1-15-2010
The Southeastern Illinois Community Foundation is pleased to announce a new micro-grant program in partnership with the Lumpkin Family Foundation.

Micro-grants for up to $1,500 are provided for attendance by nonprofit staff and board members at seminars, workshops and professional development programs of their own choosing or making.  Micro-grants are strategic investments in people and organizations to be used to defray the cost of attending programs targeted at improving the management, governance and leadership of the applicant organization. To find out more and to apply, visit www.goodWORKSconnect.org/grants.

1-15-2010
"Community Leadership with an Entrepreneurial Attitude" is the title of the keynote address that Bruce Nims will be giving at the SICF Annual Dinner on Saturday, February 27, 2010.

Bruce Nims founded Nims Associates, Inc, an information technology consulting services company based in Decatur. The company grew to over 450 employees, with branches in Dallas, Indianapolis, Chicago, Minneapolis, Cincinnati, Kansas City, and Denver.  In 2004, the employee-owned company was sold to Keane, Inc.

Currently, Nims is the secretary/treasurer of InDecatur Ventures, LLC, a local venture capital firm.  He is also Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois, and is a resource for Millikin's Tabor School of Business and its Center for Entrepreneurship, with duties including guest lecturing, acting as a mentor for students, assisting with student projects, and offering consulting and seminars for community organizations.

11-24-09
The Southeastern Illinois Community Foundation (SICF) recently hosted two meetings for community foundations from around Illinois.  The meetings kicked off on Wednesday, November 4th with an evening reception at the Fire Fly hosted by the Grand Victoria Foundation for Communityworks grant recipients.  Communityworks is a grant program for community foundations to provide matching grants and operating dollars.  Community foundations around the state use their Communityworks endowment funds to give grants in the areas of workforce development, early childhood education and land use and protection.  The meeting held at the Effingham Country Club on November 5th consisted of a year-in-review and strategic planning session for those community foundations participating in Phase III of the Communityworks program.  Both members from SICF participated in the Communityworks meeting.
On Friday, November 6th, SICF hosted the Alliance of Illinois Community Foundations (AICF) at the Effingham Country Club.  Approximately 20community foundations, including staff from the Effingham County Community Foundation and the Mattoon Area Community Foundation, attended the meeting to learn about efforts to introduce the Endow Illinois bill again in 2010 that would give tax credits to citizens giving gifts to community foundations.  Speakers at the meeting talked about the Illinois Cultural Data Project, options for software for community foundations, and goodWORKSconnect.org, which is a virtual community for nonprofits in east central Illinois.

5-29-09
Effingham County Community Foundation and Mattoon Area Community Foundation have forged an alliance that will extend philanthropic opportunities for the betterment of Southeastern Illinois.  The resulting organization, Southeastern Illinois Community Foundation, will provide administrative and technical assistance to the local partnering community foundations (initially Effingham County Community Foundation and Mattoon Area Community Foundation).