Giving, growing: Columbia Basin Foundation celebrates 25th anniversary

MOSES LAKE — The Columbia Basin Foundation celebrated 25 years of scholarships, grants and charitable giving at a dinner gala Sunday at Pillar Rock Grill at Moses Lake Golf Club.

“I am just so glad to be a big part of the Columbia Basin Foundation’s daily walk,” Executive Director Corinne Isaak told approximately 100 dinner guests. “I’m so appreciative of every person in this room and what you bring to this organization.”

Isaak said the foundation began with a $25,000 donation in 1996 and has grown to manage an endowment of $13.5 million and give away nearly $470,000 in 2021.

“The people in this community are so generous and community-minded, and they want to invest their dollars to give to the next generation,” Isaak told the Columbia Basin Herald.

The foundation is known best for its scholarships to local high school and college students. In 2021, it awarded $150,000 in scholarships to 130 recipients.

The foundation was started when Randy Dickinson, then a financial adviser for Edward Jones Investments, and accountant Rick Honsowetz decided the region needed one organization to help fund charities.

Dickinson said this was important because many of the people who came to the Basin in the 1950s and 1960s came with little money but managed to do quite well for themselves before they retired.

“I recognized that the Columbia Basin was maturing and accumulating some wealth, and there would be people who wanted to leave some of it to benefit the community.” Dickinson said.

Dickinson said he and Honsowetz looked at other community funds, such as the Blue Mountain Community Foundation in Walla Walla, as their guide when they established the CBF.

“People that have been blessed want to share that blessing with others,” Honsowetz said. “The foundation then finds worthy individuals and organizations to give a leg up, support their missions — really change their lives.”

Dickinson also said he was thankful so many people have taken an interest in keeping the foundation going.

“It’s grown a lot. The people who came after me put a lot of work into it and made it what it is today,” Dickinson said.

Isaak said the foundation continues to raise funds and expects to have an endowment of $14 million by Nov. 1.

Honsowetz said he is confident the foundation will prosper over the course of the next 25 years.

“I’m optimistic about the future,” he said. “We’re raising more money to do more good things, and I’m very optimistic that it’s in good hands.”

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at cfeatherstone@columbiabasinherald.com.