Harrison County Community Foundation (HCCF)

Our mission is to inspire and assist everyone to experience philanthropy, producing positive and sustainable growth in Harrison County. Our vision is to grow Harrison County into the best Community to live, work and raise a family. We value generosity, integrity, sustainability, stewardship, innovation, collaboration, inclusion, and excellence. Harrison County Community Foundation (hccf) has a unique history. In a riverboat gaming development agreement dated 5/15/96, rdi/caesars riverboat, llc agreed with the Harrison County, in government to provide $5,000,000 to create the Foundation. The 3 seated County commissioners selected 21 Harrison County citizens as the founding board of directors. Over time hccf has grown to include 8 ft staff, a 15-member board of directors, and multiple Community volunteers. Because of the tremendous contributions from caesars southern Indiana casino (formerly horseshoe southern Indiana), hccf has been able to embark on several ambitious projects. Hccf functions like any other Community Foundation by providing opportunities for donors to support their favorite causes. Additionally, the ongoing support from caesars southern Indiana casino enables hccf to offer various gift-matching programs. The Harrison County Community Foundation values its role as a catalyst, convener, and collaborator, bringing other funders and nonprofits together around vital issues and adding key support to make positive change possible. Our work is centered around what we know about Community needs. We serve residents of Harrison County in the following ways: - awarding grants to help nonprofit organizations provide needed services in arts and culture, education, environment, health, and human services, etc. - awarding academic and vocational scholarships to Harrison County graduating students and adult students - funding programs benefiting children, youth, and adults - helping nonprofits be more sustainable so they can help more County residents thrive programs include:- dolly parton's imagination library (dpil) - encourages parents to read to their children by providing each preschool child in the program with an age-appropriate book by mail each month until their 5th birthday. Nearly 1,500 participants received a book as part of dpil in 2022 (541 new sign-ups). Children can be enrolled through hccf or at a participating partner: Harrison County public library, ymca of Harrison County, Harrison County Community services, Harrison County health department, and Harrison County hospital. Encouraged by the program's success, the board of directors agreed to continue funding the cost. The early readers fund, which supports the dolly parton imagination library, continues to benefit from a 2:1 match. - the dictionary project - provides a dictionary to every 3rd grader in Harrison County. Students attending the 9 Harrison County elementary schools receive their dictionary to use at school and take home. 501 dictionaries were distributed in 2022. 7,589 have been distributed since hccf began partnering with the dictionary project in 2008. The project's goal is to assist students in completing the school year as good writers, active readers, and creative thinkers. - youth philanthropy council - ypc of Harrison County is designed to teach skills, to encourage youth to give and serve in their communities and to make philanthropy a "habit of the heart" for future generations. The program goals are to promote youth development through experiences in philanthropy, to encourage and support Community initiatives that youth care about and to engage youth through giving and serving for the common good. A group of local high school students review submitted ypc grant applications, discuss the merit of each grant application and come to a consensus on their grant recommendations. Hccf partners with leadership Harrison County for ypc to be a part of the lhc youth program, which involves young leaders from all Harrison County high schools. In 2022, ypc awarded $600 to miles for merry miracles for a 6-week gardening program at morgan elementary and genesis house, $1,250 for lanesville after prom and $1,000 to blue river all-stars for the carnival for cancer event. The youth philanthropy fund, which provides youth-led grantmaking dollars, continues to benefit from a 2:1 match. - endowments - hccf holds 304 endowment funds supporting a broad array of organizations and causes. The type of funds includes designated agency, donor advised, field of interest, scholarship and builder's funds (unrestricted). The main purpose of an endowment is to provide a long-term and growing source of financial support for an organization or cause. Endowment fund beneficiaries access their funds by completing an endowment fund grant request. Endowment grant requests are reviewed by staff to ensure they meet criteria found in the endowment fund agreement and are approved by hccf board of directors. Once the funds are used, beneficiaries submit a short grant report form to hccf. - endowed scholarships - nearly half of hccf endowment funds are devoted to providing scholarships. The wide scope of scholarship criteria and awards are reflective of the diverse interest of the donors who established them. The Indiana university southeast scholarship fund, established by hccf, provides funding for a $20,000 scholarship at each of the four Harrison County high schools to a student planning to attend Indiana university southeast. All scholarships are awarded using objective and nondiscriminatory selection processes. The Indiana university southeast scholarship fund benefits from a 2:1 match.- align southern Indiana - align southern Indiana (asi) is a nonprofit organization comprised of business, educational, and nonprofit Community partners. Through asi, leaders from clark, floyd, Harrison, scott, and Washington counties came together to identify a common vision for our region. The initiative has identified these areas of focus: economic and talent development; education; regional leadership; quality of life; quality of place. The mission of asi is to actively facilitate a shared regional process that will align resources, address needs, and produce sustainable solutions resulting in our region achieving its potential as the best place to live, work and play. Hccf has served a pivotal role in the funding and development of asi and is a sponsoring stakeholder in the initiative, providing $20,000 in 2022. The hccf strategic plan includes continued participation with asi. The align model includes a-teams working in specific teams to improve long-term outcomes for the region. The a-teams include kindergarten readiness, addiction prevention, trails, leadership development, and economic and talent development, and early childhood education. - building dynamic boards of directors - hccf requires all nonprofit organizations submitting a grant application to have at least one sitting board member who has completed a hccf approved board training program. Hccf offers training at no cost to participants upon completion. Four training programs were offered in 2022 with a total of 42 participants.- nonprofit sustainability - since 2018, the fundraisers group provides assistance and support for any nonprofit agency staff who are tasked with fundraising. The group of about a dozen participants meets every other month for a brown bag lunch. Presentations included topics such as grant application process, branding, social media, digital fundraising, giving tuesday, year-end campaigns, and creating an annual development plan. With the shared aim of building capacity and sustainability in the Harrison County nonprofit Community, hccf formalized a partnership with network for good (nfg) in 2020, to enroll nonprofits into nfg's fundraising capacity building program, jumpstart. Eight nonprofits have participated in the jumpstart program since 2020, with four nonprofits requesting to add an additional year of participation. - town planning initiative - the town planning initiative, funded by lilly endowment, inc.'s gift vii (giving Indiana funds for tomorrow) program and with additional funding by hccf, continued in 2022. This multi-year initiative provides resources and support for the 10 incorporated towns in Harrison County to create or update a comprehensive plan and a pavement asset management plan. With these completed plans, towns are better positioned to leverage outside funding for infrastructure projects. In 2022, the town of lanesville completed its comprehensive planning process. The towns of new middletown and laconia were close to completing their planning process, with the final reviews and towns' adoption of their plans scheduled for early 2023. Planning continued for the towns of corydon, mauckport and palmyra in 2022. Planning continued for the towns of elizabeth, milltown, new amsterdam and crandall.