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The mission of the Fort Atkinson Community Foundation is to receive donations for educational, cultural, charitable, or benevolent purposes and use them to benefit our residents and enhance the quality of life in the Fort Atkinson area.
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Recently Awarded Grants
October 2018 Community Foundation Board Meeting:
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$21,973 to the Dwight Foster Public Library
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to help the library with a project to upgrade interior lighting, replacing fluorescent fixtures with new LED fixtures, thereby significantly reducing operating costs. Based on cost and expense projections, it is anticipated that the library will recoup the cost of the project after just four years. Library Director Eric Robinson has been working to find other sources of funds and we are hopeful that our grant will be matched by one from the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin's Energy Innovation Grant Program.
The Foundation grant will be paid from our designated library fund - so thank you to everyone who has donated to that fund!
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$7,000 to the local Chamber of Commerce
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to assist the Chamber in funding a housing study in the City of Fort Atkinson to determine both current and future demand and to get an accurate accounting of existing inventory and related price points. This housing market study will produce information that can be used to attract residential developers and reduce their risk by providing the specifics of what will be supported in our community.
The grant will come from our Kerschensteiner Family Donor-Advised Fund. Thank you to the Kerschensteiner and Martin families for supporting this project!
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$11,000 to the School District
of Fort Atkinson
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to help purchase a van for use by the 18-21 year old community-based learning program. Students with a disability have a right to public education until graduation with a regular diploma or until the age of 21. The focus of Fort Atkinson's 18-21 program is for students to gain maximum independence in employment settings and to gain independent living skills, social and functional skills, and self-advocacy skills in real life settings and to participate in age-appropriate activities in their communities. With a recent increase in numbers, the program is in need of additional transportation methods.
The Foundation's grant will be augmented by a $15,000 grant the district was awarded from the state.
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Up to $5,000 to Rockwell Elementary School
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to purchase equipment requested by five Rockwell teachers to enhance the learning environment of their classrooms. Equipment includes flexible seating options, sensory items, activity tables, teaching carts, and quick-change art frames.
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Update on Foundation-Supported Projects
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Innovation Lab at Luther Elementary School
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The new Innovation Lab in the library at Luther Elementary School is now open and fascinating students. Luther Librarian Kim Westby had the idea to create a space dedicated to nurturing students' love of questioning, exploring and creating. The Innovation Lab she envisioned has now become a reality thanks to a $4,036 grant from the Community Foundation.
The new lab is inspiring kids to learn through doing, to uncover talents, interests, and passions by making, solving, collaborating, thinking, creating, failing and trying again. The new materials cover a wide variety of interests - from computer programming to artistic creation, from engraving to creating robots.
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'Our Poetry Lady' sculpture
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A nice gathering took place on Tuesday, October 16th to dedicate the larger-than-life statue, created by Fort Atkinson artist Sally Koehler, honoring the late local poet, Lorine Niedecker. The dedication of "Our Poet Lady" took place along the Glacial River Bike Path directly behind Fort Car Wash, just past Lions Park. The sculpture has a base constructed of metal lath and concrete, while the statue's surface is covered with more than 1,000 pieces of mosaic tile and glass. City staff did a great job of landscaping around the seven-foot-tall statue of the Blackhawk Island poet and installing a sign to teach visitors about this iconic poet of place.
The Foundation provided a grant of $2,000 from our Mary Hoard Fund to assist with the costs of transporting and installing this heavy concrete sculpture. We think Mrs. Hoard would be pleased to see this one-of-a-kind feature catching people's eye along the bike path.
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Introducing the new BASE Program
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The after-school program formerly known as the Boys & Girls Club of Fort Atkinson is now operating as the Badgerland After School Enrichment (BASE) Program. This new local, independent nonprofit, led by Executive Director Alicia Norris, will continue to offer the same high-quality after-school and summer programs to support kids in our community.
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Our thanks to Alicia and the BASE Board of Directors for their commitment to providing quality programming for our youngsters and for their hard work during this transition period.
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Fort Scholarships, the online scholarship application website sponsored by the Fort Atkinson Community Foundation, will soon begin accepting applications for the 2019 scholarship season.
Local students will find Fort Scholarships to be a very convenient one-stop shop where they can review the eligibility requirements for a whole host of local scholarships and then apply for those for which they qualify. Housed on the site are all 39 of the competitive scholarships offered by the Fort Atkinson Community Foundation, plus many of those offered through Fort Atkinson High School.
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Charitable giving and the new tax law
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With the recent changes in the tax code, you might be wondering what is the most tax-effective way to continue to give to your favorite charities. The new increase in the standard deduction means it's likely that fewer people will itemize deductions, making the tax-deductibility of charitable gifts less valuable.
We have two suggestions for you!
Some tax advisers have suggested a tactic called bunching – making two or three years’ worth of donations in a single year so you’ll end up with enough deductions to itemize that year and then skip making donations the other years and instead take the standard deduction. Although this tactic provides a tax break for you, it’s not ideal for most nonprofits. A better way to provide more consistent support for your charities would be to open a donor-advised fund – like those offered by our community foundation. This will allow you to pool your donations in one pot, deduct the entire contribution in the year you make it, and then spend the next few years making gifts from your fund. A donor-advised fund allows you to continue to give in ‘off’ years – on a more regular schedule that will benefit your charity – while still taking the standard deduction.
If you are over 70.5 years old and have an Individual Retirement Account (IRA), a second option would be to avail yourself of the IRA Charitable Rollover. This allows you to donate up to $100,000 from your IRA directly to a qualified charity, without having to count the distribution as taxable income. This is helpful because taxpayers age 70.5 and older are required to take annual distributions from their IRA, which is then included in the taxpayers’ adjusted gross income (AGI) and subject to taxes. The IRA Charitable Rollover permits those taxpayers to make a donation directly to a charitable organization from their IRA without counting it as part of their AGI and, consequently, without paying taxes on the money.
Be sure to consult your tax adviser or IRA custodian to learn what would be best for you.
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Foundation's 2017-18 Annual Report
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Thank you to all our donors and supporters for a great year. Our 2017-18 annual report is now available, both in short form as a four-fold brochure and the longer version published in the Daily Jefferson County Union.
You can see both of them by clicking on the button below.
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Bingham Memorial Scholarship Fund
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We have recently taken over the funds and administration of the Richard Noel Bingham Memorial Scholarship program from the School District of Fort Atkinson. The idea for the transfer came from the school district when they saw that the Foundation's investment and distribution policy would mean more money being awarded in scholarships to our graduating seniors. We are grateful to the school district for thinking about what is best for our students.
This scholarship fund was originally established by the will of Laura Bingham and funded with a gift from her husband, Ezra Bingham, who upon his death in 1982 directed that the majority of his estate go to establishing a scholarship fund as a memorial to their only son, Richard, who died in 1935 of a brain tumor just short of his 14th birthday. Richard was a freshman at Fort Atkinson High School.
A four-year scholarship, it is awarded annually to deserving members of the graduating class of Fort Atkinson High School who intend to continue their education at a four-year college or university.
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Robert Vincent Acorn Fund Matures
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We are pleased to report that our first Acorn Fund - the Robert J. Vincent Memorial Acorn Fund - has recently crossed the $15,000 threshold allowing it to mature into a permanent, endowed fund that will be able to make awards.
Stay tuned to see what type of fund this becomes!
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