Community Foundation Director Retiring
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowCommunity Foundation of Morgan County Executive Director Tom Zoss says he will retire this fall. The organization hopes to have a replacement chosen by September.
June 17, 2014
News Release
Morgan County, Ind. — Tom Zoss, Executive Director of the Community Foundation of Morgan County, has announced his retirement this fall. A search for his replacement will begin soon to locate the next person to head the office that does the work of the Community Foundation and also the Kendrick Foundation here in Morgan County.
Zoss assumed the role in April 2007 and the CFMC has grown substantially during that time. “When I started we were managing about $3.7 million distributed into 71 different funds,” he remembers. “Now, we've about doubled the assets despite the recession, and we manage over 170 funds.”
“While we serve many causes and other non-profits in the region, we're essentially a charity that manages and distributes money for programs, grants and scholarships,” Zoss said. “We help many good people to do good things.”
With the CFMC and Kendrick operations, plus two important scholarships from the Lilly Endowment, the staff of five helps to distribute over $1 million in grants and about another $1 million in scholarships each year. Management and investment of funds is a key function of the community foundation and the public records show the CFMC investments, after fees, grew by more than 20% last year.
“This has been a truly enjoyable experience in an amazingly generous county,” Zoss noted. The foundation collects about $1.5 million in donations in an average year, and some years, such as the 2008-2009 period when the CFMC acted as the fiscal agent for the county's flood relief effort, the revenue more than doubled.
Zoss is an attorney with prior experience at the I.U. Foundation. Before that he taught business law and marketing and public relations subjects at I.U. South Bend and management at Notre Dame. Previously he was an executive who worked in industries such as newspaper publishing, rubber goods manufacturing, electronics, and band instruments.
During his tenure here the foundation also acquired a new home office on the courthouse square in Martinsville, and now operates offices in Mooresville and Martinsville. Meeting rooms and free Wi-Fi are offered to both communities from CFMC facilities.
“I am so very proud and grateful for my staff, a small but efficient group of professionals who work hard to help the citizens of Morgan County,” he said.
Zoss handles the work for two separate boards of directors. The CFMC board has 13 members from the community, and works through 7 key committees. The Kendrick Foundation has a board of 6 members.
“We want to build upon our success in recent years by continuing to serve the people of Morgan County with a careful search for Tom's replacement,” said Patty Wood, current CFMC president. “We will be seeking the right individual to take over and continue the growth in services and scope we've seen since we hired Tom nearly 8 years ago.”
While this is a retirement for Zoss, he expects to have some involvement as a consultant after leaving the Morgan County position. “I hope my experience running foundations and raising money could be of use at other places where temporary vacancies need to be filled by an interim executive,” he said. “That could be more relaxing and still very fulfilling.”
A search for the new CFMC Executive Director will open within days, with a desire to have the new Executive Director chosen by about September 1st. More information will be available on the CFMC web site at yourCFMC.org or by calling toll-free 855-280-3095.
