Funds Archives | Missoula Community Foundation

Brian Weiss Memorial Fund Supports Families First Programs for Missoula Teens

The Brian Weiss Memorial Fund made its first gift to the community this fall -- a $5,500 donation to Families First Learning Lab for their MT Happiness Project, Dream Bigger, and Inner Roads programs.

When Brian Weiss took his own life in 2001, he was just twenty-one years old and struggling with low self esteem, mental health issues and addiction. His brother Kevin, wanting to turn this tragedy into a force for positive change, established the Brian Weiss Memorial Fund with the Missoula Community Foundation in 2021. The fund aims to provide effective, innovative solutions that focus on helping teens access counseling and education to enrich their feelings of self-worth and chances of success in the world.

The Weiss family is honoring Brian’s memory by lifting up organizations that work to remove the financial barriers and social stigmas that often prevent teens from seeking help. The Families First teen programs, Dream Bigger, MT Happiness Project and Inner Roads do just this – and Kevin chose them because, “they each have a unique approach to supporting and serving teens in Missoula, helping them discover their own power, worth and potential,”

This gift is just the first disbursement of the fund, which Kevin hopes will, “Continue to grow and expand our ability to positively impact our next generation of Missoulians as they make their way through what can be the most impactful years of their lives.”

Donations to the Brian Weiss Memorial Fund can be made here and will support suicide prevention and mental health programs for Missoula teens going forward.

by Ann

Donor Advised Funds: The Community Foundation Difference

Although a Donor Advised Fund (DAF) which is becoming a more and more popular charitable planning tool, can be established through a national financial institution, the community foundation offers donor-advised fund holders similar services and attention -- but also provide keen guidance and deeper connections to the nonprofit community. This results in a more personalized, more gratifying DAF experience.

The community foundation offers donor-advised fund holders the same tax and administrative benefits as a commercial gift fund, including:

Online access to the donor-advised fund to view balances, contributions, and grants
Simple process for requesting grants to favorite charities
Streamlined tax reporting, often represented by just one letter to provide to an accountant at tax time, even when the donor-advised fund is used to support dozens of individual charities throughout the year

Unlike standard commercial gift funds, though, the community foundation also offers high-level, customized services to its donor-advised fund holders:

Concierge-level service by knowledgeable staff to structure estate gifts to charities and accept gifts of appreciated stock or complex assets such as real estate or closely-held stock
In-house experts who have a finger on the pulse of community needs, the strengths of specific nonprofits, and how to structure grant making for the highest possible community benefit
Opportunities to collaborate with other donors who care about similar issues and forums to tap into local and national subject matter experts
Administrative fees that are reinvested into the community foundation, itself a nonprofit, to help support operations, grow its mission, and help even more donors support the causes they care about
Hands-on assistance from local experts who understand both local and distant needs, and welcome the opportunity to research and identify causes aligned with donors’ goals and priorities
Staff members who live in the community they serve and often personally know the leaders and staff of grantee organizations and regularly hear about their needs first-hand

Questions about opening a DAF? Please reach out to us: [email protected].

by Ann

Transfer of Wealth

The Greatest Transfer of Wealth

What does this mean for Missoula?

What Impacts Will the Greatest Wealth Transfer Have on Missoula?

You may have heard that the largest wealth transfer in history is currently underway. This monumental shift involves the transfer of wealth from the Baby Boomer and Silent Generation to younger generations.

The term ‘Baby Boomer’ originated during a period of robust postwar economic growth, as Americans’ confidence led to larger families, resulting in a population and economic boom. This economic prosperity translated into substantial wealth accumulation for the Baby Boomer generation.

As the Baby Boomers retire, require long-term care, and eventually pass away, their amassed wealth, estimated at around $30 trillion to $68 trillion, will be passed down to their children, grandchildren, and other beneficiaries. This significant wealth transfer is expected to have broad implications for the entire U.S. economy, and it is already underway in Missoula. Projections indicate that by 2030, approximately $3.6 billion will be transferred from one generation to the next in Missoula County.*

Missoula was built by Missoulians, and together we can ensure that it thrives and retains it’s unique character for the next generation. If we capture just 5% of this wealth transfer for Missoula, we can generate $8.1 million to support this special place. At the Missoula Community Foundation, our role is to make it easy to harness this 5% for Missoula, by providing the resources, expertise and outreach needed to make it happen.

*This study was commissioned by The Montana Community Foundation (MCF)

by Martin

Lorilee Evans-Lynn Memorial Scholarship

25 November 2022

The Missoula Community Foundation is honored to announce the establishment of the Lorilee Evans-Lynn Memorial Scholarship, which honors the memory, work and passion of Lorilee Evans-Lynn.

Lorilee was the long-time advisor of the literary magazines Aerie Big Sky and founder/advisor of Aerie International during her twenty-nine-year teaching career at Big Sky High School. The scholarship will support graduating seniors at Big Sky High School who have a passion for the creative arts and are pursuing secondary education in that field.

Lorilee and her husband John moved to Missoula in 1980 so she could study under Richard Hugo at the University of Montana, an influence that loomed large for her, and helped to shape her own future as a writer and teacher. She would in turn pass on her own unique perspective to hundreds of students in the creative writing program at Big Sky High School. Lorilee was passionate about writing and put remarkable energy into teaching her students. Unfortunately, she passed away in 2016 at the age of 59 after a very short battle with cancer.

Lorilee’s family came together to open an endowment fund through the Missoula Community Foundation that will support a $1,500 annual scholarship award – as a way to honor Lorilee’s memory and provide a legacy appropriate to the love and energy she poured on those she taught and inspired.

Big Sky seniors are encouraged to apply here: Lorilee Evans-Lynn Memorial Scholarship.

by admin

Donald Carey Memorial Ambassador Award

November 21, 2023

The Missoula Community Foundation, in partnership with the Donald Carey family, is pleased to house the Donald Carey International Choral Ambassador Award Fund – a means to honor Don’s unique contributions to the choral community here in Missoula and throughout the world.

Montana International Choral Festival Founder Don Carey dedicated much of his career to developing students through travel and study abroad. This award will honor his legacy by supporting Montana students as they travel overseas to join a choir, rehearse with that choir, and then return to Missoula with that choir to experience the magic of the choral festival and experience the unique hospitality only the Garden City can offer during the Montana International Choral Festival.

Don’s son, Steve Carey, who opened the fund, said, “My Dad understood the power of the human voice to bypass artificial boundaries and enable meaningful connections between people of different cultures. This award will honor his strong belief that Missoula is a special place where a multitude of voices can flow together to transcend the political and ideological boundaries that separate people from one another.”

Donald Carey founded the Montana International Choral Festival in 1987. He passionately believed in promoting artistic excellence, global understanding, friendship, and goodwill through choral music. If you would like to make a gift to carry out Donald’s legacy you can do so here.

You can read Don’s obituary here.

by admin