Building a strong foundation

A new 501(c)(3) organization, Holyoke Community Foundation, has been created that will increase opportunities for businesses, funding for local projects and much more in Holyoke.

The effects the COVID-19 pandemic had on local businesses is what spurred the idea, but the foundation’s goals are to support the community even when there’s not a crisis and to be prepared to help if there are crises in the future.

According to the foundation’s bylaws, the foundation will “support community development initiatives, business development initiatives, community enrichment projects, strengthen its education institutions and maintain projects that generally enhance the region’s quality of life.”

“It’s a great community,” Holly Ferguson said, noting that the foundation will provide the opportunity for the community to fund local projects with outside funding assistance. “When I talk to my friends in other places about the amount of money that was raised for Help Holyoke and child care, their minds are blown. I feel like the best way to pay tribute is to find grants and watch that funding grow.”

“Opening up new opportunities is really the biggest thing,” Trisha Herman said. “It’s not about any one project or idea. This is to open up doors to create opportunities to give back to our community.”

The foundation’s board of directors includes Trisha Herman, president; Holly Ferguson, vice president/secretary; Russell Haynes, treasurer; and Maddie Eurich, Tammy Kelley, Jessica Cumming and Derek Roberts.

The foundation’s bylaws state that the directors of Holyoke Chamber of Commerce and Phillips County Economic Development, positions that Ferguson and Herman respectively hold, must be on the foundation’s board of directors.

Ferguson pointed to the variety of backgrounds and expertise that the board members have as being very beneficial to the

foundation and its goal to help the community in a variety of ways.

“The board members all have different areas that they work in so we can be a board that works well together,” she said, adding that this provides them different knowledge bases to pull from.

The chamber and PCED are membership-based organizations and have 501(c)(6) designations. When COVID-19 hit, funding opportunities came about through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, but the chamber and PCED didn’t have access to many of these opportunities due to their 501(c)(6) designation.

Herman and Ferguson said the CARES money came down to government entities, counties and municipalities, and the funds had a lot of strings attached and were subject to changing requirements about how they could be used.

Herman and Ferguson were in charge of task-based committees to help businesses with information, resources and finances during the COVID-19 pandemic, and their organizations weren’t directly supported a lot financially by state and federal funding.

They came up with a solution to create a foundation that would allow the community to benefit through grant-funded projects.

“We want to give back to our businesses,” Herman said. “That’s really how this all started. We want to continue to support our community.”

Ferguson started looking into the state requirements for creating a 501(c)(3), and she said Kelley assisted with the research that process involved. Kelley Law also donated funds for the foundation account creation.

Ferguson said Haynes of Sandhills Accounting & Tax donated his time and expertise to the application process. She noted that he has worked with 501(c)(3)s in the past, and he did the filing to submit the necessary forms to the state in August. Bank of Colorado matched the chamber to cover the startup costs, with each entity paying $400 for the filing fees. The foundation was officially formed in December.

The ideas for some of the projects they want to do were taken to funding roundtables at Rural Philanthropy Days, and Ferguson and Herman said the funders were impressed with the ideas and said to come back when the 501(c)(3) was formed.

“It just opens up more opportunities,” Herman said, adding that building relationships with funders is very important.

They said that right now, there is a lot of funding available for art, downtown beautification projects and more.

One of the first projects they want to start with and are already working on is to potentially create a mural tour in Holyoke, and if someone wants to have a mural painted on their building, they can get connected with artists to make it a reality.

Herman said the idea behind the possibility of a mural tour is to give people another reason to come into town and see everything it has available. For example, if they’re at an event at the fairgrounds, they could come get to know Holyoke better by participating in a mural tour.

Another idea for one of the first projects is a technology upgrade for the community sign.

Both Ferguson and Herman emphasized that the vision is for it to be about community ideas, not just their own or those of the board. If people have questions or ideas, call Holyoke Chamber of Commerce at 970-854-3517 or PCED at 970-580-3614.