The next time your family comes together for a day at the lake or a barbeque in the backyard, why not take an hour to discuss your estate and how your family can make an impact on the things that are most meaningful to all of you.

To help you start the discussion, here are some topics and questions to pose to your "kitchen table philanthropists":

1. First, let your family know that including charitable giving in your estate does not mean leaving out children, grandchildren and other family members. Including charities in your planning can actually enhance what your loved ones will inherit. Because your family is important to you, their input into how those charitable dollars are spent and what organizations they will support is also important to you.
2. Encourage your family to talk about the charitable organizations they currently support. Ask each about the most satisfying charitable gift that they have made.  Other questions could include:

• Do you see your family as a family who "gives back"?
  How do you feel about that?
• Are local issues and organizations more important to your family than national or international organizations?
• Are there projects or organizations you would like the family’s name linked with? What would the family like to see accomplished through charitable giving?

Including your loved ones in these discussions can provide multiple benefits. It gives them a role in your decision making. They will understand what you want to do and how you want to do it. It should also ensure that there will be no surprises for the family at the time your estate is settled.

If you would like to see examples of how charitable giving can efficiently and effectively attain your goals, please call Kim Embretson or Tom McSparron at 800 735-2239. They can help you design a plan specifically for you and your family. In many instances, with the proper planning, these gifts may offset significant federal taxes.

Are our youngest citizens ready to succeed and thrive at school? This question was posed to 100 attendees at the School Readiness Forum 3, March 15 in Fergus Falls. The forum was sponsored by West Central Initiative and funded by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation.

Keynote speaker, Dr. Karabelle Pizzagati, presented ""Expanding Opportunity for all Children: Linking Early Learning and the Early Grades." Pizzagati is an independent child and family policy advisor who works with public and private organizations to improve public policies affecting children and their families.

A panel discussion followed the lecture. Panelists shared how their local communities are working together for school success, such as a bilingual preschool in Morris, an early screening process for ages 1 and 2 in Grant County, child care consultation in Pope County, and more.

In the afternoon, the 13 Early Childhood Initiative communities worked in teams to develop school readiness plans for the year.

View regional school readiness action plans at: www.wcif.org/?school_readiness

by Nancy Straw
President, West Central Initiative

I don’t recall much about my high school physics class, but I do remember some of the experiments we did, like raising a classmate from a chair with just our index fingers. It’s all about distribution of mass and energy … but I’m no physicist, I’m a foundation professional.

Still, there are amazing similarities between the laws of physics and running a community foundation. Take the simple lever and fulcrum combination for example. We use a lever (like grant or loan funds, technical assistance, or convening a group of dedicated people), and apply it to a fulcrum (an issue, a dream) in order to realize a specific goal. Just like that high school physics experiment, this simple principle of "foundation physics" can achieve amazing results.

Here at West Central Initiative (WCI), we often apply lever to fulcrum because we have to find efficient ways to use our limited resources in the nine counties we serve in west central Minnesota.

SHORT AND SWEET

Sometimes the lever that’s needed is relatively short, perhaps a small amount of funding or technical assistance. For example:

• Falls Baking Company used WCI’s Small Enterprise Loan Fund (SELF) to purchase much-needed equipment and leverage additional financing from their lender. Without the loan, plans for this new business would have stalled. Today, the bakery’s European-style artisan breads are known throughout the region and beyond (our board is particularly fond of the scones).

• Permanent Family Resource Center received a grant from WCI plus technical assistance from WCI’s Vice President of Development Kim Embretson to help transition to new leadership and to meet Department of Human Services requirements. The grant helped the staff increase its knowledge and create needed policies and procedures, all within a few short months.

A LONGER LEVER

We know that the longer the lever, the easier it is to lift a heavy load. So, if the issue or dream is on a grand scale, the lever has to be substantial. One of WCI’s best examples of using a "long lever" is the Early Childhood Dental Network (ECDN). When WCI staff conducted early childhood surveys throughout the region they found a recurring theme: Many families with lower incomes couldn’t access oral health care for their children. One reason was that many dentists don’t accept patients who are helped by state health care programs because reimbursement rates don’t cover the cost of providing the service. Another discovery was a lack of awareness about oral health care. Many children have serious oral health problems at a very young age, seriously affecting not just their health but also their social and emotional development.

To tackle this region-wide concern, WCI convened a group of people, organizations and agencies to find ways to increase oral health awareness and improve dental access. WCI applied its weight on the lever to help the ECDN’s efforts by acting as fiscal host and grant writer. In this capacity, WCI has helped leverage nearly $650,000 in funds for the ECDN’s work. ECDN partner Apple Tree Dental in Hawley, Minn., developed mobile dental outreach clinics to reach communities throughout west central Minnesota and provide cleanings and basic oral care to children ages 2-12 who are on Minnesota Care Health Programs or who are uninsured. Since the outreach clinics began, Apple Tree has provided over 1,400 dental visits to more than 750 children in the region. Caring Hands Dental Clinic is also an ECDN partner and provides dental care to children in the Alexandria area. In addition, the ECDN helped implement oral care training and flouride varnishing for young children’s teeth throughout the region.

LEVERAGE + TEAMWORK

Did you know that wheels, gears and pulleys are levers too? The fulcrum is the axis on which they spin. Well-maintained gears can keep a machine, like a clock, running strong for a long, long time. In the community foundation world, component funds can work like gears. Communities, businesses, organizations and individuals can utilize the foundation’s nonprofit status, administration and technical assistance to create funds that benefit communities for years. These funds can help leverage local dollars so that even daunting tasks can be accomplished.

One example is the Wheaton-Dumont Community Fund. When the City of Wheaton, population 1,619, did not have the $300,000 needed to renovate its community pool, residents came together to help raise funds. WCI worked with the Wheaton Pool Partners group by setting up an account under the Wheaton-Dumont Community Fund and offering fundraising and communication assistance. Raffles and pancake breakfasts are nice, but WCI showed the group how personal visits and targeted appeals could bring in more substantial funds. A letter to Wheaton High School alumni garnered not one, but two $100,000 gifts from a 1942 graduate. The Wheaton Area Hospital also contributed $100,000 from its foundation.

FINDING THE LEVER

Even if you do not have enough human or financial resources to fully address a challenge, it is an opportunity to leverage what you have and explore innovative ways to work with others. Find your strengths—whether it is bringing the right people to the table, brainstorming innovative solutions, writing a check, forging partnerships with other organizations, empowering others, or whatever it may be— and leverage those strengths every way you possibly can.

If you’re a parent, you’ve probably been here before: Your child wakes up sick and you have to take time off to stay home—time you can’t afford. Or your child care has fallen through for the umpteenth time and you’re scrambling to find quality care you can trust at a price you can afford.

When family issues affect employees it has a profound effect on the employer, too. Data compiled by the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services found that when employers provide child care benefits, it significantly reduces turnover and absenteeism while increasing recruitment and productivity. The Child Care and Early Childhood Workgroup of the Family Economic Success Council of west central Minnesota has compiled an Employer and Child Care Toolkit with articles, resources and information about ways employers can become family friendly and boost the bottom line.

Download the toolkit or peruse the online toolkit at www.wcif.org/ChildCareToolkit.

West Central Initiative is pleased to announce the award of eight planning grants to lake associations in the region. The groups have been selected to participate in the Healthy Lakes & Rivers Partnership (HLRP) program, offered by The Initiative Foundation (a sister organization, based in Little Falls) and the nonprofit Minnesota Waters. The eight groups will each earn $5,000 for developing science-based, citizen-focused strategic lake management plans.

The groups selected to participate in this year’s HRLP program are:

• Becker County:
  Big Cormorant, Audubon,
  Big Toad, Osage
• Douglas County:
  Lake Irene, Miltona
  Lake Mary, Alexandria
  Lake Miltona, Leaf Valley
• Otter Tail County
  East Battle Lake, Henning
  West Battle Lake, Battle Lake
  Lake Seven (Scalp), Frazee

HLRP aims to equip associations with the resources to evaluate their water conditions and enhance water quality by building bridges between nonprofits, agencies and local citizens. A small group of people from each participating lake association will attend two leadership training sessions later this spring, and then help identify opportunities for improvement and create an action plan. Associations may receive up to $5,000 in performance-based grants for completing four key milestones: Attend two leadership training sessions. Host a community visioning session and then create a strategic management plan. Implement high-priority items. Continue implementation of management plan and key projects. The HLRP program was created in 1999 and has worked with over 240 lake and river groups in central and northwestern Minnesota. This year, thanks to funding from The McKnight Foundation and a new partnership between The Initiative Foundation and Minnesota Waters, West Central Initiative is able to introduce the program to the west central area.