Oklahoma City Community Foundation, a nonprofit public charity, distributed $8 million to nonprofit organizations, $86,000 of which was distributed to Oklahoma Christian University.
According to their website, the mission statement of the Oklahoma City Community Foundation is “to serve the charitable purposes of its donors and the charitable needs of the Oklahoma City-area through the development and administration of endowment and other charitable funds, with the goal of preserving capital and enhancing value.”
Some of the money Oklahoma Christian received is unrestricted, meaning it can be used by the university as they choose, and the other part of the money is used to support the McBride Center at Oklahoma Christian.
Kent Allen, vice president for advancement at Oklahoma Christian, said this annual fund is very significant and helps the school in balancing the budget and with other projects the school is involved in.
“A good sum of the money goes to OC’s unrestricted fund which is used to keep the university operating,” Allen said. “It helps us ‘keep the lights on,’ so to speak. Other monies go to scholarships that were set up by various donors who invested their funds with Oklahoma City Community Foundation and then set up a scholarship at OC. Other funds go to other types of endowments that enable OC to conduct seminars or symposiums in various departments or colleges.”
Allen said the Oklahoma Christian administration does not decide much on where the money goes, the donors decide and then the university does their best to carry out their wishes.
Close to 360 charitable organizations received endowment funds from this foundation and all funds are invested, which means all groups benefit from their investment performance.
Oklahoma City Community Foundation President Nancy Anthony said this program impacts many different types of charities and organizations in the Oklahoma City area.
“One of the main things we do as a community foundation is manage and gather funds for other nonprofits in the community,” Anthony said. “We are basically a charitable organization and one of our main primary focuses is working with other organizations or donors to create and manage these funds. We work with staff and board members of the organizations to help strengthen these funds.”
Anthony said since these are endowment funds, they are created by specific organizations. The fund and contribution they have made to Oklahoma Christian has been going on for the past four decades.
“We have had donors who established an endowment fund here for Oklahoma Christian back in the 70s and other donors over a period of years have actually added to this fund, so the choice made by the donors has been added to over time,” Anthony said. “Our organization manages the funds and encourages other donors to make contributions to the fund but it is basically the donors that have chosen Oklahoma Christian to be the beneficiary of their contributions.”
Anthony said she loves to work with donors who better the community and do great things for everyone.
“We make grants for a variety of things including animals, trees and colleges, we have more than 300 organizations like Oklahoma Christian that get grants like this every year and it is very fun to work with such a wide variety of donors and people that have such a wide variety of interest,” Anthony said. “Oklahoma Christian gets this money every year and it is money that helps support their operation and they rely on this.”
More information about the Oklahoma City Community Foundation can be found online.
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