Our Foundation

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Over  26 years ago, the Downtown Optimist Club of Evansville saw the need to establish a foundation for members wishing to make monetary contributions to our club.  The purpose was to allow our club to help youth, and organizations serving youth in our area through financial contributions to them.

Many members have included our foundation in their wills and subsequently the financial resources have grown to the size that enables our foundation to award numerous scholarships and grants annually.  The earnings are dispersed each year while the principal amount remains intact.  Our foundation has awarded nearly $200,000 in grants and scholarships since it's inception.

We solicite organizations, whose main purpose is to serve youth, to apply through our application for the grants and scholarships.  After review by the foundation committee, the earnings are given to the organziations at our weekly meetings.  In 2009, we gave over $9,500 to several organizations. 

The foundation also awards grants to the three universities annually:  University of Southern Indiana, University of Evansville, and Ivy Tech.

Our last presentation was at our weekly meeting on February 11, 2009 with a $1,400 check given to administrators at each of these universities. 

-  Sylvia DeVault - University of Evansville

-  Ginny Bryant, University of Southern Indiana

-  Lisa Pichalo - Ivy Tech

Click here to read Thank-You Letters from our recipients.

The foundation committee is comprised of these members: