The DeKalb County Community Foundation has been a source of funding for non-profit organizations for the past 10 years.

In 2002, more than $30,000 went to NIU to help fund a documentary by Jeff Towne about DeKalb in the 1960s, and to NIU’s Child Care Center. This year, the foundation has given more than $8,000 to NIU for programs.

One program is the “Hook a Child on Golf” program, where NIU athletes work with local children. Another takes NIU students in the Health and Gerontology Program into retirement homes to teach the residents to exercise.

The foundation was started by people like Lilian Boynton. Boynton came to DeKalb with her mother in the early 1900s when her mother found a job cleaning rooms at NIU. The pair had no place to go for the winter.

Walking through the streets, Boynton spotted a $5 bill in the snow. With that money, her mother was able to provide a small room, as well as beans and rice to eat.

The girl grew up to be a successful businesswoman in DeKalb County. When she died, she gave the DeKalb County Community Foundation $2 million to be used as scholarships for students in DeKalb County. Now, two scholarships for more than $12,000 each are awarded every year thanks to her and the foundation.

The foundation has given nearly $5 million to non-profit organizations since it began in 1993.

It is able to give that much because it invests nearly 70 percent of its resources in the stock market, and the rest in other interest generating means, such as bonds.

Jerry Smith, executive director of the foundation, said the foundation will go on indefinitely because it gives only what it generates in interest to the community each year. Funds then can continue to grow and be a lasting source of revenue.

“About a month before Thanksgiving, the residents planned a huge dinner and both our stoves broke,” said Lesly Wicks, director of DeKalb’s Hope Haven homeless shelter. “We had no ovens for Thanksgiving. I called Jerry [Smith], and within a week, we had a check, and within two weeks, we had our stoves. Without the foundation, we wouldn’t have been able to come up with those funds.”

The foundation also helps to fund city organizations.

“We have to add new features as the city grows. Unfortunately funding [is] not there like it used to be,” said Paul Batra, executive director of Genoa Township Park District. “Without the foundation, I’m not sure we would have been able to add some of those [features].”

In 2002 alone the foundation gave $899,952 to different organizations and, as the foundation states in its mission statement, they hope to do so indefinitely.