Media Coverage

Road to a Million

The Gove County Community Foundation has announced the goal of raising $100,000 this year during Match Month in November. We need your help to reach this goal. Last year, foundation supporters donated just shy of $90,000. Dane G. Hansen then matched us with an additional $50,000 resulting in a total of just under $140,000 added to our Grow Gove County endowed fund. While the endowed fund was started in 2012, it wasn’t until the Dane G. Hansen match month initiative in 2016 that we started to see growth. As of the end of July, the Grow Gove County Fund has just over $840,000. This year, the foundation is looking to reach 1 million dollars in the Grow Gove County Fund.

With the increase of money in the Grow Gove County Fund, it allows the foundation to grant more money each year to local non-profits. This year the foundation had $32,000 available to fund local projects. The Quinter Community Development was granted $15,000 for their Depot Project. The Gove County Historical Association was granted $5,000 to replace stairlifts in their building and the American Legion was granted $3,500 to purchase topcoats for their military honor funerals in the winter.

In 2022, Gove County raised the 3rd highest amount of money during their Match Month campaign. Can November 2023 be the year we raise the most money by county and reach our 1-million-dollar mark?

If you’d like to receive updates from the Gove County Community Foundation, please email info@govecountycommunityfoundation.org to be added to our email list. Follow along with Match Month updates at www.facebook.com/govecountycommunityfoundatio

Evangeline Godek (intern) and Kay Haffner attended the Nex-Generation Leadership Day in Colby Kansas. They learned about leadership, did team building activities, and visited the colby oasis manager to learn about his business.

 The Gove County Community Foundation would like to remind you applications for the 2023 Grow Gove County Grant funds are available until June 30, 2023. The money available to be granted this year totals $32,696.75! The funds are derived from the investment income on our Grow Gove County funds which have grown due to the overwhelming support of the Gove County Community Foundations November “Match Month”. The Gove County Community Foundation accepts grant applications for the Grow Gove County Fund annually from May 1 to June 30. We encourage nonprofit 501(c)(3) organizations, Educational and Governmental organizations to apply for this annual opportunity in the future! For more information go to www.gnwkcf.org/govegrant

Recently Gove County received an INCREDIBLE opportunity that could add to this Grow Gove County Grant Fund!  We have qualified for the Patterson Family Foundation Match Grant Program!!!! The Patterson Family Foundation in partnership with KACF have created a match grant program. Funds may be used as match funds for any match event up to $70,000. So, if the Gove County Community Foundation raises $70,000 during our November Match Month through YOUR donations, Dueling Pianos, Silent Auction, Gifts of Grain, etc. the Patterson Family Foundation will match that. And this is on top of the match Dane G Hansen gives us!  $70,000 will turn into $240,000.

$70,000 we raise in November

+ $70,000 from Patterson Family Foundation

+ $50,000 from Dane G Hansen for grant funds

+ $50,000 from Dane G Hansen for operational & spendable funds 

BUT, we MUST raise $70,000. We have 5 months to get ready…let’s do it Gove County!

Positive news….Gove County Track Club is in its 10th year! We were so thankful to receive some grant money from the amazing Gove County Community Foundation this year to buy some much needed equipment for our 87 county kids that are participating. We are excited to host our home meet this Saturday starting at 10am at the QHS track, 4-H will have a concession stand. Come and support our youth and watch them show off all of their hard work!

Here is our team picture (missing several kids that also play soccer) along with a few pics from a recent youth meet in the cold wind of course! 

Thankful for the high school and junior high track kids that invest their time in helping.

 My current involvement with the Gove County Community Foundation started in the fall of 2011. Ericka Nicholson who worked for the City of Quinter at the time, organized a meeting led by Dan Stephan from the Kansas Department of Commerce. The emphasis of the meeting was what could be done to help our diminishing rural communities survive and hopefully thrive now and into the future. It was obvious at the time (and still is) that if we as communities keep doing what we have been doing we will probably get the same results, a downward spiral in population, closing of businesses and services, that would eventually lead to the decimation of our small towns.

The consensus of the meeting was quite apparent. The “death trend of our communities” was NOT going to change until WE as communities took positive action to do so. Our communities needed to work together, think outside the box and take actions to make a difference. Ericka then advertised and organized a countywide meeting that was held at the 4-H building in Grainfield. It was very well attended and again led by Dan Stephan. From this meeting (and several meetings after) The Gove County Economic Development Committee was formed, which I was a part of.

As we organized and met to address the many concerns and ideas of our county meeting it was apparent that we should have a community foundation in our “toolbox”. Not that we had an immediate need but wanted to be prepared if a need arose.

“People don’t plan to fail, but fail when they don’t plan” Benjamin Franklin

We thought it would be best to affiliate under the Greater Northwest Kansas Community Foundation located in Bird City. They were at the time a newly formed regional foundation and their purpose was to help with foundations such as ours. Ericka coordinated our effort, we met with the director of GNWKCF and the Gove County Community Foundation was born. To simplify, the directors of the Economic Development were also the directors of our Community Foundation. We personally funded the foundation to have a starting balance that would provide for GNWKCF services.

Our Gove County Economic Development board continued to meet and successfully move forward with many other matters and projects. We would occasionally talk about potential fundraisers for the foundation and held a couple of informational meetings. To no one's surprise the foundation was “financially lethargic” for the first few years.

I’m not sure what year it was but we heard that the Trustees of the Dane G. Hansen Foundation were going to hold a meeting in Bird City and at least a couple of us should attend. It was at this meeting that the Hansen Foundation announced that they were going to make “pass through” grants in the amount of $50,000 semi-annually to each of the 26 designated counties. To qualify for the funds, you had to have a community foundation in place and be affiliated under the Greater Northwest Community Foundation of Bird City. PRIOR PROPPER PLANNING PAID OFF and we hit the ground running!!! As the Hansen monies became available local non-profits within our county applied for grants for their specific projects through the GNWKCF at Bird City. Once they qualified, they were forwarded to our county foundation to meet our approval and be awarded as we deemed appropriate. We immediately had way more projects than money. The Hansen Trustees deemed this program a great success and through the continued generosity of Dane G. Hansen (who passed in 1965) we are now in our 16th round of $50,000 pass through grants that has assisted in over 165 projects benefiting our communities. The Trustees further carried out the mission of Mr. Hansen by developing other programs over time. Of HUGE significance is our Match Month project, “Grow Gove County”. With this project and the generosity of many community minded caring people we now have growing assets of our own. We use the income from these assets to make further grants for the good of our communities.

It became apparent at the onset of the Hansen initiatives that we needed to split into two different Boards as there was now too much work for one group. What a great problem. We decided that we would each choose which Board we preferred to serve on. Then each Board would recruit volunteers to fill their need. I believe just one of us has stayed on both boards which keeps us in “connect” as both boards serve the same goal. “To revitalize our communities and enhance the well-being of present and future generations”.

It wasn’t an easy decision to make but I chose to stay on the Gove County Community Foundation Board. I also currently serve as a Board Member on the Greater Northwest Kansas Community Foundation. I start my third, and by policy, my final term this spring.

It is amazing and hard to comprehend what the generosity and legacy of one man, Dane G Hansen, who passed away over 55 years ago, has done for 26 counties.

Just imagine what 2600 residents could do for just our one county of Gove. Good things are happening, and the possibilities are endless. 

 Learn more about Keep 5 in Kansas!

The concept is simple: By remembering your community in your legacy — by leaving just 5% of your estate to your local community foundation — you will help ensure your community’s future.

 http://keepfiveinkansas.com/

The Gove County Community Foundation Board heard Doug Griffiths at the Dane G Hansen Foundation Forum and would like to share his work "13 Ways to Kill a Community" with all of you!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHk9LwLS8m8
 

Gove County Community Foundation is PROUD to Partner with the Gove County Fair Board on their NEW 4-H Scholarship!! 

Gove County Fair Board now has a Scholarship Fund with the Greater Northwest Kansas Community Foundation.  The GCFB created the Scholarship to award High School seniors who are active members of Gove County 4-H Clubs and meet the eligibility requirements with a one-time scholarship award of $500.  Currently the fund is non-endowed, GCFB hopes to build up the fund and eventually convert the Scholarship Fund to an endowed fund.  Anyone wishing to donate to the Gove County Fair Board Scholarship Fund may do so by visiting the Greater Northwest Kansas Community Foundation website at http://www.gnwkcf.org/.../gove-county-fair-board-scholarship
 

What an INCREDIBLE opportunity for Gove County!   We have qualified for the Patterson Family Foundation Match Grant Program!!!!   You guys, this is HUGE.

Patterson Family Foundation in partnership with KACF have created a match grant program. Funds may be used as match funds for any match event up to $70,000.

so, WHEN the Gove County Community Foundation raises $70,000 during our November Match Month through your donations, Dueling Pianos, Silent Auction, Gifts of Grain, etc. the Patterson Family Foundation will match that.   And this is on top of the match DGH gives us!   $70,000 will turn into $240,000.

$70,000 we raise in November
+ $70,000 from Patterson Family Foundation
+ $50,000 from Dane G Hansen grant funds
+ $50,000 from Dane G Hansen operational & spendable funds 

We have 8 months to get ready for Match Month!

 Dane G Hansen provides so many grant opportunities.    Check out the Summer Reading Grants

https://danehansenfoundation.org/.../summer-reading-program/
 

 So much great information at the Dane G Hansen Foundation forum in hays today.   Photo taken with Doug Griffiths, author of 13 Ways To Kill Your Community.   Every community needs to read this…. You can borrow a copy from anyone in the photo.   Great things coming your way Gove County!!!!