In every community, there are needs. For some, it is the need for life’s most basic of necessities – food, shelter, clothes, health. Others need resources and encouragement to learn and grow. Support of the arts, remembrance of things past, protection of the future – the way those and so many other needs are met define the community.

Fortunately in Wichita there are many who willingly step up with financial resources, with leadership, with whatever it takes to meet the needs and improve the lives of the people who call Kansas home.

And the Wichita Community Foundation is here to help. We work as convenors, providing a point of contact between those in need and those who can assist. As Foundation administrators, we make the most of every financial gift by carefully overseeing investments, then putting the earnings to work locally as grants for nonprofit organizations. We handle the myriad of paperwork and procedures it takes to assure accurate and timely distribution of funds.

The Wichita Community Foundation continues the rich Kansas tradition of nonprofit service and charitable giving by supporting programs, projects, and organizations that creatively and successfully bind the community together to enrich the quality of life for all citizens.

Our History
The Wichita Community Foundation began with nothing. No operating capital. No donors. No forms. No history. Nothing, that is, except a vision and a commitment to make this a better community in which to live, to grow, and to give.

It began in 1986 when local businessman Dick DeVore gathered together business and community leaders. Based on his experience that came from managing his family’s private philanthropic foundation, DeVore suggested creating a publicly supported foundation to manage, invest, and distribute financial giving citywide. Create such a foundation, he reasoned, and you can address needs, increase giving, and forge unique partnerships that could benefit the city for decades to come.

The idea quickly caught on with a who’s who of Wichita leaders. And when the Wichita Community Foundation officially launched October 2, 1986, 25 local leaders made up its first Board of Directors. Less than a year later, the Foundation’s Annual Report showed assets of $730,000 and awarded grants totaling $135,000.  It was a great beginning.

Two decades later, the vision of those early leaders is stronger than ever, with assets of more than $45 million and annual grants in excess of $3.1 million.

The early years of the Foundation are chronicled in a special video created by Don Cordes, former WCF Board chair, distinguished trial lawyer and avid videographer.  To view this video, click here.