The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Shooting for a million-dollar endowment
In an environment where education funding seems perpetually to be on the chopping block, a new non-profit foundation is hoping to give something back to Gunnison Valley schools.
After nearly a year of working through the details, school board member Lee Olesen announced at a board meeting on Monday, March 7 that the newly formed Gunnison-Crested Butte Education Foundation is getting off the ground.
“Once we have a few more board members on and we’ve worked through a few things with the timetable, that’s when they’ll make a big unveiling to the public,” he said. “Our objective is to put together a million-dollar endowment and I think we’ve got a really good start.”
The new foundation will operate under the umbrella of the Gunnison Valley Foundation while it cultivates a group of donors and expands its board of directors as necessary, without having to worry about filing for special non-profit status.
A steering committee has been helping to push the foundation in the right direction and is ready to seat three permanent board members, which will have to decide how many permanent members they’d like to have. After another six months, the steering committee will let the group go on its own.
“I think our first priority is to do some kind of event, where we kind of unveil to the community and of course invite a group of people who have shown some interest in education or funding education,” Olesen, who has two children in the district and has been active in developing the foundation, said.
The new foundation will absorb the county’s current education foundation, Kids Kount, when the current grant cycle is over. The funds and donor base will serve as a starting block for the Gunnison-Crested Butte Education Foundation.
“There’s quite a few people out there, especially with the Gunnison Valley Foundation, that have a real passion for education but there’s not a really solid conduit from that. If somebody wants to write a really big check, they want to know that it’s going to a very professional board with good management of funds, accountability, transparency, all in line with state regulations,” Olesen said. “Hopefully we’ll be kicking this off in the next 60 days.”
Olesen said the names of the three people on the initial foundation board wouldn’t be released until the announcement was made publicly.
