July 29, 2004

Senior Center plans launch of endowment campaign

This weekend the Yellow Springs Senior Center will launch the public phase of a major endowment campaign to provide the center with a stable source of revenue.

Through the campaign, “Seniors for Tomorrow,” the center hopes to raise $500,000 in gifts and pledges this year, then another $500,000 in the following couple of years, the Senior Center’s director, Rodney Bean, said.

Yellow Springers can learn more about the campaign at the Senior Center’s open house this Saturday, July 31, from 3 to 5 p.m., in the center’s Great Room.

Connie Pelekoudas, the chair of the center’s endowment campaign committee, said that securing a permanent yearly source of income will help the center better plan and provide additional services to seniors.

Currently, the center receives funding from its annual appeal, which brings in about $25,000 a year, as well as funds from Community Council, the Reynolds and Reynolds Foundation, the Greene County senior services levy, its rental apartments, membership and program fees, investments, shop sales and fundraising events, Bean said. Such sources provide “soft money” that, he said, are “subject to changes in the economy.”

“Services to seniors can’t rise and fall with the economy,” he said. An endowment, Bean said, helps “see you through the bad years.”

Bean said that while the Senior Center is providing more services in the community, it also has more expenses, including more paid staff. The center currently has 11 employees, all of whom are part-time.

The center would receive $50,000 a year from the endowment if the center reaches its goal of raising $1 million, Pelekoudas said.

The endowment will take years to build since some pledges won’t come in for a number of years. “Nobody who is involved in the Senior Center now will be around for when it’s going to be helpful,” Bean said.

A committee of four is running the endowment campaign, while another 25 people are serving on an advisory committee. Work on the endowment started about two years ago, Bean said, and initially involved discussions with eight local residents who have experience with raising endowments. Last year, the center worked on strategic planning, and beginning in January 2004, Bean said, the center started preparing “to knock on doors. Then we knocked on doors.”

Pelekoudas said that the campaign committee hopes to raise 40 percent of this year’s funding goal by the July 31 open house, and the group is “pretty close to that now.”

The Yellow Springs Community Foundation will hold the bulk of the endowment funds, and the Dayton Foundation will hold the rest, Bean said.

Bean noted that there are “a whole host of ways people can give to endowments,” such as leaving a contribution to the center in their wills or bequeathing property to the organization.

Those interested in pledging should contact Bean at the Senior Center, 767-5751, or Pelekoudas at 325-7781.

—Robert Mihalek