About Us - DEUEL COUNTY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION

DEUEL COUNTY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION

Developing Deuel County
Deuel County has faced the challenges of continued development, sustained job growth, population growth and quality housing for quite some time. These challenges seem to be inherent in the rural areas of our country and demand continued attention if the communities are to hold their own in today’s economy.
To that end, there have been a number of development organizations through the years that have done their best to promote growth. Some have been based at the city level and some at the county level. Without giving a history lesson listing all the development organizations of the past, it should be sufficient to note that Deuel Area Development, Inc. (DADI) is the current group working to develop business and housing in Deuel County.
You have probably also heard of the Deuel County Community Foundation (DCCF). The foundation is another ‘development’ organization but it works not with business and housing, but rather with others in Deuel County to offer quality-of-life enhancements to the area.
DCCF—A Community Savings Account
The Deuel County Community Foundation is like a savings account for your community.   DCCF fundraisers (or your contributions) add to the account, and the dollars are invested with the South Dakota Community Foundation. Earnings from the account are available for local projects. The donations themselves are not distributed, but rather left as investments for future income.
Community members bring their ideas and requests to the board and the foundation does the best they can to help fund these quality-of-life enhancing requests.
Recent projects that receiving assistance include the SACH program, the Goodwin Area Hall, Deuel County SART, Deuel County DARE program, and both the Gary and Clear Lake Historical Societies. These grants have all gone to promote local projects and needs. As you can imagine, the foundation board continues to seek out donations to help with these local projects. Also, fundraisers are held annually in an attempt to ‘grow’ the account.
DCCF—an investment in our quality of life
The South Dakota Community Foundation was started by Governor George Mickelson in 1987 and now administers about $260 million dollars in assets for about 800 different funds. Many of us have seen news articles about various foundations and their life-enhancing donations.
One of those funds belongs to the Deuel County Community Foundation. The earnings from the investments are used locally to fund quality-of-life improving projects. More investments mean more donations can be made. Please consider a donation to the Deuel County Community Foundation. Think of adding the Deuel County Community Foundation as a recipient to possible estate planning.
The advantages of your donation are outlined in the DCCF brochure. You can pick up a brochure from any of the DCCF board members.
Supporting Quality-of-Life Improvements
The Deuel County Community Foundation exists to support activities in Deuel County that improve the Quality-of-Life for Deuel County residents. It’s not intended that the directors of the DCCF fund the projects they know about or are ‘favorites’. The intent is that community members will bring their projects and needs to the board.
Based on dollars available and competition that exists between multiple applications, the board makes its’ best decision to award funds to those projects that show value. Attempts are made to distribute moneys throughout the county and to fund a variety of projects.
Awards are granted annually at the primary DCCF fundraiser—the Tour of Tables. If your group is seeking funding for a community project, please contact a director for the foundation.   Your application will be considered at the time of grant distribution.