Nebraska Community Foundation Welcomes New York Times Columnist to Rural NE
Recently, New York Times columnist David Brooks spent 72 hours in Greater Nebraska, in furtherance of Weave: The Social Fabric Project. Brooks and a team from the Aspen Institute are touring communities across the country to better understand our society and the elements that make for a strong community. One of the many observations Brooks made after his time in Nebraska was: “Everybody says rural America is collapsing, but I keep going to places with more moral coherence and social commitment than we have in booming urban areas. These visits prompt the same question: How can we spread the civic mind-set they have in abundance?”
Brooks spent time in McCook and Nebraska City, in addition to interacting with three dozen volunteer Nebraska Community Foundation (www.nebcommfound.org) affiliated fund leaders from Albion, Bertrand, Byron, Columbus, David City, Grand Island, Grant, Imperial, McCook, Nebraska City, Ogallala, Ord, Paxton, Red Cloud, and Taylor. Casual open space discussions covered a variety of topics essential to community building from leadership development, to how to run a successful meeting, to diversity and inclusion.
For 25 years, Nebraska Community Foundation has been unleashing abundant local assets, inspiring charitable giving, and connecting ambitious people to build stronger communities and a Greater Nebraska. In the last five years, 41,776 contributions have been made to NCF and its affiliated funds. Since 1994, NCF has reinvested $323 million in Nebraska’s people and places.
“Nebraska Community Foundation is taking the wealth—the financial wealth, but also the intellectual wealth and the spiritual wealth—that is dispersed in the communities and getting people together so they can start a conversation on how we should use all our kinds of wealth…It’s been a model for what can be done around the country,” said Brooks of the organization.
Learn more about the Nebraska Community Foundation’s efforts at www.nebcommfound.org.