SLCF recognized as Outstanding Foundation

MISSOULA – The Seeley Lake Community Foundation (SLCF) was recognized by the Missoula Nonprofit Center (MNC) as this year’s Outstanding Foundation as part of their National Philanthropy Day Celebration Nov. 15. SLCF Executive Director Claire Muller said this recognition is a great way for the SLCF to cap off celebrating 21 years of service to the Seeley Lake community. She feels the honor must be given to everyone in the community who has supported the Foundation and worked to strengthen Seeley Lake.

National Philanthropy Day has been celebrated in Missoula since 1995. The Western Montana Fundraisers Association historically hosted it, until last year when MNC hosted it for the first time.

Nominations are accepted for six award categories: Outstanding Fundraising Professional; Outstanding Foundation; Outstanding Philanthropist; Outstanding Volunteer; Outstanding Young Philanthropist and Outstanding Nonprofit Organization. Then a selection committee, composed of MNC members, goes through the nomination statements and selects the top three. Then two to three more nonprofit people to act as tiebreakers and provide insight into the top three. The winners are recognized on Philanthropy Day.

This year, MNC received approximately 50 nominations across the six award categories. Grace Decker, Missoula County Collaboration Coordinator with the Zero to Five Missoula County with United Way of Missoula County, nominated the SLCF for the Outstanding Foundation award.

Decker started working with the SLCF about three years ago. She worked with SLCF Executive Director Claire Muller to host and facilitate a couple of community events to discuss early childhood needs in the community.

“I was really excited to be invited to be part of that and really impressed with the breadth of contacts and network that Claire and the Foundation seemed to have in the community,” she said.

While Decker is based in Missoula, her work is intended to serve the entire county. However, finding a connection to exchange information with rural parts of the county can be challenging.

During the pandemic, the SLCF fostered that connection with organizations in Missoula. Muller attended the weekly meetings for the Missoula County’s Community Organizations Active During Disasters (COAD), a group Decker also attended.

“Claire was just always there and able to talk about what was specifically going on in Seeley Lake and then also taking what other people were saying and bringing that back to the Seeley community,” Decker said. “I thought that was so powerful.”

As the pandemic subsided, Decker saw that the SLCF continued to increase its ability to have an impact. They brought on an AmeriCorps VISTA to develop ways to turn identified needs or issues into projects or actions and help identify the next steps.

“I thought that is so smart. It is a way of adding capacity to the community without adding a lot of cost,” Decker said.

In addition to providing a community network and bringing the community together around needs that people have felt, Decker has been amazed at the amount of fundraising that the Foundation has done in a small community.

Muller said in the past 21 years the SLCF has allocated $1.3 million to benefit the community through leadership projects, grants to local non-profits, scholarships to local students and more than $450,000 raised through the Change Your Pace Challenge since it started in 2016. The Foundation’s endowment is also over $600,000.

“That is $1.9 million in benefit for a really special place,” Muller said.

“The Community Foundation has really become the ‘Little Engine That Could’ in connecting Seeley Lake to its citizens but also to the large community of Missoula County through their work throughout the pandemic, through their incredible fundraising efforts in the Change Your Pace campaign and through their everyday efforts to build capacity and support local projects,” Decker said.

The Seeley Lake Community Foundation was chosen out of seven foundations nominated for the Outstanding Foundation category.

“I was so happy for them. I think it is a great opportunity to recognize work that often goes unsung,” Decker said. “Having seen what Claire and the Seeley Lake Community Foundation has been able to do and what they are getting ready to do, it just felt like such a good fit.”

“There are a lot of people who love Seeley Lake and it is an honor to serve them. I think Seeley Lake is such an amazing place for an organization like a community foundation because we’re an unincorporated community,” Muller wrote. “Part of what we can help this community with is building bridges to bring resources into Seeley Lake and elevating our rural voice.”

The other winners recognized by MNC on National Philanthropy Day were Outstanding Fundraising Professional Kelsie Severson, EmpowerMT; Outstanding Philanthropist Lauren Descamps; Outstanding Volunteer Betsy Maier and Jen Lincoln, CASA of Missoula; Outstanding Young Philanthropist Eden Brasington with Families First and the Missoula Food Bank and Outstanding Nonprofit Organization Soft Landing Missoula.

“Nonprofit staff and their supporters work tirelessly to make our community a better place to live for all of our neighbors," said MNC Coordinator Dani Howlett. "This work can be grueling and sometimes thankless, so we think it is incredibly important to thank people for their efforts and give folks some well-deserved recognition.”