Category: Donors’ Stories of Giving

Photo above: Fox Valley Literacy The David L. and Rita E. Nelson Family Fund within the Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region (Nelson Family Fund) awarded 22 grants totaling over $2,500,000, giving nonprofits and local municipalities a much-needed financial boost.  The Nelsons, who lived in De Pere, made provisions during their lifetimes for a […]

The Brillion community is no stranger to getting things done. When an opportunity for improvement or a problem needs solving, the community acts. It’s that determination and drive that inspired Bob & Pat Endries to give $500,000 to the Brillion Area Community Endowment Fund – a match gift that inspires others to join them in […]

Dick and Terri Auchter make gifts of appreciated stock a key part of their charitable giving, using the Community Foundation to help them do it. “I tend to give almost all of my gifts to the Foundation in stock,” Dick, a former Board and Executive Committee member, said. The reasons, he summarizes as “taxes and […]

Theodora Vander Maazen was a client Jeff Billings really liked. An attorney with Godfrey and Kahn who relocated from the Fox Cities to Milwaukee, he has worked with the family for years. “She was a wonderful, salt-of-the-earth kind of person. She was all about her family and was definitely a light that brought them all […]

Retirement life is never boring for Eugene and Sue Doell, who have relationships with several funds at the Community Foundation. The retired Appleton couple began their love story after meeting at a funeral home. “I had worked with Eugene’s cousin’s dad who had died, and we met at the Wichman Funeral Home,” smiles Sue. The […]

If you drop a donation in red kettles in the Fox Cities on Friday, Dec. 22, the Salvation Army – Fox Valley will receive twice the dollar amount (up to $40,000) toward meeting holiday needs, thanks to 21 donor funds within the Community Foundation. The Community Foundation Match Day will be the largest matching offer […]

The same skills that allow Roger and Lynn Van Vreede to increase the return on their own investments have helped a long list of nonprofits. Central to their strategy is their donor advised fund at the Community Foundation. The Roger and Lynn Van Vreede Charitable Fund has given gifts as large as six figures to […]

The Himebaugh Legacy Circle reached a notable milestone, now including 307 members who have included the Community Foundation in their estate plans. Among this thoughtful group is Jim Reichel who was passionate about his Kaukauna community. In 2006, he established the James R. Reichel Charitable Fund, a donor advised fund within the Community Foundation. Jim’s […]

For years it was Rachel Emshoff’s dream to one day become a registered nurse. Emshoff, a University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh nursing graduate from Larson, clearly remembers the day she made the decision to pursue a degree in nursing. “I was in the hospital having my third baby. I had the same midwife for all three of […]

The Communty Early Learning Center’s efforts to unite community resources to improve early education has been recognized with a 2016 Collaboration in Action award fomr Lawrence University. With help from $786,750 in grants from Community Foundation funds and supporting organizations, a $2 million renovation converted the former St. Mary Catholic Central School at 313 S. State […]

BRILLION, Wis. – Robert and Patricia Endries of Brillion have turned business success into successful philanthropy. Their charitable foundation has awarded more than $8 million in its 30-year existence, $3 million of that since joining with Community Foundation in 2005. The Robert & Patricia Endries Family Foundation concentrates its giving on the needs of the […]

Imagine someone launching a teaching career in the late 1930s and still being in the classroom as the 21st century drew near. That was Violet Laack. She taught in various Calumet County school districts for 49 years, and then spent the next 10 as a substitute teacher. And her commitment to education didn’t end there. […]