ROBERT PIERCE
• Leader & Times
During the holidays, many non-profits receive funding from the annual Giving Tuesday or Match Day, and recently, the Meade County Community Foundation wrapped up its Match Month.
Director Cheyenne Federau said the foundation had a month in which it could raise a goal of at least $100,000, and this year, MCCF received a match of those funds from the Kansas City-based Patterson Family Foundation, which matches up to $100,000.
Federau said last year, the Patterson gave MCCF $70,000 through its Match Month campaign, and she said the giving for this year’s drive increased substantially.
“We were actually able to meet our match this year,” she said. “That’s pretty exciting.”
Federau said half of the money raised goes into the foundation’s endowment accounts for operations and unrestricted grants.
“That helps to ensure we have more sustainability,” she said.
The remainder of the funding can be use at foundation officials’s discretion.
“We did have four non-profits set up agency funds, so we allow them to keep that portion of the match in their funds,” Federau said. “That was an incentive we have for non-profits to set up funds with us, and we had four that went ahead and did it. That was pretty exciting.”
Match Month runs from Sept. 18 through Oct. 18, and with only three days remaining in the campaign, Federau said the total raised at that point was $75,000, considerably short of the $100,000 goal. However, she said some last-minute donations came through to help reach the goal.
“We had $12,000 or $13,000 come in real fast for the historical society, and there was a bunch that trickled in at the end,” she said. “We were hopeful we’d make it, but we weren’t sure. Sure enough, we were able to.”
Federau said receiving a match from the Patterson foundation was awesome.
“It’s really a way where everybody who wants to help knows what the check they write or the dollars they put in is going to be doubled,” she said. “The amount of impact everybody can make when we come together is amazing, and to have a foundation like that who supports us supporting our non-profits, it’s a neat deal.”
This year, Federau actually got to meet with officials from the Patterson foundation as part of that organization’s listening tour.
“They hadn’t actually been out here,” she said. “They fund all these projects out here, but it was really neat for them to see what the impact of what they’re doing is and hear the stories of what we’ve been able to do with the funding they provide. It was a really impactful experience for me as well.”
Federau said she hopes the Match Month money will have an immediate impact.
“We have a lot of immediate needs in our county,” she said. “A big one is our Meade Food Bank. They are in Meade, and they serve Meade, but they also serve a lot of people from Plains and Kismet, even Liberal. They have a few from Fowler who come over too.”
The current federal government shutdown leaves many wondering what will happen with the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and Federau said food banks are filling huge needs with the help of MCCF.
“Just knowing we have this funding, we’ll be able to continue to help them,” she said. “They have to move out of their building by the end of the year. Not only are they having people rely on their services, which requires more funding, but they need funding to move to a different building. Knowing we’ll be able to help with that if they give us a call, it’s really nice to know that’s there for our community members.”
Other areas MCCF’s money has helped with includes patching roofs and fixing flooring and fencing.
“A lot of times, we see the big shiny project,” she said. “We bought some cool playground equipment for one of our grade schools. That’s really nice, and it’s fun to see the kids out there, but also, we have to remember to upkeep the things we have to keep them nice.”
MCCF also has two grant cycles per year, with the next one coming up in early 2026, and Federau said the money raised from Match Month will help with that cycle. In this year’s January grant cycle, Federau said 31 grant applications, and not all were able to be funded. She did say, though, she was able to send some of those to other community foundation and donors to fill those needs.
“We’ll have a lot more wiggle room in our budget to help feel all the needs we feel will impact our county positively,” she said.
MCCF’s other cycle is in July, and Federau said those cycles tend to get less requests.
“I think a big part of it is school is not in session,” she said. “We don’t have nearly as many school activity related requests. July is usually easier for us than January. With January, we get hit hard, and we have to keep funds to make it to July. It’ll be a lot easier this year to look at it and see what we have and what we’re able to do.”
Federau said some of the funding received in one grant cycle must be saved to help with the next.
“We have to make sure we’re able to meet needs year-round and not just that one time,” she said.
Applications for the next grant cycle will open Jan. 1, 2026, and those will be available at meadecountycomunityfoundation.org and at city offices and libraries in Fowler, Meade and Plains.
“We try to do it that way because the libraries have different hours and days they’re open than the city office,” Federau said. “We try to make it more accessible. You can fill it out on a PDF online, or you can fill it out by paper. We’re not picky either way.”
Applications will need to be postmarked by Jan. 31, 2026.
“We required they’re mailed in,” Federau said. “That is a Saturday, so I would make a note to do it by the 30th. We’ll distribute the funds. We usually give them a week to come in before we review them. We’ll review them the 9th of February, and we’ll get those funds out by the end of the second week of February, if not at the very beginning of the third week of February. It’s not a very long turnaround.”
Federau said the need for funding such as MCCF’s is extreme in Meade County.
“Over the last couple years, our needs have grown substantially, and a really easy way to measure that is a year prior to January, we would receive seven grant applications,” she said. “Now, we’re receiving over 30 in one grant cycle.”
Federau said the need at local food banks has especially grown with about 200 people being served as recently as two years ago to now as many as 700 being served in one month.
“When you have big disasters in agriculture, that’s those people who fund a lot of things, and when they don’t have those excess funds, it’s really hard for everybody else as well,” she said. “We work really hard to meet all the needs. Sometimes, we can, and sometimes, we can’t. That’s a hard pill to swallow too, but we know we’re there when people really need something.”
Oct. 18, MCCF hosted a finale celebration event in Meade for Match Month, and Federau said she was quite pleased with the event.
“We had a beautiful day,” she said. “We had several groups come out. We had a lot of fun activities.”
Those activities included a coffee booth, lemonade, pumpkin and face painting, volleyball, life-sized board games, archery tag and a pickleball tournament.
“We had six teams this year, and we had $500 in cash prizes provided by Meade County Economic Development,” Federau said. “We were very thankful for that.”
Federau said foundation officials are considering changing the time of year or day for the event to increase numbers for the finale event.
“Some people suggested doing it in the evening to avoid conflicts with rec sports and junior high volleyball,” she said. “That might be a solution, but we had a good day. Some of our non-profits made some decent money too. That totaled up, and we made over $100,000 total for the month. It was a fun time where we could all celebrate.”
Federau said much of the Match Month funding goes directly to non-profits.
“We are not keeping all of that first $100,000,” she said. “A lot of it is passed through directly to our non-profits, which is really exciting. It’s really a great tool for them to raise funds knowing they’re going to get them and they’ll get doubled and that will stay in the county. Those are available to them through our grant cycles.”
Part of the Match Month donations came from a donor who gave $20 per fifth grader in Meade County schools, and Federau said each student got to pick a non-profit to be the recipient of their $20.
“We had some that were pretty high,” she said. “The Plains library did super good, and it was really cool to see where the kids wanted to put their funding. We see where adults pick all the time, but I’ve never had that many who picked the library. Shooting sports was another popular one. It was really neat. The kids got really excited about it.”
The Plains Community Library received $300 from the fifth graders. Southwestern Heights shooting sports and Meade volleyball got $160 each, with the Meade Rec Center getting $140 and the Fowler Library getting $120. Federau said others received anywhere from $20 to $60.
As a former teacher, Federau said she still went into the fifth grader campaign not knowing what to expect.
“It’s been a long time since I worked with that age level,” she said. “It was so much fun.”
For Federau, the holidays will be a little brighter this year in Meade County thanks to the Match Month funding and the match from the Patterson foundation.
“It’s really rewarding,” she said. “When you work, live and play in this area and it impacts my personal life and my children, family and friends, it’s really rewarding to be able to do that and connect donors with needs and connect non-profits to the funding they need. It impacts my everyday life in ways I wouldn’t have ever thought when I first started this.”
