What is the Somerset County Community Fund and how does it benefit local residents?
SOMERSET ― Anyone who has attended a fire department’s fundraiser, visited a local library, historical or arts museum, walked or biked along a local trail, played at a local playground, received food from the Somerset County Mobile Food Bank or was helped with paying a heating or electricity bill has likely experienced the Somerset County Community Fund in action.
Since 2003, when the Community Foundation for the Alleghenies started the Somerset County Community Fund, over $416,000 has been awarded to nonprofit organizations in the county that help teach, entertain and support county individuals and families.
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Now, the foundation is asking for the community’s support to help them do even more.
“Somerset County Gives,” the 2024 Somerset County Endowments campaign, began last week intending to raise an additional $100,000 for the Somerset County Community Fund. According to the foundation’s website, the money raised for the fund each year is invested through the foundation, and the interest from those investments is then distributed twice a year as grants to county nonprofit organizations.
Donations to the endowment are needed to increase its ability to give, as grant requests submitted by local nonprofits have now greatly outpaced the amount that the fund can provide, according to a fundraising letter from the foundation.
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Boosting the fund's local impact
“We set our goal higher in 2024 based on the wonderful impact we made in 2023,” said Lladel Lichty, director of Somerset County Endowments, in a release from the foundation announcing the campaign. “We were thrilled that more than $71,000 in funds were directed to Somerset County in 2023. For 2024, we plan to continue this great work and hopefully direct $100,000 or more into Somerset County.”
Allison Hoffman, leader of the Somerset County Endowments Committee, encouraged other ‘boomerang’ residents who moved away for work and have since returned to the county, to give their financial support to the fund.
“We’ve lived the big city life and it’s helped us learn to appreciate the value of living in a community like Somerset. Now we’re coming back, and will continue to make a difference,” she said in the campaign release.
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Donors can contribute to the fund by making a one-time donation online or by check, or they can commit to a pledge amount to be paid over the next three years. Online donations can be submitted at cfalleghenies.org/somerset. Checks should be made payable to Community Foundation for the Alleghenies, with the abbreviation “SCCF” noted in the memo line, and mailed to the foundation at Box 1105, Somerset, PA 15501. Envelopes must be postmarked by Dec. 30 to qualify as a 2023 contribution for tax purposes.
To contribute to the fund from an IRA account or to include the foundation in an estate plan, contact Lichty at 814-525-9020 or send an email to llichty@cfalleghenies.org.
This article originally appeared on The Daily American: Community Foundation launches 2024 campaign for Somerset County Community Fund
