With Five New Boardmembers, a New Co-Chair, Ambitious Plans for Preschoolers, Foundation Roars Into New Year

TELLURIDE – The Telluride Foundation will host a free, full-day Nonprofit Grant Writing Workshop Monday, March 9, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., in the Program Room of the Telluride Wilkinson Library, for representatives of regional nonprofit organizations.

At the end of the hands-on grant-writing workshop, each participant should have finished a solid draft of a completed application. Although the workshop will cater to more experienced grant writers, all levels are welcome. The workshop will be taught by three experienced grant writers, and include small break out sessions as well as time to work individually on grant applications with one-on-one assistance.  Participants must bring their own laptop computers and an application they are currently working on, such as the Common Grant Application.  Anyone who does not have their own computer may be able to use one for the day by contacting April Montgomery, program director at the Telluride Foundation.  Participants will be able to choose to participate in small-group sessions covering grant research, goals and objectives, evaluation, and budgets and budget narratives. 

“With today’s extreme competition for grant funding, it is necessary to submit polished grant applications that really stand out,” said Montgomery. “In this workshop, we will all learn from each other, strategizing ways to improve our grant writing skills.  With three instructors working in small groups and one-on-one, I hope to tailor this workshop to fit everyone’s individual needs.”

April Montgomery, Linda Pecore, and Barbara Newby, all experienced grant writers, will teach grant writing topics as well as help participants with their specific grant writing challenges. Pecore, owner of LDP Grantwriting, LLC, specializes in grantwriting for health care and Title III senior programs: nutrition, case management, adult day health care, and transportation. Pecore has 14 years of grant writing and contract management experience helping nonprofits achieve their organizational and program goals and objectives by securing $18M in funding.  Barbara Newby has been with the Telluride Medical Center since 2005, where as the grant coordinator she is responsible for organizing and writing Medical Center grants. Previously, Newby worked for 12 years with the Scottsdale Prevention Institute a 501(c)(3) organization which provided prevention and intervention programs for children and families through schools and community center programs. These programs were funded through state and federal grants and private philanthropy. Montgomery has worked as the Programs Director for the Telluride Foundation for over two years, where she manages their grant programs.  She has been writing grants for nonprofits and government organizations for over 15 years, helping to raise millions of dollars for those organizations.   

Anyone interested in attending this workshop is asked to RSVP to April Montgomery at 728-8717 or april@telluridefoundation.org. 

This workshop is the first in a series of free Nonprofit Building Capacity Workshops being provided by the Telluride Foundation in 2009.   Remaining workshop topics and dates are as follows:

· July 8: Cultural Competency and Outreach to Immigrant Communities, 11 a.m.-1 p.m., Telluride Wilkinson Library Program Room

· August TBA: Board Development

CO-CHAIR CORZINE, FIVE NEW BOARDMEMBERS

Following its regular December biannual board meeting, the Foundation announced the addition of five new members to its board of directors: Businesswoman Bridgitt Evans; former Mountain Village Mayor Davis Fansler; private investor Rebecca Jusbache; nonprofit activist Marlene Silver; and Dan Tishman, Chairman and CEO of Tishman Construction. 

The board also elected Joanne Corzine as its new chair, and announced that longtime boardmember Richard Holbrooke would be posted as US Special Envoy to Pakistan andAfghanistan by President HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama"Barack Obama.

Corzine will serve alongside fellow Co-Chair Mark Dalton.  “Joanne is an excellent and obvious choice as she has served on the board since the inception of the Telluride Foundation and is passionately committed to the Telluride community,” said Dalton. General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, who has served as the Co-Chair of the Telluride Foundation since its inception, has elected to step down and serve as the Honorary Chairman of the Board.

“Our newest boardmembers represent many different sectors of our community and share a comprehensive knowledge and passion about Telluride,” said Dalton. “We’re privileged to have such strong and committed individuals serve on the board. In these difficult economic times, we will need their leadership and expertise to meet the challenges ahead of the Telluride Foundation in accomplishing its mission.” 

Bridgitt Evans is a businesswoman, nonprofit activist and mother of four with a wealth of experience in the financial arena. In 2007, she founded EREM Investments and currently serves as the principal of this investment firm. Prior to that, she first served as portfolio manager and later as senior vice president of Investments for Aldrich, Eastman and Waltch, Inc. from 1989-1995.  She also worked for Rouse and Associates as Regional Manager from 1986-1988, and launched her investment career as Banking Officer, Leverage Buyout Group for the Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust Company.

Evans shares her expertise on the Board of Trustees for many nonprofit organizations including The Windsor School, The Match School, Institute of Contemporary Art, and the Fessenden School. With a MBA from Harvard University, she also serves on that university’s Board of Dean’s Advisors.

Davis Fansler, the former mayor of Mountain Village, has lived in the Telluride region for over 13 years.  Fansler is the cofounder, principal and director of Partners Healthcare Consulting, LLC and has over 20 years experience in the healthcare industry.  Fansler lived in Minnesota prior to moving to Telluride in 1995.  Fansler is a husband and father of five.  He coaches hockey, volunteers for the fire department, serves on the Telluride School District Board of Education, and is a board member of numerous other organizations including the Telluride Regional Airport Authority, OneTelluride, and Institute for Altitude Medicine. He also serves on advisory committees for the Palm Theater, Telluride Medical Capital Fund and University of Vermont School of Business Administration.

Rebecca Mark-Jusbasche is a former international business executive who led infrastructure development projects for more than 20 years.  At the peak of her career she managed 12,000 people and $8 billion of capital investments around the world.  Rebecca built major energy and water asset businesses in North America, South America, Europe and Asia for Enron during the 80s and 90s. She resigned all corporate commitments in 2000 and now focuses on investments in water and energy, principally in the developing world.  In addition, she manages commercial cattle operations on her family ranches in New Mexico and Colorado.

Mark-Jubasche is on the board of Water Health International, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and has held a number of advisory positions, including the boards of Yale School of Management, Harvard Business School, University of Pennsylvania’s Lauder School of Government, and Chase National Bank.  She was selected as a “Global Leader of Tomorrow” by the World Economic Forum and was named to Fortune’s list of the “Most Powerful Women in Business.”

Longtime second homeowner Marlene Silver is passionate about the Telluride lifestyle, sports and outdoor activities. Silver has been involved extensively in nonprofit fund raising since 1996 working with a variety of organizations including the Telluride Society for Jazz and Memphis Jewish Federation, where she increased donations by $1,500,000.  Silver serves on these boards as well as the board of directors for Jewish Women’s Foundation of South Palm Beach County, Women’s Division of Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County, Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County and Collector’s Forum of Boca Museum of Art where she also serves as an event coordinator.

Daniel R. Tishman is a business executive, philanthropist and environmentalist. He is chairman of the board and CEO of Tishman Construction and Vice Chairman and a member of the Board of Tishman Hotel and Realty LP. Tishman has a quarter century of experience in construction and real estate development, as well as a background in environmentalism that forms the basis of his core values, and was a major force in propelling the green building movement to the forefront of the construction and real estate industries. Tishman devotes much of his time to environmental organizations and causes. Since 1996, he has served on the Board of Trustees of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and in 2007 he was named Chairman of the Board. Tishman works to conserve land with The Trust for Public Land, and helped lead campaigns to add 6,000 acres to Baxter State Park in Maine and to purchase Wilson Peak from a mining company that planned to reopen an historic gold mine. In 2006, Tishman was appointed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg to New York City’s Sustainability Advisory Board, which was created to advise the City on environmentally sound policies and practices. Tishman serves on the boards of the Real Estate Board of New York, the Real Estate Roundtable, the New York Building Congress, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, World Trade Center Memorial Foundation, The Jackson Laboratory and UJA-Federation of N.Y. Previously, he served on the boards of the Natural Resources Council of Maine, the National Real Estate Advisory Board of the Trust for Public Land and the New York League of Conservation Voters.

Foundation Boardmember Richard Holbrooke is now the Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan under the Obama administration.  Holbrooke is a top-ranking American diplomat, magazine editor, author, professor, Peace Corps official, and investment banker. He is also the only person to have held the Assistant Secretary of State position for two different regions of the world.  From 1993–1994, he was U.S. Ambassador to Germany. Although long well-known in diplomatic and journalistic circles, Holbrooke achieved great public prominence when he brokered a peace agreement among the warring factions in Bosnia that led to the signing of the Dayton Peace Accords, in 1995. From 1999–2001, Holbrooke served as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.  On January 22, 2009, Holbrooke was appointed as a special adviser on Pakistan and Afghanistan, working under President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The Foundation’s Board of Directors is responsible for oversight of the Foundation’s governance and grant making and meets bi-annually, in July and December. Members of the Executive, Grants, Investment and Finance, Development and Audit Committees meet more frequently. The boardmembers, officers and committee members are elected annually for two-year terms. For a full list of board and committee members, visit www.telluridefoundation.org.

The Telluride Foundation exists to create a stronger Telluride community through the cultivation and promotion of philanthropy. It is a nonprofit, apolitical community foundation that provides year-round support for local organizations involved in arts, education, athletics, charitable causes, land conservation and other community-based efforts through technical assistance, education and grant making. As a grant maker, the Foundation awards grants to qualified applicants that serve the people living and/or working in the Telluride region for the purpose of enhancing the quality of life within the region. For more information on the Telluride Foundation, visit www.telluridefoundation.org.

$50K in Startup Funds for Mountain Munchkins

The Foundation Board approved a new $50,000 Special Initiative Grant at its biannual December board meeting for the Mountain Munchkins Childcare Center to expand services to include preschool.  This is the first grant the preschool project has received; the childcare center is located in Village Court Apartments in Mountain Village. The Town of Mountain Village has donated the apartment behind the facility for the expansion of the preschool as well as outdoor space to create a playground. 

“The Foundation is thrilled to take the lead and award a grant for the new preschool,” said Joanne Corzine, Board of Directors Co-Chair of the Telluride Foundation.  “We are strong advocates of early childhood development and have seen the studies on the childcare shortage in our county. It is a step in the right direction to fund opportunities for more children and to offer working parents access to quality early childhood programs.”

Currently, the Mountain Munchkins Childcare Center cares for children ages two months through three years and is focused on serving working parents of the Telluride and Mountain Village community.  The preschool will provide an additional 15 spots for children ages 3 to 5 years.  The 15 spots could serve as many as 25 children.  

Recently, the childcare shortage in San Miguel County has reached a crisis.  A study conducted last summer revealed that over 350 children were on waitlists and were not able to have access to quality early childhood development programs.  

“The grant from the Telluride Foundation is a great start for this long-term dream of expanding Munchkins,” said Mountain Munchkins Director, Kathleen Merritt.  “Securing this first funding opens the doors for additional grant opportunities from across the state. I need to raise an additional $140,000 to make the project complete.” 

A tax credit incentive that Munchkins hopes to use is the little used or known Colorado Child Care Contribution Credit (CCCC). This allows any taxpayer, corporate or individual, that makes a monetary contribution to promote child care in Colorado a 50 percent state income tax credit.

 

Previous Special Initiative Grants from the Telluride Foundation Board include exceptional projects such as, a grant to the Ah Haa School to bring their new home at the Depot building into ADA compliance; a three year grant to the Telluride and Norwood School Districts to enhance their drug and alcohol education and counseling services; funding for San Miguel Resource Center to purchase permanent office space; a grant to the Trust for Public Land’s for acquisition of a conservation easement to re-open public access to Mt. Wilson; and funding for a Alternative Futures Study of the region to provide fact-based information on long-term economic, ecological and community trends and impacts. Special Initiative Grants must be sponsored by three Foundation Board Members and are considered at the Foundation bi-annual board meetings.