Funds
Milam
County Community Foundation, like all community foundations
in the United States, consists of separate funds each with
its own name. According to terms of a written agreement with
each named fund donor, the Foundation invests fund assets to
earn income that will be allocated back to each fund yearly
depending on its size in relation to other funds in the
pooled investments. Foundation policy requires that
financial reports of each named, advised fund’s income,
disbursements, and earnings be provided to donors annually,
or more often on request.
Most
importantly the foundation is charged by IRS regulations to
invest its assets such that a reasonable return, in the context
of the financial times, is earned. It is not possible to
properly manage a foundation like this without powerful,
accurate accounting software, the services of a competent
independent accounting professional (CPA), services of a
respected investment bank, and an experienced board of directors
and staff.
FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE—Yearly
Federal Income Tax reports (Tax Form 990) are posted by the IRS
on
www.guidestar.org for public inspection. This is Milam
County Community Foundation’s annual Return of Organization
Exempt From Income Tax Form 990
MILAM COUNTY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION FUNDS—
Board of
Directors Discretionary Fund
Made up of
undesignated gifts and investment income, this fund, like all
others, is controlled by Board of Directors of Milam County
Community Foundation. Grants fund special opportunities for
community good not covered by other funds.
C. H. and
Caroline Yoe Foundation Fund
Hall of
Honor nominations, selection, and awards are administered by
Milam County Community Foundation through its C. H. and Caroline
Yoe Foundation Fund. Hall of Honor is a program of lifetime
achievement awards recognizing the distinguished lives of former
students of high schools in the area now covered by Cameron
Independent School District. Graduates of C. H. Yoe High School
make up the majority of inductees, while graduates of historic
Cameron High School and O. J. Thomas High School also are among
inductees. No one has nominated a graduate of the old Milam
Liberal Institute, Milam County’s first school. It is likely
that this early school also was called the Academy. We know that
a school called the Academy stood on the CISD lot in downtown
Cameron now used as a school bus parking facility.
The mission
of C. H. and Caroline Yoe Foundation Fund, if and when it has
the means to do so, is to support citizens’ learning at any age
whether in public or private schooling or by other useful means.
Broadly speaking the Yoe Foundation Fund takes the stand that
local citizens of all ages can contribute to the development of
their community by continually growing in fruitful
relationships, excellence, virtue, knowledge, and skills through
continual learning and re-learning.
Hall of
Honor fits into this mission stated above by holding up role
models to local youth, and encouraging community pride in
inductees whose young lives were molded by growing up in this
place.
This is not
a scholarship fund. Scholarship funds are set up separately
under their own names.
Coleman and
Bertha Duncum Scholarship Fund
John
M. Duncum and his wife Diane of Bryan-College Station set up
this fund in late 2006. Their adult children, Jeff, James M., J.
Mark, and Brooke A. also are contributors to the still growing
fund. When this fund matures it will provide scholarship aid to
graduates of C. H. Yoe High School.
Charlotte
Pipe and Foundry Company Plastics Division Fund
Supported
by employees of Charlotte Pipe and Foundry Company Plastics
Division in Cameron, plus annual gifts from the Company’s
headquarters in Charlotte, NC, this fund demonstrates how
businesses and corporations can use a community foundation. A
committee of Charlotte Pipe employees determines which 501[c][3]
organizations in the Milam County area receive grants.
General
Endowment
Taproot
of the Foundation, this fund holds both board designated and
donor restricted investments to make the foundation permanent.
The General Endowment principal cannot be invaded. The Board of
Directors eventually will award grant from the General
Endowment’s income; for the present, however, the General
Endowment continues to grow through donors’ contributions and
investment income. Since 1998 many undesignated gifts have been
deposited here, as well as a large percentage of Participating
dues ($200.00 annually) and all Benefactors gifts ($1,000.00).
Memorials, tributes, and Founder donations also go into the
General Endowment as well as contributions designated for the
General Endowment.
General
Fund
This
is the operating account of the Foundation, often called the
general and administrative account. Small gifts go into this
account to keep the foundation running. Since its inception, the
Foundation’s ordinary office operating expenses have been
contributed by one donor.
Henrietta
Burkes Teacher’s Award Fund
E.
Jefferson Burkes, Jr., of Pittsboro, NC, established this fund
as a tribute to his mother who taught science and mathematics
many of her 45 years as a public school teacher in Cameron,
Buckholts, and Rockdale, but also in Branchville and Walker’s
Creek Schools. Purpose of the fund, still growing, is to assist
selected science and mathematics teachers in the Cameron
Independent School District to upgrade their credentials as
teachers.
Josey and
Sherwood Watson McClaren Memorial Fund
This
is an endowed scholarship fund. Initially the McClaren Fund
assisted selected students at C. H. Yoe High School to take
dual-credit (high school and college) classes at Temple College,
Cameron Campus. The donor is Max McClaren whose parents, family,
and admired friends are honored by this gift.
Oak
Hill Cemetery Endowment Fund
A
fund to encourage civic-minded donors, owners of grave spaces
and lots, and the City of Cameron to develop and carry out a
plan to upgrade cemetery streets, install signage, establish
landscaping and landscape architecture. Misaligned tombstones
and haphazard growth of small volunteer trees and some brush
continue to disappoint the visitor to Cameron’s city cemetery.
Fund assets are modest in size compared to the above perceived
needs of the cemetery.
Walter
Brown Dossett Fund
Walter
Brown Dossett, Jr.,(1927-2003) set up this family fund to honor
the name of his father, Walter Brown Dossett (1899-1972), who
grew up in Cameron and graduated historic Cameron High
School. The elder Mr. Dossett headed leading local business in
Cameron throughout his adult life even though he moved with his
family to Waco in 1916 and lived there the rest of his life. His
fortitude and loyalty to Cameron provided the strength behind
Cameron Compress Company (1901-2001) that operated here over 100
years. Meanwhile in the 1960s the family’s firms in Cameron grew
to include Royal Cameron Corp. and later L.L. Sams Inc., now
Texwood,. under the direction of Walter B. Dossett, Jr. Dossett
companies here are the largest private employers in North Milam
County. | 
Mission Statement