How endowments work with the MCCF

ZANESVILLE, Ohio – The Mission of the Muskingum County Community Foundation, or MCCF, is to improve the quality of life in the community by nurturing opportunities and serving needs through collaboration and philanthropy.

The foundation has been a part of Muskingum County for more than 40 years, thanks to collaborations with community members through philanthropy. Brian Wagner, the CEO of the MCCF, explains the difference between charity and philanthropy.

“There’s a very big difference between charity and philanthropy. A community needs both. Charity is something that addresses immediate needs. Philanthropy is building long-term investments to solve systemic problems and that’s what the foundation’s hoping to do,” Wagner said. “We are hoping to collect dollars and year after year be able to make major investments back into our community to make improvements so that as we look back 10, 15, 20 years from now, people will really say ‘they were smart for what they did, the investment they made then, has really made our community grow and become a better place to be.'”

The primary form that philanthropic endeavors take at the MCCF is the creation of endowments, initially funded by community members and managed by the foundation.

“Well, endowments, basically, is an opportunity to lock away dollars into the stock market and as they grow, you’re only using a portion of those dollars to make that investment,” Wagner said. “So you’re seeing those returns happen year in, year out, and as those dollars grow, the principal becomes larger and larger each and every time, and as that continues to grow, then there’s more money to put back out into the community.”

That money helps fund various scholarships, organizations like the Animal Shelter Society, and research, such as with the Sarah E. Slack Prevention of Blindness Fund. If you would like to learn more about how to create an endowment or contribute to an existing one, you can visit MCCF.org.