Moulin Focusing on Increasing Philanthropy in Region

Scott Shindledecker

Scott Shindledecker

Published February 23, 2017 5:35 am
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OIL CITY, Pa. (EYT) — A school district makes the hard choice to cut music and art programs from its budget, an animal shelter struggles to meet its mission, a donor wants to promote literacy, but isn’t sure where to begin.

Putting donors together with the causes they really care about.

That’s the goal of Bridge Builders Community Foundations and its Executive Director, Trenton Moulin.

Bridge Builders was originally known as the Venango Area Community Foundation, which was founded in 1975. The first discretionary fund was created within the Venango Area Community Foundation portfolio in June 1976 by Galena Rew Harrington and Mary E. Rew, both of Franklin, who were two local community volunteers who wanted to make a difference.  They started that initial endowment with a gift and trust transfer totaling almost $80,000.00.

Today, that endowment still exists as the oldest continued endowment in Bridge Builders Community Foundations’ portfolio, and distributes approximately $5,000.00 annually to local causes every year.

The Venango Area Community Foundation changed its name to Bridge Builders Community Foundations in 2006 and created affiliates to serve the Venango, Clarion, Forest, and most recently Punxsutawney area to leverage assets, fund management, and giving. The organization has evolved into a community foundation and the umbrella foundation that serves our four area affiliates.

Moulin has been with Bridge Builders Community Foundations since 2010 as executive director.

“In 2006-07, we re-branded ourselves into the Bridge Builders Community Foundations to serve more areas. We work to connect donors to the causes that matter to them,” Moulin said.

“There are boards for each area, made up of people from each area, so they know and understand the needs of those communities.”

“Right now, we have about 160 funds, and each one is different. Those donors have different intentions, and we come up with a plan to meet their goals.”

“We try to bridge that gap between donors and causes that matter to them. It’s very particular to each group, and that’s the exciting part of my job, putting these two sides together,” Moulin said.

Moulin talked about some of the things he has been able to accomplish since taking over the Foundation.

“We’ve had a few donors concerned with budget cuts in local schools that affected music and art programs.”

“I had the opportunity to help facilitate a gift to create a fund to help prop up those arts and humanities programs in local schools, and it will help greatly in cultivating the arts and humanities.”

In less than a month, Bridge Builders Community Foundation’s “Week of Giving” event to spur collective charitable donations in the region will begin.

“This charitable givings’ event is the first of its type in the area. These donations will be pro-rated through the foundation and will allow donors to give to numerous nonprofits throughout Clarion, Forest, and Venango counties, as well as the community of Punxsutawney,” Moulin said.

“Additionally, companies can participate by pledging to match their employee contributions up to a certain amount. Corporate pledge forms are available online.”

“We’re going to be acknowledging those businesses that choose to step up their giving capacity by sponsoring the campaign or giving corporate matches. It will be very exciting to see how much giving, and collective impact, we can create over this short week.”

Donations can be given online at bbcfgives.org between 8:00 a.m., on Monday, March 20, through 11:59 p.m., on Friday, March 24.

Donors can select multiple nonprofits to give to within the same transaction, and also allocate varying contributions to each nonprofit selected.

Donations received through the Week of Giving event are fully tax deductible donations under applicable federal and state laws.

A Week of Giving results press conference and celebration will be held on Friday, April 7, at 10:00 a.m., in Oil City to announce the grand totals and hand out checks to each participating nonprofit.

Special prizes will be awarded to the nonprofit with the most individual donations, the largest monetary amount of donations, as well as the most creative and engaging Week of Giving marketing campaign.

Community outreach sponsors for the Week of Giving event include Explore Your Town, Inc., which includes exploreVenango.com, exploreClarion.com, and exploreJeffersonPA.com.

Bridge Builders Community Foundations is located in the Annex of the Historic National Transit Building in Oil City.

For more information about Bridge Builders Community Foundations, visit www.bbcf.org.

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