Greater Jefferson County Foundation began in 1975

The Greater Jefferson County Foundation was founded May 1, 1975, with the mission to receive, accept, and distribute funds for educational, cultural, civic and charitable purposes for the benefit of the greater community of Jefferson County, Iowa.

Parsons College held its final graduation the first week of June 1973. There had been an annual fundraising effort for the college with business and individual contributions to help support the school.

The vision to continue this effort came from community leaders and individuals who had been on the Parsons College Board of Trustees. Gordon Aistrope, Charles Eastburn, Tom Louden, Scott Jordan, Paul Madden, Bill Whitney along with legal counsel, John Morrissey were the individuals who came forward with this concept and made it a reality.

The original donation was from the sale of the Bethany Home. This facility provided shelter for elderly people and young women who needed a place of comfort from abuse and homelessness. It was located on the west side of North Main Street across from the Jefferson County Courthouse. The proceeds were $75,000.00 and this became the seed money to establish the fund.

The original charter was to place any donated funds into certificates of deposit in the banks of Jefferson County. In the mid 1990’s Susan Williamson’s family was ready to make a major donation in the form of scholarship funds with the restriction that funds received by the foundation would need to be invested in equities, either mutual funds or individual stocks.

The foundation board met and realized the opportunity for additional growth in the form of donations as well as market funds increase. The board approved this decision and since that time exceptional growth, under the stewardship of Dr. William C. Baumann, as financial ex-officio, has provided a continuing growth strategy that exceeds the benchmark of many other community foundations in the state of Iowa.

Two major areas are the focus of the foundation. The first being providing grants to the non-profit organizations of Fairfield and Jefferson County. In 1999 the grant total was $47,000 and in 2021 it reached a high total of $251,000. The second area of focus are scholarships to Fairfield High School and surrounding school district graduating seniors. This scholarship program began in 1988 with a donation of $20,000 and has grown to be in excess of a million invested dollars. Both of these channels have had wonderful support of the donors to the foundation.

Memorial Donors of significance to these two channels include Charlotte Hammans, The Ralph Perry Trust, The Robert & Evelyn Gamrath Family, Mildred Ferguson, Lee T. Gobble, John Jackson, Scott & Edith Jordan, Pete & Fern Crafton, Jack & Ruth Sellars, Edd & Darlene Felgar, and many others.

For further information regarding The Greater Jefferson County Foundation, visit www.greaterjeffersoncountyfoundation.org.