The Community Foundation of the Ozarks at 50

Building on the five pillars of philanthropic leadership that elevate community

If you ask three people who are familiar with the Community Foundation of the Ozarks to describe the CFO, you’ll likely get three very different answers. The region’s largest public charitable foundation is best known by the way in which people interact with it, rather than its full spectrum of philanthropy.

To mark its 50-year anniversary this month, the CFO is taking a look at the ways five pillars of philanthropic leadership have shaped its focus since 1973, all made possible by support from donors, volunteer leaders in Springfield and across 53 regional affiliates, professional advisors who help people fulfill their charitable intentions, and nonprofit partners who provide direct services.

Developing rural philanthropy

Twenty years into the CFO’s history – in 1993 – community leaders in Nixa asked the CFO to extend its model of place-based philanthropy to smaller communities. With local leaders to identify community priorities and the CFO’s administrative support in Springfield, the model set by the Nixa Community Foundation has been replicated in 52 other communities, counties and regions.

From the affiliate network, the Rural Schools Partnership evolved in 2010 to strengthen schools as anchors of rural communities. Its signature program, the Ozarks Teacher Corps, received national attention for supporting students willing to commit three years to teaching in a rural school – often the district where they graduated.

The CFO’s connections to rural communities have led to multi-year grant programs like Growth in the Rural Ozarks to spur economic development in smaller communities, and the Rural Ozarks Health Initiative to address specific health and wellness issues.

Building nonprofit capacity

Grantmaking and scholarships are among the highest profile roles foundations serve; to that end, the CFO has surpassed a half-billion dollars in grants, scholarships and distributions. About 90 percent of those dollars stay in Missouri. Grants are made by donor advisors who support organizations through their own charitable funds as well as the CFO’s discretionary grant programs determined by volunteer committees. From the very first CFO grant — $10,000 to the Dickerson Park Zoo’s petting zoo in 1975 — to million-dollar multi-year collaborations, the CFO invests in nonprofit organizations that provide direct services to residents.

In 2009, the CFO ramped up its nonprofit partners program in which 501(c)3 and similar agencies hold funds with the CFO and, in turn, receive administrative support, investment options and educational opportunities. The philosophy is simple: By offering educational training and technical assistance, the CFO believes a stronger nonprofit community will use its grantmaking dollars most effectively.

Responding to emergency needs

Twenty years ago, a tornado destroyed a large swath of downtown Stockton, the Cedar County seat and site of the CFO’s then-newest affiliate. The CFO helped local leaders gather community input for rebuilding and opened a community development loan fund. Since then, the CFO supported Joplin’s 2011 tornado recovery efforts over the following five years, Branson’s Leap Day tornado in 2012 and several flooding disasters in south-central Missouri.

In other times of crisis, more than $5.3 million in grantmaking helped the region weather the COVID-19 pandemic; during the 2008-10 Great Recession, grantmaking pivoted to operating support to sustain nonprofits serving higher numbers of clients.

Beyond immediate and long-term recovery needs, the CFO’s ongoing disaster-related work includes administering corporate benevolence funds to help employees in crisis; granting emergency funds to support community needs that arise, such as overnight shelters during extreme cold weather; and funding preparedness and mitigation efforts to help people and communities better withstand future disasters.

Expanding resources

A pillar of the CFO’s mission is collaboration, a trait long considered a regional strength. Resources are most effective when communities agree on priorities, when duplication of services is minimized and when sharing information helps break down complicated issues.

The CFO started a funders forum in 2012 where public and private charitable funders find common ground to support issues like early childhood education, food insecurity and the post-pandemic Let’s Get to Work program to help workers and employers overcome transportation as a job barrier. This record of collaboration also is attractive to state and national funders willing to invest in the region using the CFO as their “boots on the ground.”

Investing for impact

The “double-bottom line” is the phrase used to describe the CFO’s mission-related investment program. It offers below-market loans, often as gap financing, for projects with a public purpose. Examples include helping a Dent County hospital purchase a MRI machine so patients don’t rely on monthly mobile MRI machine visits; a bio-mass generator to power the Gainesville schools’ HVAC; and a storm shelter in Chadwick.

Other impact investments include seeding efforts like Restore SGF, an organization to increase home ownership in Springfield; supporting labor expenses for nonprofits most affected by the pandemic stay-at-home orders; and being a founding partner for the Community Focus Report for Springfield-Greene County.

These five pillars of philanthropic leadership represent the return on the investment of $1,500 made by the 15 banks that each contributed $100 to start the CFO in June 1973.

“With more than a half-billion dollars out the door in a half century and assets exceeding $400 million today, it’s exciting to think about what the next 50 years will bring in our continued commitment to place-based philanthropy,” CFO President Brian Fogle says.

To find out how to donate to the Community Foundation of the Ozarks, email Winter Kinne at wkinne@cfozarks.org or call her at (417) 864-6199.

This post was paid for and produced by the Community Foundation of the Ozarks, a Champion Partner of the Springfield Daily Citizen. The Daily Citizen newsroom was not involved in the creation of this content. To be accepted, sponsored content must be consistent with the news or features topics, and the Springfield-centric geography, of the Daily Citizen. For questions or information about sponsored content, please contact Daily Citizen CEO David Stoeffler at dstoeffler@sgfcitizen.org. To become a Daily Citizen partner, please contact Chief Development Officer Judi Kamien at jkamien@sgfcitizen.org.