The Endowment for the Arts was the first such fund in the Greater Lake City Community Foundation.  The endowment was created through a matching fund donation of $10,000 that grew and received additional donations over several years to over $20,000.  This Endowment regularly generates money that is used for grants in support of arts in our region.   Annually, this fund generates between $1,500 and $2,000 to fill grant requests.

Much of the financial support goes to pay for classes offered at the Arts Center for students of all ages.  Lake City Area Arts is a vibrant entity in our community offering exhibits, classes, musical performances and interesting displays all year long.  This small non-profit is a wonderful partner for The Foundation, and we are delighted to be able to financially support it.

Collaboration on Emerging Community Needs:  The Foundation collaborates with numerous non-profit groups in the Lake City area.   Examples are many:

Five for Food Drive – This annual fundraiser sponsored by The Foundation directly benefits the Lake City Food Shelf and remains its biggest source of funding.   Many of the local non-profit groups such as Kiwanis, Rotary, Lions, Women’s Club, Masons, Knights of Columbus, St. Mary’s CCW, and numerous businesses and individuals, are supporters of this community-wide effort.

Bike Shelter – This is located at the Lake City Marina and was funded by a joint project with the Lake City Rotary Club.

Lake City Area Arts – The Foundation annually provides financial support to the LCAA to develop programs for members of our community – of all ages!

Historical Societies – The Foundation provided significant financial support to both Frontenac and Lake City Historical Societies when they recently celebrated their 160th and 150th anniversaries, respectively.

City of Lake City Projects – Recently a Community Beautification sub-pillar was added to the Environmental Pillar.  The first project under this heading was Community Trees where The Foundation, in cooperation with a Donor Advised Fund, raised over $10,000 that was donated to the city to be used for planting new trees, after many were lost to Emerald Ash Borer infestations.

Ralph Samuelson Statue – The Foundation donated funds to a local non-profit, Destination Lake City, for a memorial to honor Ralph Samuelson, the man who invented waterskiing on Lake Pepin.

Packing for the Weekend:  The Foundation  created a Donor Advised Fund with an anonymous donation of $10,000 to match donations made to the Packing for the Weekend project, run in concert with United Way of Goodhue, Wabasha and Pierce Counties.   The goal of this project is to provide nutritional assistance to children who would otherwise not get the needed quality of food on weekends and during the summer time.

Celebration of Lake City’s 150th Anniversary.  This exceptionally active group of civic leaders planned the activities associated the celebration.   The Foundation provided a sizeable financial grant to them and continues to work with them on the finale of the celebration, which is to paint murals on buildings in our community.

The Education Pillar was established early in The Foundation’s existence.  Once started, its growth has been heartwarming.  The effort began with one family’s endowing a scholarship. A few years later, fund for students interested in pursuing education in the trades – such as HVAC, plumbing, carpentry, auto-mechanics, electricians and similar careers was established.  The response from the community has been astounding, with over $50,000 added to the endowment. On average, three $1500 scholarships have been awarded each year.

Shortly after the Trade School Scholarships Endowment was started, a local family anonymously donated funds to help students who envision a career in personal services, such as those who provide services to the homebound or people who reside in nursing homes.

Next an agricultural scholarship for students who plan to work in agricultural areas – such as being a farmer, veterinarian, and other Ag-related careers was established and fully endowed in its first year of existence.

In 2021, Ann E. Holt, a good friend of The Foundation, established the Ann E. Holt/Greater Lake City Community Foundation Endowed Scholarship to be awarded to a college-bound graduating Lincoln High senior.

In 2023, a Nursing scholarship was established.  This new scholarship is in the process of growing to meet the minimum endowment amount of $10,000, and contributions from the community would be welcomed.

If you are interested in supporting The Greater Lake City Community Foundation scholarship efforts, please see the donations page or contact a Board member.

This pillar was established to provide support for efforts to improve the environment in our region.  

The first program was aimed at improving the health of Lake Pepin.   A few years later, Community Beautification was added under this pillar, and just this past year was expanded to include Community Trees.

Lake Pepin’s improvement has been focused on reducing the sedimentation of the lake mainly by adding retention ponds to slow the run off. Over the past 50 years, these retention ponds have become filled with sediment. This reduces their capacity to retain water, and now much more runoff occurs quickly after a rain event.   To restore the capacity of these retention ponds, The Foundation formed a partnership with the City of Lake City and the Goodhue Soil and Water Conservation District to work with the farmers who own the land where the retention ponds were established. The purpose of the partnership is to restore the retention ponds’ ability to store water for slower release after storms.   The Foundation is cooperating in constructing new retention ponds and has pledged $20,000 to help fund the restoration projects.  

Community Beautification, a sub-pillar of the Environmental Pillar, was well received by the community in 2022, with a successful campaign to pay for the replacement of dead ash trees. Since the bulk of the Lake City tree budget was used to remove dead ash trees, The Foundation joined with Dean and Joanne Flugstad, who supplied challenge grant funding, which was matched by Foundation donors to raise over $10,000 to be used to plant many new trees in 2023.

This pillar has been established to address opportunities that generally arise from outside of The Foundation.   Recent examples are The Foundation’s collaboration with Destination Lake City in donations to the Ralph Samuelson Memorial and for the production of videos related to our historic community. In 2023, two new projects have just begun:  one to provide porch swings along the river; the other a cooperative effort with the Lake City 150th Anniversary Group to paint murals on buildings downtown.