The writer, of Lincoln, is president and CEO of the Nebraska Community Foundation.
It was great to finally read some good news coming out of the recent census report on counties in rural Nebraska.
A March 27 news story about young adults moving to Burwell and Garfield County (population 2,049) to take advantage of the growing economy is encouraging. Both the town and the county have grown by more than 7 percent.
Like so many of our smaller hometowns, Burwell, with its friendly, wholesome atmosphere, is a wonderful place to raise a family. Certainly the Calamus Reservoir, the annual rodeo and a pro-development approach play major roles in the health of the local economy.
But there’s more to this community’s success than just tourism dollars and business development. There’s broad citizen involvement, especially in the form of philanthropy.
The Burwell Community Fund, an affiliated fund of the Nebraska Community Foundation, has been a driving force for community improvement since 1996. More than $1.9 million has been raised in charitable dollars, and more than $1 million has been reinvested in projects and programs that make Burwell a place where young adults are choosing to live and work.
Lorajane Bolli, a founding member and longtime volunteer, said, “We’re pulling the community together to work as one group. In fact, there’s been kind of a surge.”
With more than 700 donors and many more who volunteer, the whole community can claim ownership in the accomplishments of the Burwell Community Fund.
The fund has provided thousands of dollars to improve the county fairgrounds and Nebraska’s Big Rodeo. Thousands more support education, the library, youth programs, community beautification, parks, scholarships and more. The fund recently helped build a magnificent Veterans Memorial Park. A new swimming pool is the next project under consideration.
“The Burwell Community Fund encourages an attitude of working together to accomplish worthwhile goals. Everyone feels that their contribution, no matter how small, is important,” said Terry DeGroff, who returned to his hometown as an adult and is one of the co-founders of the Burwell Community Fund.
Burwell Community Fund Chairwoman Brenda Holmquist admits, “Sometimes it seems like we’re doing so many things. Someone will come up with a new idea, and we wonder where the money will come from … but it always comes. Every time.”
The Burwell Community Fund has set its sights on the future. Permanent endowments are in place that will yield revenue for the Calamus area communities of Burwell and Taylor year after year. A local resident created an endowment of nearly $350,000 to provide scholarships for area nursing students. Five planned estate gifts, when they mature, will add another $1.4 million to the fund’s capacity to reinvest in its hometowns.
Reservoirs and rodeos cannot in themselves create the good life that people in Burwell enjoy. It takes visionary leaders, generous donors and people who are confident in the future of their hometown.
Across the state, the Nebraska Community Foundation is working in more than 200 communities, with volunteers like Terry, Brenda and Lorajane. We’re teaching people how to harness the power of philanthropy to invest in their most important priorities.
Each place has its own set of opportunities that people can build on — traditional resources like cultural heritage, beautiful scenery, a superb educational system, rich farmland or agri-tourism. And there are new opportunities in information technology, niche agriculture and alternative energy, not to mention opportunities that are yet to be invented by our entrepreneurial youths.
Charitable giving and prosperity are directly linked. This linkage becomes much stronger when the asking and the receiving, the giving and the granting, are all controlled by local leaders and donors who care deeply about their communities. This is the unique business model and deep passion that drives the Nebraska Community Foundation and our 1,800 volunteers.
We salute Burwell and Garfield County. We look forward to the next census when we can report on a growing number of rural Nebraska communities that are, once again, growing.
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