Original $1.5 million has grown six times for Enid Community Foundation

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March 6, 2006

By Robert Barron The Enid News and Eagle Mon Mar 06, 2006, 04:12 PM CST

That belief, plus her banking experience, has helped Stallings lead the Enid Community Foundation and help it grow.

Since college, she has worked with non-profit organizations, whose boards often need her skills.

The business skills she brings to the groups include reading financial statements and understanding trust agreements.

“You have to let things take their own course,” she said.

Stallings said all of the other board members and contributors to the Enid Community Foundation have also lent their expertise to the organization.

One of her goals is to educate people about what endowments can do so they will not be afraid of them. Stallings believes there still is a reluctance by many people to use endowments, fearing they will not be able to do what they want to do.

Often people discuss a project they have in mind during the grant cycle, and Stallings will know where they can collaborate on that idea to help make it grow.

Another reason the ECF has been successful is the small operating budget. The foundation operates with one full-time employee and volunteers from RSVP and expertise from board members.

The City of Enid also cooperated with ECF on rent for its office space in the Cherokee Strip Conference Center.

Main Street Enid and PEGASYS also have worked with the ECF, and together they have learned about each other, she said.

All of those, plus the volunteers, have made the organization a success.

ECF has grown from the original gift by the Sisters of Mercy of $1.5 million to $6 million in assets and $250,000 in total grants in 2005.

Stallings said her job is to educate while the actual contacts are made by the board members.

A lot of the success has been in the timing.

The original board was started by Kelly Champlin, who saw what was happening in the community and the opportunity; Tim Traynor who had been thinking about a community foundation for several years; and Allan McCobb of the United Way of Enid and Northwest Oklahoma, who knew the difference endowments make.

Stallings had worked with a non-profit consultant from Oklahoma City and was familiar with how the ECF would operate when she was offered the job.

“All the pieces came together at the right time,” she said.

Enid Community Foundation Board president Todd Humphrey said Stallings’ experience was “fantastic.”

As a lender with Bank of Oklahoma, Stallings worked with the trust department and gained extensive knowledge working with non-profit groups, he said.

“When she was hired there was very little teaching done,” Humphrey said.

Stallings also attended workshops hosted by groups like Sarkeys Foundation and what she did not know, she learned.

“She continues to do that training, and now they are asking her to make the presentations,” he said. “She hit the ground running and it has taken off. She works long hours, nights and weekends, it makes my job as president pretty easy,” he said.

The ECF can be an economic development tool. Many communities do not have a community foundation and she believes Enid’s foundation is evidence to companies of Enid’s quality of life.

Stallings also would like to see more education on the money from Enid to state and national organizations. She said the ECF can create endowments for organizations here and the funding will stay local and benefit the community at the same time.

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