As an Oxford-Lafayette community member or business, have you ever considered different ways of giving back to the community? Do you know that Oxford and Lafayette County have a community foundation that supports the good works of nonprofits in the Oxford and Lafayette County?

The Lafayette Oxford Foundation for Tomorrow (LOFT) is our local community foundation through which individuals, families, organizations and corporations invest in the well-being of the community by supporting local 501(c)(3) non-profit organizations in work that improves the quality of life for all Lafayette County and Oxford residents.

Our support of local non-profits is wholly dependent on the size of our endowment, which is currently a little over $742,000.    

Each year, we are only permitted to use the interest from that endowment, to ensure that the endowment fund will remain intact in perpetuity.     

So, each year, only the earnings from the LOFT Endowment are spent in awarding grants to local non-profit organizations to assist them in specific projects that are selected through our rigorous application and review process.

LOFT has awarded more than $250,000 in grants since 2005, and we take very seriously our obligation to ensure our precious resources are used in ways to provide tangible, sustainable benefits not only to those in need but to our community as a whole.

We humbly ask you to join in LOFT’s work with your financial support — only by growing our endowment can we ensure that we can help local non-profits to more and better work.

Currently, we are soliciting sponsorship for our annual signature event, “Night for Non-Profits” to be held at 6:30 p.m. at the Powerhouse on Aug. 17, 2017. The evening will showcase the good works of our non-profit grant award finalists and the announcement of this year’s grant award winners.

We will be awarding five separate $5,000 grant award winners and a $2,500 “crowd favorite” award voted on by the attendees.   In total, we will be awarding $27,500 in grants that night. There are five levels of sponsorship starting at $250 up to $5,000. However, all contributions are welcome.

You may make a contribution directly to the endowment fund itself through returning your check (made payable to CREATE, and designating your gift to LOFT in the check notes) along with the information form inside the brochure, using the enclosed envelope.

In addition, you may donate to LOFT through our website by visiting www.loftms.org/donate and clicking the green button marked “Donate Online”, or contacting our Executive Director, Jody Holland at 662-418-1936.

It is vital that we continue to grow our endowment with your generous gift to expand our current reach across Oxford and Lafayette County.

A gift to the LOFT Endowment ensures that while we can’t fully anticipate the coming needs of our community, those funds will remain in perpetuity to grow and serve the needs of our children and grandchildren far into the future.

Thank you!

Jody Holland is the executive director of the Lafayette Oxford Foundation for Tomorrow.