person! Celebrating virtually in 2021 was such a departure from our in-person get-togethers, but there is always a silver lining. We discovered how important it is to have our grantees share their stories via videos that can “live” forever on our website. While our nonprofit grantees joined us for the Annual Meeting to receive their award in-person, we continued what will become a new tradition of having them prepare a video in their own space as well. (With the help of our wonderful producer, Neco Turkienicz.) Over $220,000 in grants to nine nonprofits this year. You can read more about that in the Grants section of this newsletter.   

We will continue in a “hybrid” mode for a time as many of our committees have found it convenient to meet over Zoom.  Several committees are gradually getting back together in-person again allowing for better decision making. The pandemic helped us understand we could get together either way.

Your Board met in-person last month for the first time in nearly two years but will be meeting periodically over Zoom given that our meeting room in the office is still feeling a bit small for our 20-person board.  

Your Education and Symposium committees are hard at work planning all the events for our first Symposium in four years. Our keynote dinner speaker, Jessica Jackley, has some wonderful stories to share about her work starting KIVA and how it has helped so many small entrepreneurs build their businesses with grants from people all over the world. Watch for an opportunity to learn more about her book, Clay Water Brick: Finding Inspiration from Entrepreneurs Who Do the Most with the Least, at our September Book Club meeting led by Laura White. 

We also have a new addition this year, a luncheon with Gordon Jones, as our keynote speaker. Your ticket covers the lunch, but your generous sponsorships help defray the cost.

I hope you are planning to join us. We still have room for more event and dinner table sponsors. The ticket price does not cover the cost to put on this large event so we rely on our generous sponsors to make this event a success. I hope you will consider joining us in a sponsorship role if you are able.  

Thanks to all of you who have continued to support IWCF with your membership during these past challenging years. We met our goal of keeping nearly 400 members allowing us to continue in our mission of educated philanthropy through collaborative giving. I thank you all from the bottom of my heart!

 

GRANTS

IWCF Members Continue to Make a Major Impact Through Collective Giving

By Jen Sampson, Grants Chair

Once again, IWCF members have joined forces to make a huge difference in our community. This year, we will be investing over $220,000 back into nonprofits throughout southwest Idaho. That number ties for the largest amount in the history of IWCF! Nine grants will be funded in our six interest areas—Cultural Arts, Education, Environment, Health, Financial Stability, and Rural Communities. We are so excited for the creative, innovative work these nonprofits are doing to make an impact. Choosing our grant recipients is never an easy task. This year we received over 60 applications requesting a total of $1.6 million. Thank you to every single member of the grants committee who invested time, talents, energy and tears into this process. We could not have done it without you.

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A Peek at our 2022-2023 Grantees

By Pamela Briggs, Grants Assessment

CULTURAL ARTS
Global Lounge Commons’ Outdoor Marketplace – Global Lounge ($30,000)
Global Lounge Outdoor Marketplace will create an art-infused gathering space geared toward providing opportunities to connect diverse communities and individuals in positive and engaging ways. The pop-up market will attract consumers seeking experiences with global flavor and foster relationships across communities while providing low-income, refugee, and immigrant populations with new economic and cultural exchange opportunities. The IWCF grant will support amenities at the Marketplace including sun shading sails, canopies/tents, tables, chairs, and a structure/fence for portable restrooms.

Idaho is a refugee resettlement state and work opportunities are key to survival. Global Lounge Commons’ Outdoor Marketplace will make enriching experiences accessible to this underserved community whose economic opportunities are limited. With a pedestrian only courtyard, Global Lounge Commons will host pop-up markets and events to nourish the economy and increase opportunities for cultural preservation, awareness, and education. The Market will be a place to socialize and will include scannable signage for digital access to cultural resources in addition to music and art in a performance area.

 

EDUCATION
Roots of Self-Reliance Community and School Greenhouse Project – Council Elementary School ($26,000)
At one time, the students of Council Elementary School drew their lineage from self-sustaining family ranches and homesteads. Their meals came straight from the land they nurtured. However, the ties to the land that support them are weakening. Instead of self-sufficiency, families travel over fifty miles for fresh vegetables. Council Elementary School responded to this challenge with the Roots of Self-Reliance project. Students are encouraged to learn self-reliance and healthy living through horticulture. Students grow salad greens for the salad bar, vegetables for the community garden, and plants for pollinators. This project also provides students with exercise through garden work, the motivation to make healthier food choices, and the discovery of what it means to be an active and giving member of their community promoting the mental health of all involved. Produce from the garden is sold on donation to cover the cost of water, given to needy members of the community, delivered to seniors, and provide fresh vegetables for the school.

The Community Garden is managed by a group of older volunteers who thoughtfully share their knowledge with students, while students share their labor and their smiles. This interaction has been one of the greatest successes of the project–lifting the mental health of the older generation and providing positive role models for the younger generation. 

However, like the vegetables the students so carefully attend to, Roots of Self-Reliance is blossoming and the high school space they are using is no longer adequate. The IWCF grant will be used to purchase a greenhouse for the ever-growing project.

 

Native Voices in Idaho II – Kessler Keener Foundation ($21,000)
Kessler Keener Foundation will develop and create Native Voices in Idaho II, an instructional resource package for Idaho schools including film, lesson plans, and bibliographic resources to improve teachers, students and others’ understanding of the history and current lifeways of Idaho’s Indigenous people. Funds support the pre- and post-production costs for recording interviews of Native youth and adults throughout Idaho including travel, project management for interview preparation, recording, film editing, curriculum resource development, and distribution.

The challenges this project addresses are availability, content and perspective. 

First, with the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, teachers are hard-pressed to provide instructional resources to their students that accommodates in-person, remote, and hybrid instructional modalities. These instructional resources are online, can be downloaded for in-person instruction, and displayed via computer.

Second, finding instructional materials readily available to teachers about Native American/Indigenous history, is difficult to find, assemble, and develop for instructional delivery. Research can be time consuming and difficult. Native Voices in Idaho II reflects current, accurate information about Native Americans, is artistically created by professionals, provides an accurate representation of Native voice and the instructional content is research based.

Third, given the current social strife caused by polarized thought and beliefs counter to inclusion, the Kessler Keener Foundation, Inc., seeks to achieve their mission which is to bring people of diverse cultural backgrounds together to create a new story in Idaho based upon respect, understanding, friendship and change. This instructional package will go far in addressing all three critical issues.

 

ENVIRONMENT
Idaho Trails Association Youth and Women’s Trail Programs – Idaho Trails Association ($20,305)
The population growth in Idaho coupled with the increase in public land use during the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in Idaho’s 10,000 miles of public hiking trails needing help now more than ever. Approximately 30% of Forest Service hiking trails in Idaho are passable and maintained. Idaho Trails Association (ITA) is the only nonprofit focused completely on trail maintenance in Idaho. They are also the only nonprofit offering women and youth-focused volunteer trail projects along with our traditional volunteer work. This combination of filling a need (trail clearing) while providing a way for Idahoans to experience public land stewardship is unique.

Idaho Trail Association (ITA) will use their IWCF grant to restart WOW! (Women’s Only Weekends and Weeklong program) and expand youth trail stewardship programs. These programs provide an outdoor experience focused on empowering women and youth in an historically male-dominated field. The project includes increasing maintenance and repair work on Idaho trails worn by increased use during COVID-19 and building trails on newly acquired land in the Boise Foothills. Funds support transportation, equipment, tools, food, and adult crew leaders provided for four weeklong and two weekend youth trips and two weeklong and four weekend WOW! trips. Funds will also help create two educational videos focused on preparing inexperienced participants for camping and trail work. 

The trips immerse participants deep in the backcountry with their fellow volunteers for up to seven days at a time, where they live and work as a small community. They get to experience true backcountry, communicate and make decisions as a group, and be a part of a team. They help with camp chores and learn about Leave No Trace (LNT) land ethics. Participants learn to safely use and care for traditional trail maintenance tools,  such as crosscut saws and axes, and also identify trail issues such as poor surface drainage. 

 

FINANCIAL STABILITY
Direct Care Workforce Education & Awareness Campaign – Living Independence Network Corporation ($30,000)

Idaho is experiencing a significant crisis in the direct support professional (DSP) workforce. To address this shortage, Living Independent Network Corporation (LINC) will produce and provide educational materials to raise awareness of the need to strengthen and support direct care workers who help the approximately 20,000 Idahoans with disabilities and older adults stay independent in their homes and communities.The IWCF grant will support in-depth interviews and professionally produced video, audio, and written content that tells the full story of these essential workers, who they support, why strengthening this workforce is critical to so many Idahoans, and the cost benefit of Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) to Idaho taxpayers. 

This campaign is a new approach to what has been a growing problem in Idaho over the last decade. It reflects a strengthened collaboration among organizations involved in services for vulnerable adults and their families. The stories collected and produced will be used to educate the general community, decision makers, and key agency staff. Through this process LINC will also identify natural leaders in the DSP workforce.

 

Provide Additional Support Services for Women Recently Released from the Pocatello Women’s Correctional Facility – St. Vincent de Paul ($24,000)
St. Vincent de Paul’s Recovery Continues (ReCon) program supports women recently released from the Pocatello Women’s Correctional Center. It provides individualized recovery coaching, trauma therapy, and training to develop individual employment skills. This Southwest Idaho program utilizes a recovery coach to work with an individual for a six-month process. Unfortunately, many women leaving the prison system need support for a longer period. This grant supports an additional six months of coaching.

The recovery coach enhances the chance of long-term success by working on the day to day needs of someone transitioning into long term sobriety. Many of these women are working on their recovery from opioid, methamphetamine use, or abuse of alcohol. The program also supports finding suitable housing and employment, links to sober community connections, and education, training, or tuition support. Participants are also counseled in re-establishing a stable and sustaining relationship with their children.

“There is not another program in the valley that provides the services that ReCon has,” says Susan Schramm, a volunteer with St. Vincent de Paul. “This program is unique in that it utilizes a recovery coach to walk the steps of an individual to help them transition to a sustained, contributing role in the community.”

 

HEALTH
Mental Health Support for SW Students – National Alliance on Mental Illness ($23,500) 
Idaho has one of the highest suicide rates in the country. Most schools do not have the resources to provide students with mental health support. Idaho’s ratios of school counselors and psychologists per student are, in fact, far below staffing levels recommended by national organizations. 

National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) will launch a peer-led mental health support group program in 30 Southwest Idaho high schools. Student leaders and faculty advisors will receive extensive training in community resiliency modeling, suicide prevention, and group facilitation utilizing age-appropriate curriculum and activity guides. Participation in these support groups will help destigmatize mental illness, build resilience, and increase awareness for youth from ages 12 to 17 years old. The IWCF grant will support the training, staff oversight, materials, and supplies for the participants and educators.

The facilitated support groups that are the core of the NAMI Idaho Rose Buds youth program offer opportunities for students to gather and share feelings, worries, and everyday problems in a safe environment, free of judgment. Participating in a group provides an opportunity to be with people who are likely to have a common purpose and understand one another. Adult advisors are trained in suicide prevention and how to help students regulate emotional response to trauma and in suicide prevention. Students are also trained as peer facilitators to lead regular discussions. 

 

Ultrasound Machine for Planned Parenthood Meridian Health Center to Improve and Increase Reproductive Care Access – Planned Parenthood ($26,000)
The Meridian Health Center (MHC) performs an estimated 1,560 ultrasounds annually for evaluating pregnancies, miscarriages, and other precise procedural-based services. Ultrasound machines are a crucial piece of equipment for MHC and are used for estimating gestational age, locating and placing intrauterine devices, and diagnosing and evaluating infertility as well as evaluating other critical medical conditions. 

The existing ultrasound machine is well beyond the recommended age range, putting it at high risk of needing costly repairs, as well as causing operational issues that disrupt patient care. it is not portable, dependable, or efficient and patient care is often obstructed. When it is not functioning well, multiple images may be needed, and the patient may have to be moved from room to room, or even need to go to a different geographic location for the test. A decrease in Title X federal funding, declining fees from patients, and transition to a telehealth model of care has significantly impacted Planned Parenthood’s ability to replace the machine.

Planned Parenthood is using the IWCF grant to replace the current out-of-date ultrasound machine at the MHC. The IWCF grant funding also paves the way for a second machine. Planned Parenthood has made a commitment that for every ultrasound funded by a grant, additional funding will be set aside to purchase a second machine that will serve the Boise area.

 

RURAL COMMUNITIES
Equipping Those Who Serve and Protect: Expert Training on Grooming, Delayed Disclosure, and Victim Care within Child Sexual Abuse Cases for Multidisciplinary Teams in Rural Southwest Idaho – Building Hope Today ($29,834)
One in four girls and one in six boys will become victims of sexual abuse before the age of 18. 70% of offenders have one to nine victims and 20% have ten to 40. Grooming–deliberately establishing an emotional connection to prepare a child for sexual abuse–occurs in 90% of cases. Yet only 6% of reported child sexual abuse cases end in a criminal conviction in Idaho. Delayed disclosure, the statute of limitations, and corroboration beyond a reasonable doubt make criminal conviction immensely difficult. Victims must face their abusers in court, and most of the time there are no third-party witnesses. Building Hope Today’s national subject-matter experts train multidisciplinary teams in rural Idaho communities on how to identify, investigate, and prosecute even the most challenging cases.

The IWCF grant will support two 2-day intensive training sessions for up to 240 multidisciplinary team members from rural southwest Idaho including the speaking fees and travel expenses for three experts at each training. It also covers attendance fees, handbooks/supplies, lunches, and lodging for attendees who must travel a significant distance.

 

MEMBERSHIP

2022-2023 Board of Directors

 

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Welcome to IWCF!

IWCF is excited to welcome the following new and returning Blue Ribbon Members to IWCF!

Shaila Buckley
Marla Covey
Liz Johnson
Alli Kearns
Heather Meuleman*
Janelle Schmidt
David Scott
Carrie Tucker

 

*Returning

 

 

EVENTS

2022 Annual Meeting & Grants Presentation

By Robyn Gee Tucker, Marketing Committee

A more beautiful evening and location could not have been selected for the first in-person Annual Meeting and Grants Presentation in over two years. 126 IWCF members, guests, and grant recipients shared smiles and laughter at Barber Park Events Center as we celebrated $220,000 in pooled-fund grants. We welcomed six new board members–Sherry Bithell, Teresa Broadus, Zoe Brunelle, Trinjia Dell’Aglio, Sheila Hennessey, and Teresa Lassandro–and bid a grateful farewell to several Board members who were completing their terms. We also took a moment to honor a woman who has silently and joyfully served behind the scenes, keeping IWCF running smoothly during this trying season of COVID-19 and turnover in office staff. She spent countless hours in the office ensuring IWCF would continue without pause in its mission to foster educated philanthropy through collaboration, pooled resources, and individual giving to positively impact the community. Thank you Susan May for all you have done and continue to do for IWCF. We are incredibly grateful!

If you were unable to attend the Annual Meeting, take a moment to watch the videos shared by our nine grantees. As Jen Sampson so eloquently stated, “Some are sad, some funny. But all are hopeful.”

Building Hope Today

Council Elementary School

Global Lounge

Idaho Trails Association

Kessler Keener Foundation

Living Independence Network Corporation (LINC)

National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI)

Planned Parenthood

St. Vincent de Paul

 

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Fall Symposium 2022 – It’s Happening!

By Molly Harder, Symposium Chair

The Fall 2022 Symposium, Entrepreneurial Philanthropy: Celebrating Change-Making Women, will take place on October 18 and will emphasize women’s impact in our community through philanthropy, and inspire participants to engage locally.

Our daylong event will begin with workshops presented by leaders in philanthropy and entrepreneurship. Following these sessions, new additions to our Symposium will feature an activation workshop to help participants put the information and inspiration they gain into action, followed by a luncheon. Gordon Jones, president of College of Western Idaho, will deliver the keynote address: Innovation in Action.

Jessica Jackley, founder of Kiva, the world’s most successful microlending site, will be our symposium dinner keynote speaker. Jackley is the Founder and former Chief Marketing Officer of Kiva, the world’s first peer to peer microlending website. Kiva allows users to lend as little as $25 to aspiring entrepreneurs around the globe, providing affordable capital for them to start or expand microenterprises. Named one of the top ideas of the year by The New York Times Magazine, Kiva is one of the fastest-growing social benefit websites in history and has, since its inception, raised over $1 billion for aspiring entrepreneurs across 206 countries. Jackley was also named by Forbes as one of five rising stars in Healthcare, Education, and the Environment. 

Jackley first saw the power and dignity of microfinance while working in East Africa with a microenterprise nonprofit. Convinced that social change happens across all sectors, Jackley has worked in public, nonprofit, and private organizations including the Stanford Center for Social Innovation, Amazon.com, Potentia Media, and many others. Jackley is the recipient of the Symons Innovator Award, which recognizes the importance of women’s participation in technology, innovation and business. Jackley was also a founder and CEO of ProFounder, which joined forces with GOOD to create innovative tools and experiences for entrepreneurs to crowdfund. 

Currently, Jackley divides her time between her roles as Founder & CEO of Altruists, General Partner at Untapped Capital, and continuing her tenure as an instructor at the USC Marshall School of Business, along with her nonprofit work and board service.

She is the author of the book Clay Water Brick: Finding Inspiration from Entrepreneurs Who Do the Most with the Least, the subject of our symposium book club. Everyone is invited to participate! Rediscovered Books has copies in stock, so plan to pick one up and read it over the summer in preparation for our September book club. An invitation to this event will be sent later this summer. 

Member tables are still available. We hope you will be able to join us for part, or all, of this amazing day of education and inspiration.

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Fall Symposium Schedule of Events

Date: Tuesday, October 18, 2022
Location: Boise Centre (850 W Front Street, Boise)

8:00 a.m.: Registration and Coffee

8:30-9:30 a.m.: First Session
Attendees will have the opportunity to choose from one of three available breakout panels.

9:45-10:45 a.m.:  Second Session
Attendees will have the opportunity to choose from one of three available breakout panels.

11:00-11:50 a.m.: Third Session 
Combined session facilitated by Consilio  

12:00-1:30 p.m.: Luncheon 
Featuring keynote speaker Gordon Jones, CWI President. His presentation, Innovation in Action, will focus on opportunities for women and will be facilitated by Sheila Hennessey.

BREAK

5:00 p.m.: Doors Open

6:00-8:00 p.m.: Dinner
Featuring keynote speaker Jessica Jackley

8:00-9:00 p.m.: Jessica Jackley Book Signing 
Clay Water Brick: Finding Inspiration from Entrepreneurs Who Do the Most with the Least

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Mark Your Calendars

JUNE

IWCF Idaho Shakespeare Volunteer Evening
Wednesday, June 29, 2022
5:00 – 10:30 p.m.
Idaho Shakespeare Festival Amphitheater
5657 E Warm Springs Ave, Boise
Members Only

 

SEPTEMBER

Book Club
Details to come!

IWCF Idaho Shakespeare Volunteer Evening
Saturday, September 24, 2022
5:00 – 10:30 p.m.
Idaho Shakespeare Festival Amphitheater
5657 E Warm Springs Ave, Boise
Members Only

 

OCTOBER

2022 Fall Symposium
Entrepreneurial Philanthropy: Celebrating Change-Making Women 
Tuesday, October 18, 2022
Boise Centre
850 W Front Street, Boise