Cadott Library endowment now through Community Foundation

The Cadott Community Library converted a trust into an endowment fund through the Community Foundation of Chippewa County.

The George and Alice Miller trust had originally been set up in 1963.

“We, as a board, are very thankful, of course, to the Millers for donating this money initially,” said Katherine “Cookie” Kaste, library board president.

Photos of the Millers, who were very supportive of the library’s mission, still hang behind the front desk.

“There were supposed to be three people on this board to take care of the trust,” said Samma Johnson, Cadott library director.

Johnson said, over time, the fund wasn’t taken care of the way it should have been and the library began seeing fewer funds from the trust each year. By the time Johnson began working at the library, the payments were not always coming on time, either.

“We needed to make sure we were getting our payments on time, because it was part of our budget,” said Johnson.

Johnson says they began digging into how the trust was set up, they realized no one knew much about the trust or who was supposed to be involved with it.

Anson Albarado, village board president, said he did not even realize he was a board member for the account, through his position on the village board. Albarado says, by the time he realized he was supposed to be involved, no one at the bank wanted to be take part in the account management.

“Then, I had to go through the attorneys to say to them, ‘I can’t get anybody to be a part of this,’” said Albarado.

Kaste says the process to switch the trust over to the Community Foundation took a couple years, and much work on Albarado’s part.

Johnson says converting the trust into the George A. Miller and Alice Miller Library endowment fund through the Community Foundation, is a way to ensure that the money will continue to benefit the library and be cared for properly.

Albarado agreed, as the foundation handles the management of the funds, so they do not have to worry about who is next in line to take care of the funds.

“I think it’s going to lead to a better future for the fund and how it can help us,” said Johnson.

However, changing the trust into an endowment fund took time. Albarado had to go to court to get the agreement declared null, since there were not three trustees anymore. Albarado says that allowed them to begin transferring the funds without having three trustees.

Albarado says there was about $100,000 in CDs and another $100,000 in stocks, through two companies, in the trust.

“The CDs were pretty easy to cash,” said Albarado, since they could just get a check and send it to the foundation.

He says selling the stocks posed more of a challenge, because he had to prove his identity and that he had to authority to complete the transactions, as well as get attorneys involved.

“That took a little longer,” said Albarado.

Kaste says the funds all recently reached the foundation and the point of the endowment, is that it will go on indefinitely and provide grants to the library.

Johnson says the funds are invested wisely and the library gets the interest from the endowment, which will likely be earmarked for operational costs of the library or for purchasing materials. “It’s (Community Foundation) just a more efficient and more visible way to handle it,” said Kaste.

Since it will be a few years before the endowment generates a track record of what funding it will reliably provide each year, Albarado says $10,000 was set aside to draw off of for the next three to four years.

Johnson says there are many ways people can donate to the library. Those looking for a long-lasting contribution, can donate to the endowment, with more information available at cadottlibrary.org/donate.