Western Kansas Community Foundation recently received a $70,000 match grant from the Patterson Family Foundation.
Patterson’s Rural Community Foundation Match Program offers a 1:1 match with a maximum match of up to $70,000 per community foundation.
The initiative was designed to stimulate local philanthropy within rural areas across the Patterson Family Foundation’s catchment of Kansas and northwestern Missouri.
Over 100 community foundations benefitted from this matching opportunity in 2023. The match funds may be allocated at the discretion of the community foundation’s leadership.
WKCF received the matching funds to support MatchDay, an annual fundraising campaign benefitting local nonprofits.
WKCF began hosting MatchDay in 2017 to generate urgency around focused giving, expand engagement around nonprofit partners and donors, and spur greater interest in the community foundation as a local resource.
Since its inception, MatchDay has involved hundreds of people in the community, and has generated over $4 million in donations, benefiting community health, social and family services, arts and cultural programs and economic development efforts.
This year’s MatchDay campaign will start on November 19 and end on December 3 (Giving Tuesday).
The Patterson Family Foundation was established in 2007 to reinvest in rural communities and cultivate values of education and hard work for current and future generations. Currently, the Foundation which is based out of Kansas City is led by the adult children of the Patterson Family.
According to Conny Bogaard, WKCF’s Executive Director, the Patterson Family Foundation grant is a unique opportunity to address community needs.
“We’re very grateful to the Patterson Family Foundation for this grant and for the organization’s ethos of actively listening to the needs in small rural communities. Patterson’s Match Program honors that principle by allowing local community foundation boards to retain the authority to determine the distribution of matching funds.”
WKCF board and staff are currently developing a plan for the usage of the $70,000 match grant that will be disbursed across the 15-county area in response to local needs.
WKCF staff always welcomes visiting with donors or those interested in learning more about grants contributing to any of the funds under its administration.
To learn more about the application process and grant guidelines visit the WKCF website at www.wkcf.org, call at 620-271-9484 or stop by the office at 402 N. Main Street in downtown Garden City.
