Report to our Community - Fiscal Year 2024/2025

The Morton Community Foundation’s Mission is to “Improve the quality of life for Morton area residents, now and for generations to come.” A great way to sum up our work is with these 3 words… GATHER, GROW, GRANT.

GATHER…Our ability to give back and provide grants starts with a passionate community of supporters who have collectively helped us gather and grow our permanently endowed fund investments. Building up endowed investments creates an ongoing and permanent source of grantmaking to benefit our community forever.

Qtr Ending 09/30/2024

122 - TOTAL NUMBER OF FUNDS
$14,490,887 - TOTAL DOLLARS ENDOWED
$16,718,335 - ASSETS UNDER MANAGEMENT

The foundation continues to find creative ways to unite and connect our community around a common purpose. Fulfilling that purpose requires a consistent commitment to fund our minimal operating expenses. We are especially grateful to our supporters who have become Annual Support Partners. We would love to add you to the list of Annual Support Partner individuals or businesses recognized HERE.

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Sign Me Up as a business Annual Support Partner

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Higher Standards

In August of 2021, the Morton Community Foundation was accredited with National Standards for U.S. Community Foundations®—the highest standards for philanthropic excellence.

We work to support the causes our community cares about, from supporting our outstanding schools and strong youth sports organizations to installing adaptive recreational equipment, supporting our amazing public library, and collecting donations for non-profit and school COVID mitigation efforts. National Standards says that we meet the most rigorous standards in philanthropy and is a promise to our community that we’ll continue to do this good work together, right here in Morton.

National Standards is not mandatory. We chose to go above and beyond by affirming our commitment to excellence and accountability. Our accreditation provides assurance that we have sound policies and practices in place. In short, it means we meet the highest standards for local giving.

To receive accreditation with National Standards, the Morton Community Foundation submitted our policies and procedures to a rigorous review of 26 National Standards in six key areas of community foundation operations, including donor services, investment management, grantmaking and administration.

The National Standards for U.S. Community Foundations® program was established in 2000 in cooperation with the Council on Foundations. For more information about National Standards, visit www.cfstandards.org.

GROW…The MCF has, for the past 7 years or so, been blessed with the use of office space in a building owned by Apostolic Christian Life Points. During those years, the MCF only paid for a portion of the utilities, lawn care, snow removal, internet, etc. Benefiting from “virtually free” office space allowed us to focus more on “growing” our endowment funds than fundraising to cover rent costs. We owe a debt of gratitude to Apostolic Christian Life Points.

In late 2019, ACLP informed us that they were needing additional space and asked us to begin looking for another office space.

In the Spring of 2020, we not only located the perfect office space at 135 S First Ave but also received a very generous $1 Million unrestricted estate gift, allowing us to pay for the renovations of our new office, as well as add enough to our endowed operating fund to cover the new lease cost every year forever. And the largest portion of the gift was added to the Morton Impact Endowment Fund, which will ultimately double the amount of grant money distributed each Spring during our Competitive Grant Cycle.

GRANT…The Annual Spring Community Grant Cycle has occurred every year since 2003 and is made possible through the generosity of the MCF’s donors—individuals, families, and organizations committed to improving the quality of life here in the Morton area. Endowed gifts create reliable funding for current needs and future opportunities. That’s the power of endowment.

Some donors choose to support specific organizations, while others provide scholarship funding that helps students get to and through school. Some donors decide that they want their legacy gifts to address the challenges and opportunities of future generations. These endowed gifts support Community Grants, MCF’s grantmaking program that endeavors to meet the communities most urgent needs through responsive grantmaking.

Here's a recap of the incredible impact made just this year by the MCF as of 09/30/2024

$90,548 - 2024 ENDOWED COMMUNITY GRANTS.
$255,995 - 2024 ENDOWED DONOR ADVISED AND DESIGNATED FUND GRANTS.
$80,200 - 2024 ENDOWED AGENCY GRANTS.
$35,400 - 2024 ENDOWED SCHOLARSHIPS.
$462,143 - 2023 TOTAL ENDOWMENT FUND GRANTS.
$232,100 - 2024 NON-ENDOWED DONOR ADVISED FUND GRANTS
$694,243 - 2024 TOTAL GRANTS
OVER $6,000,000 - TOTAL GRANTS GIVEN SINCE 2003 (FIRST YR OF MCF GRANTMAKING).
122 TOTAL FUNDS