Plans are being made for a trip out to Colorado in August. If you are a Mt. Pleasant Fund member and might be interested in joining us as we bring our time and talent to partner agencies Brigeway and Hope House, please let MPF President Flip Rosenberry (mtpleasantfund@verizon.net) know.
MPF President Flip Rosenberry will be contacting the current grantees soon to begin looking for concrete possibilities for MPF members to volunteerpartner with your organizations. Our board has had some interesting conversations relating to what we think we might be able to offer, but now it’s time to get your input. Let’s get this ball rolling!
For the first eight years of the Mt. Pleasant Fund’s existence, we have had the same four directors serving the organization. At the annual meeting held two weekends ago, the members of the Fund elected three new Directors to join Jimmy Curley, Peggy Rosenberry, Liz Rosenberry, and Flip Rosenberry. They are:
Lee, Caroline, and Kelly were nominated by the current Directors because of the support and interest they have given to the Fund as members. We think they’re going to make a real difference for the Fund, and by obvious extension, our partners.
All members of the Mt. Pleasant Fund are invited to the annual meeting coming up on October 22nd. If you have not yet received notice of this meeting (with your proxy enclosed), please let us know!
The Mt. Pleasant Fund officially incorporated in October of 2002. The idea at that time was to create a foundation wherein our friends and family members could collaborate to find nonprofit organizations that we were collectively enthusiastic about and to then pool some of our resources (both financial and otherwise) to support those nonprofits. Since October of 2002, the Fund has made contributions totaling more than $100,000 to twelve different nonprofit organizations around the country.
When the fund first started out, we identified minorities living in poverty as our funding priority. We then refined our guidelines by identifying children living in poverty as our priority. Most recently we have been focusing on supporting those organizations that work to support teen parents and their children. We have also recently restricted our giving to programs either in Colorado or Massachusetts.
Since its inception, the Fund has had the same four directors. Flip and Liz Rosenberry, Flip’s mother Peggy Rosenberry, and Liz’s brother-in-law Jimmy Curley were the founding directors and have continued to serve in that capacity since then. While there have been contributions from people besides those founding directors (a financial contribution to the Fund entitles the donor to membership for one year from the receipt of that contribution), Flip, Liz, Peggy, and Jimmy have been the only members to serve as directors.
At the October, 2010 Annual Meeting the Directors voted unanimously to focus on two things over the course of the next year. The first priority will involve increasing our role with the nonprofits to whom we make grants. We will do this by exploring opportunities for our membership base to not only provide financial support to our funding partners but to provide volunteer support as well. There will be no restrictions in terms of the type of agencies we will consider funding other than that the agencies must be recommended to us by at least one of our members.
Our second priority will involve increasing our membership base.
We believe that these two priorities can and will work hand-in-hand.
Flip and Liz continue to hold as a priority of the Fund, collaborating with their family and friends in a way that enriches each other as well as our broader world community. It has never been solely about impacting our world in a positive way. Rather it has been about doing it in a way that involves those we care most about and have such great respect for (our family and our friends).
Please, if this sounds like something you’d like to be a part of, make a contribution to the Mt. Pleasant Fund, and let’s make a difference together.
2009-2010 Annual Report
(Fiscal Year 10/1/2009-9/30/2010)
The Mt. Pleasant Fund is an IRS recognized 501 ( c ) (3) private nonoperating foundation. It was formally incorporated in Massachusetts in November of 2002.
The original founders of the Fund were Liz and Flip Rosenberry, a husband and wife, who wanted to create a foundation that would serve to bring their friends and family together in a communal effort related to making gifts to organizations and individuals in need. They asked Flip’s mother Peggy Rosenberry and Liz’s brother-in-law Jimmy Curley to serve with them as incorporating directors. Currently, those same four individuals serve as the Directors of the Fund.
As stated in the organization’s bylaws, any individual who makes a contribution to the Fund is entitled to be a member for one full year from the date on which their contribution is formally acknowledged by an officer of the Foundation. Members also are entitled to become Directors of the Foundation (subject to a vote by the rest of the members).
An annual meeting for the purpose of ratifying the actions of the Board and electing the Board for the upcoming year is held every October.
During the last fiscal year, the Fund made four contributions. One went to The CARE Center of Holyoke, Massachusetts. The CARE Center works to educate and empower pregnant and parenting teens in Holyoke.
The second contribution went to Bridgeway of Lakewood, Colorado. Bridgeway provides a residential setting for pregnant and parenting teen mothers.
The third contribution went to Hope House of Arvada, Colorado. Hope House, like Bridgeway, provides a residential setting for pregnant and parenting teen mothers.
The fourth contribution went to the Florence Crittenton School of Denver, Colorado. The school provides education and support to teen parents and their children.
The four grants made were within the guidelines set by the board at the beginning of the fiscal year. These guidelines indicated that the Fund would focus its funding priorities on programs that support teenaged parents and their children. The Fund only makes contributions in the states of Massachusetts and Colorado.
Additionally, the Fund sponsored a conference attended by representatives from The CARE Center, Bridgeway, and Hope House and held in Northampton, Massachusetts
The Fund’s 990PF form is available upon request.