Colin Moffatt Snodgrass Youth Hockey Scholarship Endowment Fund
Missoula lost a bright light and enduring spirit on the evening of September 27, 2023. Colin Moffatt Snodgrass was a beloved son, brother nephew, and life partner. He was a best friend to many and a leader and mentor to even more. His contagious energy, smile, and kind heart are deeply missed by all who knew him. Adventure was a necessity and he embraced life every day in his short 33 years. Colin lived his life to the fullest, savoring every minute spent with friends and family. He lifted all who knew him up with his presence.
Colin, aka C-Snod, participated in childhood sports and also enjoyed camping, fishing, and hunting. His best days were spent winning hockey games, running sprints with the soccer team, doing pushups wherever he might be, climbing mountain peaks, and traveling.
Colin led by inspiring others through his hustle, encouraging messages to teammates, and positive energy. He was humble, never seeking the limelight, but you could often find him in the middle of a great play. Colin found pleasure in practice as much as the game itself. He often worked on his stick skills, lifted “rocks” in the wilderness for fun, and shot pucks endlessly in his parents’ basement.
At age eight, Colin started playing organized hockey and helped his team win numerous games, tournaments, and awards. After high school, Colin played for the University of Montana during the 2010-11 season. At the time of his death, Colin was organizing his Glacier Hockey League adult teams in the Cup and Advanced levels for the 2023-2024 season.
The Colin Moffatt Snodgrass Youth Hockey Scholarship was established to honor Colin’s spirit and celebrate young women and men ages 8-18 who have a similar passion for hockey and life. Two scholarships will be awarded annually: a $1,033 travel hockey scholarship and a $330 in-house scholarship.
The scholarship is administered by the Moffatt-Snodgrass-Wilson families in partnership with Glacier Ice Rink, and funds for the scholarship are held in the Colin Moffatt Snodgrass Youth Hockey Scholarship Endowment Fund at the Missoula Community Foundation. Thanks to hundreds of people who donated at the time of Colin’s death, the family was able to endow the majority of these funds and make the scholarships available in perpetuity.
In honor of Colin, friends and teammates do 33 pushups after hockey games, summiting peaks or completing a workout.
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If you would like to make a gift of stock or other non-cash assets, please reach out to the foundation at 406-926-2846. If you would like to donate by check, please make the check payable to ‘Missoula Community Foundation’ with ‘Colin Moffatt Snodgrass Scholarship Endowment’ in the memo line.
Checks can be mailed to:
Missoula Community Foundation
PO Box 8806
Missoula, MT 59807
Board Members Instrumental to Success
Board Members Instrumental to Success
The Missoula Community Foundation Board transitioned to new roles in the new year, and several members who were integral to the rebuilding and growth of the organization have departed after many years of service.
Mark Anderson, Principal Consultant at Advanced Technology Group, will serve as board president. Outgoing president Tony Crawford, Associate Dean and Professor, University of Montana School of Business, will continue on the board and as chair of the Investment Committee.
Charity O’Connor was elected Vice President; Ben Sokoloski, Area Manager, Fidelity National Title, will be Treasurer and Julie Osborn, Co-Founder, Ecology Project International, will serve as Secretary.
The foundation is deeply grateful to Clare O’Connell, recently retired Principal at Passage West, Cindy Waltz, Broker/Partner, Ink. Realty and Rob Richardson, Chief Investment Officer and Director of Research, SG Long Financial, for their impactful, thoughtful, service on the board.
Both Clare and Cindy guided the organization through a transition in leadership and were boots on the ground when the foundation needed a new vision, structure and staff. Marcy Allen, Msla CF Executive Director, noted, “Clare has been such a guiding light and steady leader for the organization. Her board service has affected how thoughtfully we operate in the world – and her calm personality, curiosity, and commitment has been a huge asset to our work.” And, “I can say that without Cindy, all we have accomplished and where we are today would not have happened. She provided me with a sounding board, she was curious, she jumped in whenever asked. Cindy is a doer, and when you are a big picture person you need a doer.”
Rob served as the first chair of our investment committee. “This new leadership group has been so important to our growth,” Allen said, “ and it has guided the establishment of our managed funds. We were able to tap into Rob’s expertise – which has been an enormous asset to us, and we now have investment policies in place that are moving us forward and strengthening the organization as a whole. This would not have been possible without Rob, and we are delighted that he will continue to serve on the Investment Committee as a non board member.”
Gratitude for Sue Anderson’s Expertise, Guidance & Service
Gratitude for Sue Anderson’s Expertise, Guidance & Service
Sue Anderson, CPA and Missoula Community Foundation bookkeeper, is leaving the foundation after seven critical years of partnership.
Sue’s professional expertise and thoughtful, behind the scenes guidance was pivotal to the foundation’s success – as it is for the many organizations in our community that are fortunate to work with her.
Sue combines an amazing ability to understand programmatic work and financials. She took the time to understand our day-to-day work, organized it and helped us understand and see things that were not always obvious. She did this all calmly and without judgment. She allowed us, encouraged us, to take the risks necessary for growth, but also held our feet to the fire when needed.
In 2016 the foundation revenue was budgeted at $131,000 and this year, at the close of Sue’s tenure, we approved a budget with $1.7 million in projected revenue. Marcy Allen, Executive Director of Msla CF noted, “We needed Sue’s accounting savvy to achieve this complex growth and our partnership with her really got us where we are today. And the work that Sue does in the community, the time and expertise she offers to so many organizations, is pretty staggering. I am extraordinarily grateful to her.”
Sue has given the foundation countless hours of donated time and made our recent transition to fund management software possible. She guided us in making hard decisions, seeded our unrestricted endowment, and continues to be a champion, quietly and steadfastly, of our work.
Sue, we are so grateful for your work and dedication to helping us build this dream. Thank you!
North Missoula Community Development Corporation Receives $12,000 Capacity Building Grant
The Missoula Community Foundation awarded a $12,000 Capacity Building Grant to the North Missoula Community Development Corporation (NMCDC) to support their strategic goals and expand their community impact.
Founded in 1996, the NMCDC advocates for policy that supports equity among neighborhoods and builds and stewards permanently affordable homeownership opportunities using the community land trust model. In 2022 they partnered with NeighborWorks Montana to build a limited equity housing cooperative model for Montana – a new tool that transitions natural occurring affordable housing to long-term affordable housing. In this model, neighbors in multi-family buildings form a cooperative and purchase their buildings together, and the NMCDC brings the land underneath into trust, held on behalf of the community and preserving the affordable homes in perpetuity.
The NMCDC completed a strategic planning process in 2023 and subsequently established a new three-year plan. They aim to serve 100 new homeowners or shareholders with their homeownership models, advocate for equitable development policy, and support healthy and stable neighborhoods by connecting and empowering residents.
Branding is one of the key capacity building strategies they will employ to realize their long-term goals. A strong brand that is visible, well-known, and reflective of their new service area will recognize and highlight NMCDC’s housing innovation, responsiveness to community needs, and collaborative approach. The $12,000 grant from the Missoula Community Foundation will support the rebranding portion of NMCDC’s capacity building plan.
The Missoula Community Foundation envisions a thriving, unique and engaged community – and strengthening nonprofits is an important part of their mission. Amid growing community needs, resilient nonprofits are crucial, and the foundation recognizes that organizations need strong leadership, financial management, technology, and communication skills to drive positive change in the community.
More capacity building initiatives are underway at the Missoula Community Foundation. If you would like to learn more about how you can support this work, please reach out – [email protected].
Brian Weiss Memorial Fund Supports Families First Programs for Missoula Teens
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.
Women’s Giving Circle of Missoula County Awards $10,000 to Blue Mountain Clinic
Blue Mountain Clinic, a long serving Missoula nonprofit that provides affordable women’s health care, is the recipient of the Women’s Giving Circle of Missoula County’s annual $10,000 grant. The funding will support their internal Access Fund, which helps cover the costs of abortion, contraception, and gender-affirming care for individuals in need. In 2022, the Access Fund provided an average of $219 per person towards the cost of care and the WGC grant will help approximately 45 individuals access the essential health care they need.
The Women’s Giving Circle is a giving collective that has granted out over $60,000 since 2018. Each year, members of the Circle decide, learn, and give together – to promote philanthropy in Missoula and support a cause they care about.
During this year's giving cycle, 96 women and non-binary members:
- Pooled their annual membership funds.
- Voted to adopt a grant focus of Women’s Issues for 2023.
- Gathered at a summer event to celebrate the new grant cycle and hear from Indigenous Made Missoula, the recipient of their 2022 grant.
- Hosted an educational panel at Missoula Public Library on Women’s Issues.
- Reviewed 13 applications for funding.
- Selected 3 grant finalists.
- Hosted a presentation event for members to learn more about the finalists
- Filmed the event so the whole membership could view the presentations.
- Voted on the grant award winner.
- Granted out $10,000 to Blue Mountain Clinic and gifted $1,000 to the other two finalists, The International Rescue Committee in Missoula and YWCA Missoula.
L to R: Sarah Howerton; Development Manager, The International Rescue Committee in Missoula, receives a WGC finalist gift from Ann Wiltse; Program Coordinator, Msla CF
The Women’s Giving Circle completes this process each year and welcomes new members to join for the 2024 grant cycle. Visit the WGC website to learn more.
No Joke Theater Awarded Legacy of Living Art (LoLA) Grant
No Joke Theater, a transformational theater program for individuals in pre-release programs or under court-ordered supervision, as well as members of the recovery community, has been awarded a $10,000 grant from the Legacy of Living Art Fund (LoLA) held at the Missoula Community Foundation.
No Joke Theater aims to assist incarcerated and court supervised populations in their recovery and transition to society by engaging them in bold, original, and devised theater productions about current social issues such as substance abuse, addiction, racism, mental illness, family dysfunction and mass incarceration.
These programs offer participants a creative and productive way to communicate some of the issues surrounding addiction and its' consequences. Working with professional and student teaching artists enables them to form bonds with community members that they would normally not encounter. And the process of creating and performing teaches communication skills such as speaking in public, writing in a theatrical format and memorization. Participants also learn patience, listening skills and how to manage chaos under pressure. The final No Joke Theater performance builds confidence and reduces the shame that quietly companions addiction.
The LoLA Fund has awarded over $40,000 in grants since 2020 – supporting programs that use the arts to support healing and encouraging individual artists and organizations to bring their unique talents and visions for healing through the arts to Missoula in new ways.
LoLA funding will support a No Joke Theater production at the University of Montana’s Masquer Theater in the spring or early summer of 2024.
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)