Foundation Finds Success in a Box of Chocolates
“We are a community convener, trying to bring the community together and make a difference.”
Over the past two years, Kallie has been keeping the ideas rolling with the Community Foundation of Muncie and Delaware County, doing work that keeps her passion bright. The Foundation itself is a culmination of many diverse efforts, all geared toward catalyzing and maintaining much-needed projects for the community.
Most critically, they manage funding.
From grants to donations to legacy inheritance, the Community Foundation keeps the ball rolling, and Kallie’s creativity is key.
After growing up in her community, Kallie finds that being able to work in ways to support her own town and county is a special, meaningful experience. A communicator with long-held passion for words and audiences, she says she always knew she’d end up working with a nonprofit.
Kallie has worked to find grants for various projects large and small, but her favorites tend to be the projects that are often necessary, but overlooked as outside of the scope of usual nonprofit plans.
Housing research and rehabilitation, for example, may not seem flashy, but they’re extremely important. Even a project like Raising Kind Kids can be easy to dismiss, but Kallie brings it to the forefront.
“We can’t wait until people are grown up to teach them about being kind and giving back to the community,” she says, and that’s what the Community Foundation has at its heart. “It’s not all about the money. It’s about getting people together.”
Though Kallie works with a team of deeply-appreciated individuals, she can sometimes feel as if she’s on an island in terms of creativity. Thanking donors with BoxUp boxes of local chocolates is just one of her myriad ideas.
“There are only so many hours in a day, and I have a lot of ideas!” she says, and keeping that inspiration flowing can be tricky while balancing the realistic aspect of the time each project requires to implement.
This is why Kallie appreciated the always accessible and DIY platform BoxUp provided for her to build her donor recognition project. Little things like her donor gratitude gift of boxes of chocolate can have a big impact, too.
The Denver resident who received a lovely thank-you box of candy from her Indiana home town shared it on social media. Kallie also received a hand-written thank-you note from a college students who had been given chocolates and scholarship funds from the Foundation.
Kallie knows that seizing opportunities to do good for her community are never a waste.
According to this self-described morning person, “Every day is a new day. Every morning is a chance to start over.”
Check out the Community Foundation of Muncie and Delaware County here.
“We can’t wait until people are grown up to teach them about being kind and giving back to the community.”KALLIECOMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF MUNCIE AND DELAWARE COUNTY