Columbia Basin Foundation works to help establish legacies

EPHRATA — The Columbia Basin Foundation has been working for years now to help ensure community members throughout the Basin can leave a lasting legacy in their hometowns, counties and communities they’re a part of, said Corrine Isaak, CBF executive director. 

That was the goal set by founders Rick Honsowetz and Randy Dickinson, she said. 

“It’s not just one community,” Isaak said. “It’s 10 counties with a lot of communities that have the opportunity to prosper because of (the) vision they had in 1996. I mean, they created a really amazing concept for charitable giving.” 

Office in Ephrata’s Lauzier Building on Basin Street, CBF serves Okanogan, Ferry, Stevens, Douglas, Lincoln, Kittitas, Franklin, Whitman, Grant and Adams counties by providing a means for residents with financing to donate to particular causes to keep their money where it would do good on a local level in communities they love, Isaak said. CBF accepts donations from businesses, nonprofits and residents and manages those as established in trusts or funds that are set up for particular purposes. 

According to the foundation’s 2023 annual report, donations have grown significantly since CBF was founded in 1994 — 30 years ago — by the Honsowetz and Dickinson, both who had financial planning backgrounds. The organization established 10 new funds last year bringing the total to 172 with a total of $13 million endowed and $2.5 million non-endowed among them. Last year, 355 donors contributed about $1.5 million to accounts managed by the Columbia Basin Foundation and about $1.3 million was distributed in grants or scholarships. 

Isaak said her involvement with the foundation has lasted more than a decade with her initial interest being how she could donate responsibly to causes in the community she lived in. She became a board member and eventually executive director as she became a passionate supporter of what CBF does. 

“This is such a cool concept because people work really hard in these communities to gain their wealth,” Isaak said. “And then they really love where they live. They love the place, and they have this sense of place and even when they grow older, they probably get more sentimental about what they’ve done in their lives. And they want to give back.” 

As people age, many gain wealth but don’t have an upscaling in lifestyle, she said. They’re comfortable with the life they live in the home they know, so rather than buying a new home or car or luxury vacations, they look at how they can responsibly invest in their communities. 

That’s where CBF can help them plan what they want done with their wealth, including some estate planning to ensure the money goes where it’s needed. 

One example of that sort of giving is a fund set up by Honsowetz and his daughters to honor his late wife through the Patricia M. Honsowetz Memorial Scholarship which benefits students in the Moses Lake School District who have been in the foster care system or were adopted. The family had wanted to honor Patricia’s love of serving children, especially those who were going through difficult situations. 

Other individuals and families have come in to establish similar funds to honor the memories of loved ones or simply make sure something they love about the community continues forward. Funds can even be set up so that they grow and are advised by whoever contributed the money to make certain the money goes where it was intended. 

“If you had a $100,0000 inheritance and you say, ‘You know what? I want $100,000 to go to my donor-advised fund, We’re going to do it today, but I’m going to let it grow and I’m going to give, but I’m only going to give $5,000 away a year.’” 

Putting that money into a donor-advised fund managed by the Columbia Basin Foundation allows for that sort of giving, Isaak said. Under the law, independent foundations have fewer restrictions than private funds managed by individuals. Donors can get more details by speaking with a CBF staff member or a financial advisor on how taxes and charitable contributions should be managed for best effect. 

CBF works to be a one-stop-shop so that giving is easy, Isaak said. 

“(They can) just pick up the phone and talk to a person that’s local. They don’t have to push one and then get hung up on and not talk to somebody,” she said. 

The foundation offers transparency and a personal relationship so that people can trust what’s being done with their contributions, she said. 

“It’s really about building relationships,” Isaak said. 

Most recently, a new relationship between the Columbia Basin Foundation and a free meal program with the United Methodist Church set up a new fundraising goal. Christine Price with the program had asked about grant funding after a fire at the church damaged or destroyed equipment used to prepare and serve meals — tables and similar items — during the last Thursday of the month meal gatherings. CBF set up a donation drive and is asking for donations of any amount possible — $500 pays for a table and eight chairs, thus the name of the fundraiser “Table for 8.”

Isaak said she’s hopeful that the work CBF does with the program will help continue the tradition of the last 14 years which has seen more than 14,000 meals served.

R. Hans “Rob” Miller may be reached at editor@columbiabasinherald.com. 

Columbia Basin Foundation

101 Basin St. NW
Ephrata, WA 98823
509-754-4596
cbfcommunity.org