“Over all the years that we’ve been around, there has been this trust built with the foundation through our leadership, through our board, and I think that people know that we will be good stewards of their money and use them in a way that will benefit the whole community.”
Waco Foundation is the community foundation for McLennan County. We are the community’s charitable organization. We give out grants to nonprofits, we partner with nonprofits, we host trainings for nonprofits, like board governance training, fundraising trainings. That’s the grant and capacity building side of what we do. I’m on the donor and communication side. We work with people in the community who are interested in being philanthropic and helping connect them with causes that they care about. We are our own entity, a nonprofit 501(c)(3).
We manage $150 million in assets and about half of those are unrestricted funds. We’ve received several bequests from individuals over the years that are unrestricted, meaning they have not said you have to use this money for x, y and z. Over all the years that we’ve been around, there has been this trust built with the foundation through our leadership, through our board, and I think that people know that we will be good stewards of their money and use them in a way that will benefit the whole community. Waco Foundation began in 1950, so we had our 60th anniversary a few years ago.
(Waco Foundation’s new effort) Forever Fund connects with the younger generation who might not be ready to be philanthropic but care about our community and care about the future of Waco. Last year was our first year and we had 113 household memberships. So, $250 will pay for your household to become a member. We have 10 individuals from the Forever Fund to serve on our grant-making committee. We present them with a list of eight to 10 nonprofits that have already been previously vetted by our board and let them talk through, narrow it down and then they recommend one organization from that list to the whole group to vote on as the chosen recipient. We had a fundraising concert last year, and all that money (that was raised) is combined and the Forever Fund members pick an organization to grant that money to, and last year we granted $37,000 to Transformation Waco.
This year’s concert will be [The] War and Treaty. They just have the coolest sound: They’re very soulful, but they have gotten into the country realm and really made it big when they collaborated with Zach Bryan. It will be at the patio at Magnolia. It’s a really neat setting for a concert — we wanted it to be an intimate concert. Tickets will go on sale in August. We’re introducing a small discount for Forever Fund members if they buy their tickets in the certain window that they’re available, and then after that they would be open to the public.
[My family loves] to spend time with friends and be outside. We live in the Poage neighborhood and there are so many young families, and our kids love to be outside, running around, playing in the neighborhood with the kids. It’s just a great neighborhood and we love being out there. My husband and I both love to cook, so you’re more likely to find us at home cooking than going out to eat. But we do love Jorge’s, and Butcher’s Cellar is close to our house. We enjoy going there and One Thirty Five Prime, just places that are close.Betsy Daniels is the director of communications and donor services at Waco Foundation, which she joined in 2018. She and her husband Hunter — who worked in the funeral industry for several years and is now at Bailey Insurance & Risk Management — are natives of Abilene. They are parents to 12-year-old Margaret and 9-year-old Archer.
