On April 10th, the Hillsboro Community Foundation (HCF) announced its Philanthropist of the Year and Volunteer of the Year award recipients during the Central Kansas Community Foundation’s Spring Soiree at Sun Wray Ranch in Newton. These awards honor individuals recognized for their dedication and significant contributions to the community.

Philanthropists of the Year:
The Hillsboro Community Foundation (HCF) has named its five founding members as the 2025 Philanthropists of the Year. The recipients are:

– Brad Bartel
– Mike Kleiber
– Kirby Fadenrecht
– Steve Garrett
– Delores Dalke (posthumously)

This award recognizes their vital role in establishing the foundation. Celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2024, HCF owes its success to the vision and dedication of these individuals who saw the need for a local foundation to shape Hillsboro’s future. As the late Delores Dalke recalled of their beginnings, “We saw that it needed to be done, so some of us just started meeting.”

Pictured at the award announcement (L to R): Keegan LeFevre (CKCF Vice-Chair), Brad Bartel, Mike Kleiber, Kirby Fadenrecht, Steve Garrett, Matt Dalke (accepting for Delores Dalke), Daniel Moss (HCF Chair), and Chad Hughbanks (HCF Associate Director)

Volunteer of the Year:
The Hillsboro Community Foundation (HCF) is honored to announce the recipient of the 2025 Volunteer of the Year Award:

– Kelly Groening

Kelly has been a dedicated and impactful member of the Hillsboro Community Foundation board since 2022, serving as treasurer for the majority of that time. In 2024, Kelly showcased HCF’s work by authoring a weekly “Did You Know?” for the Hillsboro Free Press, highlighting 52 distinct ways HCF has enriched Hillsboro over our 20-year history. He actively volunteers his time at HCF events. Most notably, Kelly’s tireless efforts and consistent engagement with donors were instrumental in the resounding success of HCF’s scholarship campaign in September.

Pictured at the award announcement (L to R): Keegan LeFevre (CKCF Vice-Chair), 2025 Volunteer of the Year recipient Kelly Groening

Your favorite charities are grateful for your support over the years. Whether you make your gifts outright or support charities using a donor-advised or other type of fund at the community foundation, every gift makes a difference in the quality of life in our community. 

You may even care about your favorite charities so much that you strive to send over a donation every month throughout the year. In some cases, this works well for the charity, especially if its budget is particularly lean month-to-month or if monthly recurring donations are a priority for the charity’s public relations goals or other strategic reasons. It’s worth knowing, however, that in some situations, consolidating your gifts into a single annual donation is actually better for everyone, including the charity.

Here’s why:

Although recurring donations offer predictable cash flow for organizations, the processing fees and administrative burdens can disproportionately affect charities when donations are fragmented. By giving one substantial annual contribution to each of your favorite charities—whether personally or through your donor-advised fund at the community foundation—you can maximize impact while reducing operational costs for the charities.

Indeed, you might not realize the degree to which processing fees can erode small donations. Every transaction carries fixed costs, of course, regardless of size. A check, for example, can cost charities more than $3.50 to process by the time you add up bank fees, processor charges, and staff time. Even supposedly “streamlined” digital donations via credit cards and digital wallets incur fees that sometimes can add up to more than 4% of the donation amount. 

As an example, a single $100 annual gift via check might cost a charity $3.61, but four $25 quarterly donations via check could result in more than $14 in processing fees—consuming more than 14% of the donated amount! 

The direct costs associated with each check are just part of the expense. Nonprofits spend valuable resources reconciling accounts and managing donor records for each transaction. A single annual contribution can help reduce these often hidden costs, allowing charities to focus on mission-driven work rather than processing paperwork. This efficiency gain can be particularly crucial for small charities, which often operate with lean teams and tight budgets.

If you’re interested in shifting from monthly to annual giving and you’ve not yet established a donor-advised fund, you might consider doing so. A single contribution to your donor-advised fund each year allows you to claim an immediate tax deduction, and then in turn process an annual grant to each of the charities you’d like to support. This approach can help eliminate processing costs. 

For example, if you typically give a total of $1,200 each year to your place of worship and you started providing that support in a single annual transaction, such as through your donor-advised fund, instead of writing twelve $100 checks, you could save your place of worship nearly $50 in processing costs. Plus, you’ll personally benefit from simplified record-keeping with one annual receipt for the gift to your donor-advised fund rather than tracking multiple transactions. 

Whether you’re supporting local social service agencies, arts organizations, alma maters, or places of worship, consolidated giving ensures that more dollars flow directly to services rather than getting eaten up by processes and fees. What a terrific example of financial stewardship to honor both your own generosity as well as your favorite charities’ operational realities. Please reach out to the community foundation today to learn more about how annual consolidated giving might fit into your philanthropy plan.

As you consider your 2025 giving priorities, you’ll no doubt recall that writing a check to favorite charities is not the only way to support the causes you love. But sometimes it seems easiest to reach for the checkbook because it’s overwhelming to think about all the options.

You might be experiencing what’s known as the “paradox of choice,” a phenomenon where an abundance of options actually decreases your satisfaction and diminishes your decision-making ability. Too many choices can cause decision fatigue, anxiety, and regret over potentially missed opportunities.

We understand! The team at the community foundation is here for you. We’ll help you evaluate potential assets that would make great gifts to your donor-advised or other type of fund at the community foundation, including:

–Gifts of publicly-traded stock, allowing you to potentially avoid capital gains tax

–Giving shares of closely-held business interests to your fund as part of a long-term business succession plan

–Gifts of real estate, including farmland or commercial property, allowing you to potentially avoid capital gains tax and reduce the value of your taxable estate if future estate taxes are a concern

–Beneficiary designations on retirement plans, and even “Qualified Charitable Distributions” from your IRA to a designated or field-of-interest fund if you are over the age of 70 ½

–Naming your fund at the community foundation as the beneficiary of a life insurance policy, or even transferring a whole life policy and making annual tax-deductible contributions to the community foundation to cover the premium

–Gifts of oil and gas interests, cryptocurrency, and collectibles are also possibilities for adding to your fund at the community foundation

The bottom line here is that our team can help you work through the possibilities. We’ll make sure that the daunting range of options doesn’t prevent you from making the best decisions to achieve both your financial planning and charitable giving goals.

A new year is in full swing, but you’ve still got plenty of time to consider your charitable impact and how you’d like to make a difference in 2025. A great way to do that is to reflect on the difference you’ve already made through the years.

For starters, think about how the many causes you’ve supported have resulted in tangible, positive improvements in the quality of life for so many people in our region. Indeed, many people are drawn to charitable giving and decide to establish a fund at the community foundation because of personal experiences with charities during a time of need. For example, perhaps a loved one benefited from groundbreaking medical research funded by charitable donations. Or maybe you or a family member overcame personal challenges with the help of nonprofit counseling services, or your business might have thrived thanks to a nonprofit-supported arts district or mentorship program. Nonprofit hospice care may have provided comfort and support during a difficult time with a family member. Even a cherished pet may have come into your life through a nonprofit animal rescue. What’s more, many people find that their happiness increases through acts of giving. When you know you’re helping someone, it makes you feel good!

The team at the community foundation is here to help you shape your charitable giving plan for 2025 and beyond. We’d welcome a conversation to review key components of your philanthropy and help you make the biggest impact possible. For example, we can review:

–Opportunities to accomplish your charitable giving goals this year through gifts of appreciated stock

–Opportunities to incorporate gifts to your fund in your estate plan and create a lasting  charitable legacy

–Examples of how you can join forces with other fund holders to support larger initiatives

–Examples of donors who are not only pursuing their own charitable priorities, but are also supporting the community foundation’s work to improve quality of life in our region for generations to come

–Reviewing historical grants to charities from your donor-advised fund and examples of the impact of those grants, which in turn can help inform future grant making to the causes you love

–Ways your grants and the charities you support are helping achieve positive community change in priorities identified as critical by the community foundation

If you’d like to discuss your giving strategies or explore new ways to maximize your impact, please don’t hesitate to reach out. We’re here to help you achieve your philanthropic goals and create lasting change in our community.

The Hillsboro Community Foundation is dedicated to enriching the lives of Hillsboro residents through a variety of initiatives, including a robust scholarship program. These scholarships aim to support local students in their pursuit of higher education and vocational training.

Diverse Scholarship Opportunities

The Hillsboro Community Foundation manages several scholarship funds, each with its own unique criteria and focus. This diversity ensures that students from various backgrounds and academic goals have the opportunity to receive financial assistance. Some of the scholarships offered include:

• Gehring Family Tech Scholarship: designed to support graduates of Marion County High Schools who are pursuing technical education.
• Hillsboro Trojan Family Memorial Scholarship: recognizes students who demonstrate financial need, active participation in school activities, and involvement in the community.
• C.M. Sextro Memorial Math Scholarship: designed to support students who are interested in studying mathematics at a four-year college or university.

Eligibility and Application Process

The eligibility criteria for each scholarship vary, but generally include factors such as academic achievement, financial need, and community involvement. The application process typically involves submitting an online application form, along with supporting documents such as transcripts, letters of recommendation, and personal essays.  

Impact and Benefits

The scholarships provided by the Hillsboro Community Foundation have a significant impact on the lives of the recipients. They help alleviate the financial burden of higher education, making it more accessible for deserving students. Moreover, these scholarships serve as a recognition of students’ hard work and potential, motivating them to excel in their academic pursuits.

How to Support

The Hillsboro Community Foundation relies on the generosity of individuals and organizations to sustain its scholarship program. By donating to the Foundation, you can directly contribute to the educational aspirations of Hillsboro residents and make a lasting impact on the community.

The Hillsboro Community Foundation’s scholarship program is a testament to its commitment to fostering educational opportunities and empowering individuals to achieve their full potential. By providing financial assistance and encouragement, the Foundation is helping to shape a brighter future for Hillsboro and its residents.

By: Central Kansas Community Foundation

Your family may be among those who are taking their charitable giving budgets more seriously this year, given uncertainty surrounding interest rates, potential new legislation, and possible stock market swings. 

At the same time, you also know that our community’s needs continue to rise. As 2025 gets into full swing, your favorite charities will be relying on additional resources and support from philanthropic sources. 

Against this backdrop, a budget has benefits!

Here are a few steps to consider as you build a 2025 budget for charitable donations that can help you continue to support your favorite causes and remain fiscally cautious.

–Review all your charitable donations from the last three years and compile totals for each organization. This can be an easy exercise if you use a donor-advised fund at the community foundation because the data can typically be pulled directly from the community foundation’s donor portal or requested from the community foundation’s team.

–Carefully review the list of organizations you’ve supported over the last three years. Regardless of your donation levels, which charities are the most important to you? Are you serving on the board of directors of any of these organizations? Do you regularly volunteer at any of them? Is there a personal connection?

–Are there any organizations on your list that you supported primarily because the organization was raising money for a capital campaign, or because you were helping out a friend who is involved with that organization? If you anticipate household budget constraints in 2025, these may be organizations to possibly put on hold and then revisit supporting again in future years.

–Add up your total giving over the last three years and then divide it by three to get your average. Is that number doable this year? If not, reduce it to a level that fits within your financial situation to arrive at your tentative 2025 giving budget. Or, if you expect your income and assets to increase this year, consider taking your charitable giving budget up a notch. And always remember that there are tax advantages to giving highly-appreciated publicly-traded stock to your fund at the community foundation. 

–Consider whether to keep certain organizations at historic levels of giving, such as those you’re personally involved with. Or on the flip side, you may decide to temporarily reduce your level of giving to organizations for which you are providing other types of support, including volunteering or board service.

–Review your list to see if there are any organizations you’ve supported that you’d like to learn more about. The team at the community foundation is extremely knowledgeable about charities in our region and would be happy to provide information on how a particular organization spends its money and how it measures impact.

–Finally, do the best you can to set targets for the amount of support you’d like to provide to each organization—and perhaps even set targets for the timing of your gifts. You can change these targets at any time, of course. The point here is that the planning and budgeting process is a great way to create more intentionality around your giving. Intentional giving is not only more rewarding for you, but it is also likely to increase your level of engagement with the recipient charities and enhance your understanding of how dollars are being deployed to meet the mission. This, in turn, helps your favorite organizations get better at carrying out their programs and serving those who rely on their work. 

We look forward to working with you throughout the year! 

By: Central Kansas Community Foundation

If you’ve not yet involved your children or grandchildren in your charitable giving, this may be the year to consider it! Children of all ages can benefit from learning even just a little bit about philanthropy and how charities improve the quality of life for everyone. Indeed, many parents and grandparents believe that some level of community involvement is crucial for young family members’ personal growth and future contributions to a more compassionate society. 

The team at the community foundation is always happy to help you explore best practices for helping shape the young people in your life into caring, responsible adults and inspire your extended family to get more involved.

Increasing a family’s role in charitable giving often leads to broader questions about estate planning, such as: 

–How to structure legacies to favorite charities so that heirs can stay involved in your priorities across generations

–How to ensure that children and grandchildren will be financially secure but still motivated to pursue independent personal and professional growth

–How to foster and support the self-directed charitable passions of children and grandchildren

The team at the community foundation is happy to work alongside your tax and estate planning advisors to address questions like this. We understand that you may be concerned that leaving millions of dollars, or even hundreds of thousands, to your children could backfire and hinder your kids’ ability and motivation to achieve financial independence. You might even be among the growing number of baby boomers who are considering pushing out distribution dates of inheritances and gifts.  

In addition to concerns about fostering entitlement and dependency, many parents and grandparents are concerned that their children will miss out on the satisfaction of knowing they built wealth on their own. These parents believe that the challenges and struggles along the way will ultimately enrich their children’s lives with intangible benefits that are far greater than the obvious benefits that come with gifts or an inheritance of significant financial resources.

If you find yourself feeling this way, please reach out to the community foundation. Every day, our team works with families who are in this exact situation. We’ll help you evaluate strategies such as:

–Establishing philanthropic components of an estate plan so that children receive only the amount that can pass to them free of estate tax, with the rest passing to a charity, such as a donor-advised fund at the community foundation.

–Setting up a fund at the community foundation to allow you to support favorite causes and charities during your lifetime; if the fund is a donor-advised fund, you can provide that your children step in as successor advisors following your death.

–As successor advisors to the donor-advised fund, your children can work with the community foundation to recommend grants to favorite charities, support interest areas you’ve pre-selected, or both. 

Many people are attracted to this type of structure because not only could it avoid estate tax, but it also allows their children to stay involved with all of the family’s wealth, work together and keep sibling bonds strong, and get involved in the community. 

Please reach out to the community foundation team anytime. We look forward to exploring strategies to help you meet your financial and tax goals, as well as honor your wishes for your children to live happy and productive lives. 

By Central Kansas Community Foundation

You’re ready to roll into a new year, and that includes staying involved with the charities you love, whether as a donor, volunteer, board member, or all of the above.

The team at the community foundation is here to support your charitable endeavors, no matter where your passions lie. Our region is full of charitable organizations that are doing amazing work to improve the quality of life for everyone. Indeed, across the country, there are hundreds of thousands of charities making a difference every single day.

Occasionally, you may be asked by a friend or colleague to donate to a charity you’re not too familiar with, or perhaps a charity that’s not been around very long asks you for financial support. Please reach out to our team with your questions. We are happy to help you gather the information you need to be confident in your gifts to any organization, large or small, new or well-established. 

The overwhelming majority of charities are above board, ethical, governed by top-notch board members, and run by highly-qualified professionals. Unfortunately, though, every once in a rare while, there are instances when a charity might not dot all the i’s and cross all the t’s. Although very infrequent, it’s still worth considering leaning on the community foundation to help you with due diligence for a few reasons: 

–You’ll want to protect your reputation against damage if you were to wind up supporting a charity that later becomes tainted by a scandal.

–You’ll want to validate that the charity is not facing significant or unusual legal or financial risks. 

–You’ll want to avoid scams, which, unfortunately, are on the rise. 

A big perk of organizing your giving through a fund at the community foundation is that our team always has its finger on the pulse of what’s going on with charitable organizations in our community. We can research the status of longstanding organizations, check into a brand new organization, and everything in between. Our goal is to help ensure that your charitable contributions have the greatest possible impact. We look forward to hearing from you! 

Are you a non-profit organization in Hillsboro with a dream to make a difference? Do you have a project that could benefit our community but need a little financial boost to get it off the ground? Then listen up! The Hillsboro Community Foundation (HCF) might just have the answer you’re looking for.

What is the Hillsboro Community Foundation?

HCF is a fantastic organization dedicated to supporting charitable projects that enhance the quality of life in Hillsboro. One way they do this is by providing grants to local non-profits working in areas like:

• Education: Enriching learning opportunities for all ages.
• Arts and Culture: Promoting creativity and artistic expression.
• Health and Wellness: Supporting initiatives that improve community health.
• Community Development: Fostering a thriving and vibrant Hillsboro.

Why Should You Apply for an HCF Grant?

Here’s the exciting part! Receiving a grant from the HCF is more than just about the money (although that’s definitely a huge plus!). Here are some key benefits:

• Funding for Your Dreams: HCF grants can provide crucial financial support to turn your project ideas into reality. Whether it’s new equipment, program expansion, or seed money for a new initiative, these grants can help you achieve your goals.
• Local Focus: HCF is invested in Hillsboro. They understand the unique needs and challenges of our community and prioritize projects that directly benefit our town.
• Boosting Your Credibility: Being awarded an HCF grant adds credibility to your organization. It shows that your project has been vetted and recognized for its potential impact, making it easier to attract further support.
• Connecting with Community: The HCF fosters a network of non-profit organizations in Hillsboro. Receiving a grant can connect you with like-minded individuals and organizations, leading to collaborations and partnerships.
• Making a Real Difference: Ultimately, an HCF grant empowers you to make a tangible difference in Hillsboro. It’s a chance to create positive change and contribute to the well-being of our community.

Ready to Apply?

If you’re inspired to seek funding for your non-profit, apply here. You’ll find information about grant guidelines, eligibility criteria, and application deadlines.

Don’t miss this opportunity to make a lasting impact on Hillsboro!

We all know how important good oral health is, but for many families, affording quality dental care can be a struggle. That’s where the Hillsboro Community Foundation steps in with the Marga Ebel Dental Assistance Program.

This incredible program, funded by the Marga Ebel Health Fund, provides financial assistance to families in the Hillsboro school district who might not otherwise be able to afford dental care for their children. It’s the first program of its kind in Kansas, and it’s making a real difference in the lives of local kids!

How it Works:

• Identification: USD 410 schools conduct dental screenings for students to identify those needing professional attention.
• Assistance: The program provides financial assistance to qualifying families to help cover the cost of necessary dental services.
• Collaboration: The program was developed and is overseen by a committee of dedicated education and healthcare providers in our community.

The Impact:

The Marga Ebel Dental Assistance Program is not just about fixing teeth; it’s about:

• Improving overall health: Dental issues can significantly impact a child’s overall health and well-being. By addressing these issues early on, we can help prevent more serious problems down the road.
• Boosting confidence: A healthy smile can do wonders for a child’s self-esteem.
• Ensuring academic success: When children are free from dental pain and discomfort, they can focus better in school.

Marga Ebel’s Legacy:

This program is a testament to the generosity of Marga Ebel, a woman who deeply cared about the well-being of children in our community. Her legacy lives on through this program, ensuring that all children in Hillsboro have access to the dental care they need to thrive.

How You Can Help:

Want to support the Marga Ebel Dental Assistance Program? Here’s how you can get involved:

• Donate: Contributions to the Marga Ebel Health Fund help ensure the program’s continued success.
• Spread the word: Share information about the program with families who might benefit.
• Volunteer: Offer your time and skills to support the Hillsboro Community Foundation’s efforts.

Together, we can give all Hillsboro kids a reason to smile!