Families are encouraged to leave a legacy by making a charitable donation

(Seguin) – After three years, the Community Foundation of the Seguin region continues its mission with force – a mission that aims to benefit and improve the quality of life of all members of the community.
The community foundation recently distributed a total of $42,000 to seven local nonprofit organizations. Wayne Windle, president of the community foundation, says that while there were challenges getting started, it’s important to note how and why the group was created.

“Originally there was a small group that included Phil Seidenberger, Wilfred Bartoskewitz, Robert Raetzsch and I got together with them, and they had already moved the ball. Kathy Nossaman was also part of this group and very instrumental and still is and we were looking to create a simple community foundation that could somehow fill in all the charitable giving voids in Seguin. So we started fundraising slowly and then we made big bequests and that really helped us get to where we are today. That’s the short story,” Windle said.

Since their first round of donations, Windle says the group has helped support a few dozen organizations.

“We donated between $1,500 and $6,000. I don’t know if we’re at 25 organizations yet, but we’re close, but we could be over 25 when I think of fire departments because we’ve given to eight of them. And it was kind of a classic moment for our community foundation because they weren’t able to fundraise for themselves, the volunteer firefighters because of COVID and so they needed improved equipment, maintenance and of a whole variety of things like that, so we made these gifts for them,” Windle said.

Those who recently received a check for $6,000 were the Seguin Art League, Heritage Museum, Christian Cupboard, Seguin Youth Services, Seguin Education Foundation, Navarro Education Foundation, and Marion Education Foundation.

Windle says the foundation is delighted to be available to these organizations.

“We continue to build our general fund. We hope we never have a situation like Uvalde or something like that where we have to, you know, invest money in the community for a terrible disaster, but it’s very common for community foundations to respond to things like that and we are able to increase the funds that these other 501c(3)s are able to raise and so we try to help our community. All donations we receive go directly back into our community and you have to remember this is a tax deduction so this money does not go to Austin or anywhere else. You get the deduction and the benefit here comes to your neighbors,” Windle said.

He says their vision for the community foundation is limitless and hopes other partners will one day join the cause.

“Many community foundations in big cities have public and private partnerships. I hope one day we can get there and have public and private partnerships with the city or the county and have bigger projects. There are various ways to get involved with the community foundation. They may have their own specific fund that goes to a specific cause in the community they love. We prefer the general fund because it grows and can go to any cause as needed. We hope that some of the biggest corporate funds will start to recognize us and help us grow as well. We haven’t really had the staff to do a lot of very small grants, but at some point we hope to be able to offer specific scholarships and things like that,” Windle said.

Doug Parker applauded the foundation’s efforts. Parker was on hand to accept the check on behalf of the Heritage Museum.

“We have an excellent board of talented directors who come from different backgrounds. Each provides us with different ideas and effective programs. We hated losing our long-term manager, John Gesick for 28 years two years ago. But our administrators have stepped up. These two ladies here, Donna Taylor and Debbie Parker, have done the heavy lifting and we’ve really come a long way for stability and things look good. Thanks for that. We want to continue to preserve the heritage, history and uniqueness of Guadalupe and Seguin County, so thank you very much,” Parker said.

The group currently operates with 11 boards of directors. Individuals or families who wish to leave a permanent legacy through charitable donations or wish to be part of the future of the foundation are asked to contact one of the board members or call 830 -379-1122. They can also visit seguinfoundation.org.