WWW.CFSJC.ORG • (574) 232-0041 • 205 W. JEFFERSON BLVD., SUITE 610 • SOUTH BEND, IN 46601

APRIL 2013 CONNECTING PEOPLE WHO CARE WITH CAUSES THAT MATTER

Focusing on Our Donors: Ralph HassRalph Hass’s passion for Camp Ray Bird and its work with inner-city kids helped the organization more than double the size of its property through a carefully structured challenge grant.

A donor’s gift can provide a powerful incentive for others to give, too.

Camp Ray Bird has been a refuge for inner-city children since 1919, when Mr. and Mrs. Fredrick Cunningham and Mr. and Mrs. James Oliver donated a parcel of land on Bass Lake for Ray Bird’s Fresh Air Camp—an extension of a Sunday School ministry begun by Bird and his wife, Ethel, in 1914.

Now known as Camp Ray Bird, the organization provides approximately 800 kids between the ages of eight and 15 with a week-long camping experience each summer. There, these children—who couldn’t afford to have this type of experience without Camp Ray Bird’s

help—enjoy canoeing, archery, hiking, biking, swimming, go-carts and evening campfires, all within the context of developing their Christian faith. After the summer ends, the staff stays in touch with campers, encouraging them to continue to grow spiritually by connecting with local faith communities.

In 2010, Camp Ray Bird had an opportunity to more than double the size of its 40-acre camp by purchasing 109 acres of adjacent land. The cost of the land—more than $500,000—was tough to put together, and Mike Houghtaling, executive director of Ray Bird Ministries, had to ask two friends of the camp to lend the last

Ray Bird campers show off their kites at a spring “mini-camp” weekend.

HIGHLIGHTS

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On March 26, 2013, the new Notre Dame Center for Arts & Culture officially opened its doors. Located in the former Hansel Center on South Bend’s West Washington Street, this new space is the result of a collaboration among the University of Notre Dame, the City of South Bend, the Community Foundation’s ArtsEverywhere initiative, and other donors. The Center will offer educational programming for the public, and will house Segura Arts Studio, the Crossroads Gallery, and Notre Dame’s office of Community Relations.

Notre Dame Center for Arts & Culture

Camp Ray Bird provides approximately 800 kids between the ages of eight and 15 with a week-long camping experience each summer.

2012 Laidig Community Service Scholars

This year, the Community Foundation received a record number of applications for the Lilly Scholarship, the Laidig Community Service Scholarship, and the Charles Martin “Touch a Life” Scholarship. Our Scholarship Committee members were impressed by the pool of intelligent, compassionate, and talented applicants. Keep your eye on our website, www.cfsjc.org: We’ll be announcing the winners of these scholarships soon.

doubled the value of their gifts.

And it succeeded.

Recently, Houghtaling proudly sent Meissner a copy of the final mortgage release for the new land, which Ray Bird Ministries now owns “free and clear.” Because of Ralph Hass and other donors who value the good work Camp Ray Bird accomplishes, hundreds of inner-city young people will be able to enjoy a camping experience in a breathtaking natural environment that’s three times the size it used to be—with all of its trees intact.

Like Ralph Hass, you can create powerful ways to support causes that matter to you in partnership with the Community Foundation. Visit www.cfsjc.org or call Rose Meissner at (574) 232-0041.

COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY • PAGE 2

$200,000 that was needed to close. Because the timber on the property had assessed at a value of just over $200,000, Houghtaling and his board of directors knew that they could harvest the mature trees if necessary to pay off the loan.

But of course no one wanted to cut down the trees. A big part of what the campers love about Camp Ray Bird is the opportunity it gives them to experience nature in all its majestic beauty, and those trees were an essential part of that.

That’s where Rose Meissner, president of the Community Foundation, saw an opportunity to make a connection—one that would benefit a strong local nonprofit while helping a donor further his personal philanthropic goals.

Ralph Hass and his wife Lucille had established a donor-advised fund with the Community Foundation in the late 1990s. A Notre Dame graduate, Ralph Hass followed in his father’s footsteps in the construction and concrete industry, working at Hass Millwork,

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Hass Concrete, Portage Realty, and the lumberyards that would eventually become Big C Lumber. In the ’70s, he founded Strescore, a manufacturer of pre-stressed hollow-core concrete slabs.

Meissner knew that the causes that the couple cared about included Ray Bird Ministries. After Lucille’s death in 2008, Ralph had continued to support the camp’s work.

“I saw a chance to bring a good person and a good cause together,” Meissner says.

Together, she and Ralph crafted an anonymous challenge grant: If Mike and his team could raise $100,000, Camp Ray Bird would receive an additional $100,000—enabling them to pay off the loan in full.

It was all or nothing: If its fundraising failed to hit the $100,000 mark, Camp Ray Bird would get no additional money from the challenge grant.

“We didn’t want them to be in a situation where they timbered only half the land, for example,” Meissner explained. “It was important to Ralph that the land remain in its natural state.”

Ralph Hass had given Camp Ray Bird a major challenge—one that provided great motivation to other donors, who understood that the matching dollars

Ralph Hass had given Camp Ray Bird a major challenge—one that provided great motivation to other donors, who understood that the matching dollars doubled the value of their gifts.

“I saw a chance to bring a good person and a good cause together,” says Rose Meissner.

Planning Your Legacy

205 W. JEFFERSON BLVD. • SUITE 610 • SOUTH BEND, IN 46601 • (574) 232-0041 • WWW.CFSJC.ORG

A Guide to Planning Your Will and Trust

FREE GUIDE: PLANNING A WILL

Because we believe that everyone should have the opportunity to create a legacy for their family and their community, the Community Foundation offers a free guide to planning your will. In easy-to-understand language, this recently updated 48-page booklet walks you through the process of collecting and organizing the information you’ll need to share with your attorney or financial planner to create a will.

In it, you’ll find information on choosing an estate plan that fits you, whether you’re single or married; checklists and worksheets for collecting the data your attorney will need; explanations of the roles of executors, guardians, and the importance of Power of Attorney; a Frequently Asked Questions section, and more.

Download this free guide at www.cfsjc.org, or call (574) 232-0041 and we’ll mail you a copy.

WWW.CFSJC.ORG • (574) 232-0041 • 205 W. JEFFERSON BLVD., SUITE 610 • SOUTH BEND, IN 46601

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We’re working with our community’s nursing home administrators and staff to provide training, mentoring, and other support that helps make local nursing homes better places to live and work.

Begun in 2010 in response to a national study that identified Indiana as one of the ten worst states for overall quality of care provided in nursing homes, the Community Foundation’s Nursing Home Learning Collaborative has made significant strides in building relationships, supporting and training nursing home professionals, and strengthening care quality.

During the first 18 months of the project, the Community Foundation worked with nationally recognized trainers Barbara Frank and Cathie Brady to convene administrators and directors of nursing from all of our county’s nursing homes. The two consultants led educational sessions, conducted site visits, and provided customized coaching for each nursing home. Fueled by the trust and goodwill that Phase I helped to develop, we’ve moved into Phase II: three distinct efforts aimed at creating real, lasting change in local nursing homes.

Nurses as Leaders Often, nurses are promoted to leadership roles in nursing homes because of their strong technical skills—without specialized training to help them develop as managers. To help remedy this, Frank and Brady worked with the Community Foundation to develop a 10-week, 20-hour curriculum

to strengthen the leadership and managerial skills of nurses. This new “Nurses as Leaders” course, part of Ivy Tech’s Corporate College program, is taught by three accomplished nurse-managers with experience in skilled care environments.

The first ten nurses to take the course finished their training in January, and another 10 stepped up to the plate at the end of March. We plan to continue to offer the course twice a year.

Nurses as Mentors Nursing home administrators often struggle to retain CNAs—certified nursing assistants, who are responsible for the majority of daily hands-on work with residents. The work is challenging

Nursing Home Learning Collaborative: Building Relationships, Strengthening Care

The Community Foundation is working to make local nursing homes better places to live and work.

and poorly paid; sometimes, cultural differences can cause conflicts between CNAs and nursing staff.

In order to invest in the futures of these critical workers, the Community Foundation is underwriting a two-hour-a-week, eight-week “Nurses as Mentors” program. In it, an Ivy Tech faculty member comes to the workplace to provide hands-on training for CNAs in areas such as dementia, rehabilitation, and hospice care. Between sessions, the CNAs partner with nurse-mentors to complete related homework, developing closer, more trusting workplace relationships in the process.

Currently, “Nurses as Mentors” involves eight St. Joseph County nursing homes.

Administrator Forum Any successful initiative requires ongoing commitment. That’s why the “third leg” of the Nursing Home Learning Collaborative is so important. Every quarter, nursing home leaders come together for a full-morning

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Often, nurses are promoted to leadership roles in nursing homes because of their strong technical skills—without specialized training to help them develop as managers.

P.O. BOX 837SOUTH BEND, IN 46624

Non Profit Org.

U.S. Postage

PAID

South Bend, IN

Permit No. 417

ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED

DATES/DEADLINES

• May 1: Deadline to apply for Senior Housing and ArtsEverywhere Fund grants

• June 1: Deadline for letters of intent for Leighton Award for Nonprofit Excellence

• June 15: Deadline for applications for the Currier scholarship

• July 1: Deadline for Leighton Award for Nonprofit Excellence applications

• July 20–Aug. 24 (Saturday nights, 7 p.m.): 2013 ArtsEverywhere Performing Arts Series at Potawatomi Park

Learn more at www.cfsjc.org or call (574) 232-0041.

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workshop organized by REAL Services. These workshops are on subjects that the group has identified as valuable: cultural change in the nursing home environment, for example. Participants receive continuing education credits and draw support from each other in a noncompetitive environment.

The Community Foundation’s Chris Nanni, vice president, program, says he’s been impressed by how the community has coalesced since the initiative began.

Initially, many of the administrators of nursing homes—which are primarily for-profit institutions—were unfamiliar with the Community Foundation. Over the past two years, though, Nanni says, a sense of trust has developed, both in the Foundation and in the service providers involved in the initiative.

It’s gone so well that the Nursing Home Learning Collaborative is

being replicated in Indianapolis by a consortium of Health Care Excel, the University of Indianapolis, and Central Indiana Community Foundation, using the same consultants and the curriculum that the Community Foundation put together.

“There’s a good possibility we’ll see it rolled out in other Indiana communities, too, within the next few years,” Nanni says.

You can make our community stronger by supporting meaningful, successful initiatives like this one. Visit www.cfsjc.org for more information.

It’s gone so well that the Nursing Home Learning Collaborative is being replicated in Indianapolis.