Philanthropy Today
Philanthropy Today
Armed Forces Community Foundation on the GMCF Community Hour Episode - 187
On this episode of the Community Hour Show we highlight the transformative work of the Armed Forces Community Foundation, which aims to enhance the lives of military families through community support. Kevin West shares insights on fundraising successes and future initiatives.
• Overview of the Greater Manhattan Community Foundation's role
• The mission and achievements of the Armed Forces Community Foundation
• Importance of community events like Stand-To-Match Day and their impact
Philanthropy Today is brought to you by the Greater Manhattan Community Foundation. In this episode we feature a recently broadcast segment of the GMCF Community Hour, as heard on NewsRadio KMAN. Welcome back to the GMCF Community Hour here on NewsRadio KMAN. We get to do this every Monday morning in the 10 o'clock time frame and get a visit with a number of organizations. Some are non-profits, some are with the community foundation's infrastructure, others are foundations in their own respect, and our guests today are here representing the Armed Forces Community Foundation. He is Kevin West. He's the president. Welcome back, sir.
Speaker 2:Ah, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1:It's nice to have Purple on.
Speaker 2:You know, with the women playing today, final home game of the year. Baylor coming into town, I've got to go. Lavender and purple, you combine both, I've got lavender on.
Speaker 1:Yes, but you know who is not wearing lavender is Christine Benny.
Speaker 3:I'm still sad from Saturday.
Speaker 1:Sad from Saturday.
Speaker 3:Sad from Saturday, Sad from Saturday or sad from Sunday, sorry.
Speaker 1:Well, Sunday yeah, Sunday yes, Anyway but hey, you know, we had a nice send-off for the K-State Women Seniors on Saturday.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that was really nice.
Speaker 1:And a pretty good ball game too. Yes, pretty good ball game. Hey, let's talk about what you guys are doing, Kevin. We're going to start with you, the Armed Forces Community Foundation. What's it all about?
Speaker 2:Well we are. I think, if I do my math correctly, we're hitting about our seventh year, and we started in 2018. And just looking at our mission statement, we were to improve the quality of life for servicemen and women and their families by connecting donors to needs in the military community. So it's kind of short and sweet, but the reality is we started up a few years ago. We knew we wanted to do something. We weren't quite sure what we were going to do, what it was going to look like and how it was going to turn out, but we got a lot of people interested in the community and we've been able to get about 27 organizations that support military causes. Some of them relate directly to 1ID, like the Society of the 1st Infantry Division and some of their charitable work. Others are supporting the veteran community at large Wamego Honor Flight, taking some of the older veterans out to DC.
Speaker 2:But we knew there was a need out there in the community and so we started small. We brought in a number of funds and we have had match days every year, and this last year we had our best match day ever. We raised nearly $60,000. And, due to Christine's hard work with the Patterson Family Foundation. We received a one-for-one match and then we were able to pass on a 70% match to each of the participating groups. So you know, we're supporting active duty people, we're supporting historical organizations, we support the veterans. If there is a veteran group that needs an umbrella of a 501, we're able to help provide that through GMCF.
Speaker 1:How does the Community Foundation if I recall correctly, it's not just Fort Riley based?
Speaker 2:No. So we very deliberately were not geographically restricted when we started it up. We really look at the community as a military community, not necessarily tied to Fort Riley, military community not necessarily tied to Fort Riley. So if we look at the Army Navy Air Force, we look at us as just kind of our own organization. We move around a lot but we still keep a lot of connection. We have parts of the organization that support efforts in Ohio. We have a chaplain fund that supports stuff out at what I think we're calling Fort Bragg again. So we work with Wichita, the former DOD schools. They've got a museum, they've got an effort down there where they're trying to preserve the history. So we are focused more on veteran community as a community and not just a specific location.
Speaker 1:Now you talk about down in Wichita and also Leavenworth, of course you know that's a historic base. Do they have their own community foundations or do they channel through the Armed Forces Community Foundation here, christine?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so that is one area that we're looking into. We do not have any funds from Fort Leavenworth yet, but we are looking at helping them start some funds with us or even eventually maybe starting the community foundation in Leavenworth for their just like what we're doing here, but in Leavenworth.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 3:So that's in the plans, in the works. We're working on that and Worth.
Speaker 1:So that's in the plans, in the works. We're working on that. Well, one of the key factors, I think, to starting this foundation is what you have seen with the success of Grow Green Match Day here with the GMCF, and you have your own match day and Kevin alluded to this it's called the Stand 2 Match Day, and you have a very special day in which you host this.
Speaker 3:Always on Veterans Day, so this year it'll be on Tuesday, november 11th, which sounds like it's a long ways away, but it will get here soon.
Speaker 1:These things just don't happen.
Speaker 3:They don't happen. We just started planning for that and by planning we're getting just some of our marketing materials together, getting information to our fund holders and also, you know, if there's any funds that want to participate in Stand 2 Match Day, we're looking at having them come on as well.
Speaker 1:Okay, so let's talk a little bit about what all is involved in Stand 2 Match Day. There's a lot of activities that you and a lot of it revolves around some of the other Veterans Day activities we have in Manhattan.
Speaker 2:Well they do.
Speaker 2:So it really starts with Christine getting out there and trying to ensure that we have a sponsor and once again, we've got great news recently that the Patterson Family Foundation will support us once again in 2025.
Speaker 2:So from that point, the board now that we know we've got that laid on and we feel good about that we communicate with the fund holders that are part of the AFCF. We make sure they've got the information. We encourage them to reach out to their membership to communicate that if an individual would like to give them a gift at some point during the year, yeah, maybe try to make it over the Veterans Day weekend. So a number of them and I'll use an example of the Society of the First Division they make that one of their premier fundraising events and they try to get a lot of those donations focused in, because every dollar we, every dollar short of our $70,000 that they were willing to match and we came up just a little short of $69,000, that was money we left on the table. And so our goal this year is to kind of double down our effort and make sure individuals who would like to support an organization are aware of the best time to maximize that support and that would be Veterans Day.
Speaker 1:Okay, Well, I know when we get closer to November we're going to be talking a lot about some Veterans Day activities here on this show.
Speaker 3:Absolutely so.
Speaker 1:we have a lot of fun in this town with Veterans Day activities, new funds that are associated with the Armed Forces Community Foundation. What all you got in the hopper?
Speaker 2:Well, I'd say the American Overseas Historical Society. They were created in 1995. For generations we had a lot of Department of Defense schools that were overseas, and as we've drawn down forces and changed our footprint worldwide, they've been closed, of course, and so this organization is trying to capture the history and recognize about 17 million school children who went through the Dodd system 17 million school children who went through the Dodd system, and so this is an effort for them to take advantage of their history, get some support, build a museum and make sure that part of our military history isn't lost. Not a new fund this year, by any stretch of the imagination, but the Wamego honor flight had a great fundraising this year. Uh, they got. Let me see here they earned. They raised nearly 6 300, and then they got another 70 on top of that for the match, and I believe they're trying to work another flight here in the next few months.
Speaker 1:uh, so in fact, we're going to be visiting, be visiting with them in a couple of weeks here on the show to bring them up to date bring us up to date on their efforts. That's one of my favorite efforts. I mean talk about you know the impact that it makes on these veterans, but then also what an educational opportunity it is for those high school students to be a part of this.
Speaker 2:It is. It is. It is Another one, not a new one, but they just had another great year and they had a great season out at Fort Riley because Operation Santa Claus Match day. This year they raised nearly $7,400, another 70% back on the match. But they have their facility out there at the fort and supporting a lot of the junior enlisted soldiers and their families. Just remarkable effort out there, Completely volunteer run too.
Speaker 1:Okay, well, it's nice to see the work that's being done and how it's helping so many others you know and creating memories, like you said, with the honor flight that I just I want to go.
Speaker 2:Well, it's not too late to enlist.
Speaker 3:Yes, it is for me.
Speaker 1:It is for me.
Speaker 3:I was. I want to bring up also the Flint Hills Veterans Coalition. That of course happens while we're doing our match day Right. They are starting up their meetings March 11th over the chamber starting at 1030. So more than welcome to join. You don't have to be in the military. You don't have to have been in the military If you want to come out and support the military and help plan a parade and have some donation or raise money to donate money to ROTC organizations. This is a great group of people to work with. This year they also took on working with the Stormy Kennedy and Mel Borst who put on Flag Day on June 14th at City Hall, and so the Veterans Coalition has kind of wrapped their arms around that group and will be helping support their efforts to do flag day that's something that stormy's very passionate, very passionate about, and so it's been great working with her and getting to know her.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, she, uh, she loves the history of this community.
Speaker 3:She's got a lot of history. Oh my gosh, she is great stories, great stories especially this her times uh, going into the uh peace memorial auditorium. All of the uh activities that happened there. So yeah, that was a nice volunteer group that made some special happen down there at the Peace Memorial Auditorium. All of the activities that happened there.
Speaker 1:So yeah, that was a nice volunteer group that made some special happen down there at the at the well, I guess it used to be just known as City Auditorium.
Speaker 3:Right City Auditorium. How boring, yeah right.
Speaker 1:So much better, Kevin. You have a special event coming up. Trap and Skeet. This seems like a natural fit for you, doesn't it?
Speaker 2:I think it will be. We had golf tournaments as some of our first fundraisers and one of the challenges we run into around here is we only have so many good months and there are a lot of organizations that try to do golf tournaments as fundraisers and we were really having a hard time finding a weekend where you know we weren't throwing one more event on. So we talked about it and we are going to plan on a trap and skeet event for a fundraiser later this year. We have a commitment from the organization. We don't have a date yet, but we will put that information out and I think that's going to be a fun fun activity, you know.
Speaker 1:One of the things that I've noticed is there are so many people that you know when they retire here, they love being able to go out and hunt, yes, and anytime they get an opportunity to break out the guns and present those, they certainly have a tremendous amount of fun doing that.
Speaker 2:Well, and we think having a trap and ski kind of event lets us reach a different group of people that may not be aware that we exist, of what we do and who would like to contribute to our fundraising efforts. So we think we're broadening our reach a little bit now.
Speaker 1:What all is involved in starting a new event like this, Because you've got a lot of logistics, but then also you've one of the things that's key to these opportunities is finding sponsorships.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, ask me in about six months.
Speaker 1:Okay, all right, six months out of July, yeah, yeah, almost August.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we, uh. So this originated just in our meeting a couple of months ago. We have a monthly board meetings. Uh, we were brainstorming ideas on what we could do other than a golf tournament and trap and ski came up as something to look at and in the last couple of weeks Randy Boyle really kind of jumped into that one. He got the commitment. So we are.
Speaker 1:Dude makes things happen, doesn't he?
Speaker 2:We will. So we get to figure out the sponsors, we get to advertise it. We need to figure out where and how to advertise it. Got to figure out how to support it. So it'll be a fun new endeavor. It will not be a rinse and repeat from a golf tournament.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we don't talk about too many of these types of events here on the show.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that'll be fun. Stand to match day for 2025, Christine Veterans Day.
Speaker 3:Veterans Day. It'll be ready, so start looking for some information later this summer, okay, and we'll probably be back on closer to in October, november, early November, probably October, I guess, to talk about it again, and we'll be in full swing by then.
Speaker 1:So and I know one of the things that we talk about this is not limited to members of our military community. All these activities, oh, absolutely not, you know, and the foundation that you have and the efforts that you have and the various programs you support don't necessarily just support those in the military or require those to support them have to be related to the military.
Speaker 3:Right, so you know. All these organizations are nonprofits. Most of them are all volunteer nonprofits, so they take people to help to run them and they have boards. No-transcript. Help you find an organization that'll work for you.
Speaker 1:That website, armedforcescforg. Kevin West, always a delight to have you in.
Speaker 2:Always a pleasure to be here, keep sporting the purple. That's good, that's a good look on you, Christine Benny, always a delight.
Speaker 3:Always, I'm going to go home and change into my purple for tonight. What's about time? Yes, got to do that by noon. That's a rule.
Speaker 1:That's right Coming up. Next we're going to talk about some strategic planning within the organization of the