CFO launches Joplin Recovery Fund Website

(From Community Foundation of the Ozarks)

The Community Foundation of the Ozarks and its largest affiliate, the Community Foundation of Southwest Missouri, Inc., launched a new section on their websites devoted to the Joplin Recovery Fund.

The site – www.joplinrecoveryfund.org – will follow the long-term recovery process specifically through the CFO/CFSWMO role in accepting donations for Joplin’s long-term recovery from the May 22 tornado.

In addition to the Joplin Recovery Fund, the CFO/CFSWMO have established 12 other funds serving a variety of needs for Joplin, including one set up by the City of Joplin, several employer benevolence funds to assist affected workers and the families, one for tree reforestation and one for school supplies. The combined funds, along with the CFO’s partnership on the Joplin Recovery Fund with the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation and the Tulsa Community Foundation, now total about $2 million.

The site includes all of the funds as well as a list of donors who did not request to remain anonymous. It will be updated periodically with news items, future donors, other new funds, information when a grant making process is established for the Joplin Recovery Fund, and future grant awards from that fund. Distributions from other funds are made at the recommendation of the entity that established the fund.

“We have donors from virtually every state and several countries who have expressed their care and concern for the Joplin community’s recovery and we want to let everyone interested in our involvement to have this resource,” CFO President Brian Fogle said.

The CFO’s Joplin staff associate, Michelle Ducre, and CFSWMO Board Chair Lisa Knutzen are developing a community-based group to determine the grant making process for the Joplin Recovery Fund.

The CFO/CFSWMO established the Joplin Recovery Fund on Monday, May 23, with a pledge to direct 100 percent of the donations to the recovery effort through a process established by Joplin area leaders who best understand the needs of the community.