2018 ANNUAL REPORT - Mel douglass fund

Scholarships
  • Ross Tedder won the $8,000 Mel Douglass Scholarship.  Already an experienced community activist, he engaged many fellow students in service projects that collectively delivered a powerful impact.  Ross is now a freshman at Morehouse College in Atlanta, the alma mater of Dr. Martin Luther King.
  • Sawyer Dill, Owen Maue, and Matt Zelenko earned $1,000 honorable mention scholarships. 
  • Over the fund’s eleven year history, your contributions have supported 55 Edgewood students (eleven Mel Douglass Scholarship winners plus 44 honorable mention winners) who enrolled in 32 colleges and universities located in 13 states and Washington DC.  
 
Contributions
  • The 97 contributions in 2018 ranged up to $7,300 and resulted in our best fundraising year to date.  Your generosity has resulted in eleven years of continuous improvement in contributions. 
  • Our donor base continues to be a healthy blend of long time and newer contributors.  Since our inception in 2008, over 180 individuals, families, or organizations have contributed.  We are proud to celebrate all who have honored Mel over the years.  The 2018 donors are listed on the back of this page and donors from 2008 through 2017 are displayed at meldouglassfund.org.
  • The annual Mel Douglass Memorial Golf event on August 4th was another successful fundraiser and a wonderful day of fellowship.  As always, Gregg Bowers and Nick Kefalos deserve recognition and thanks for their tremendous leadership of this event.  Thanks again for a terrific day, guys!  Our 2019 golf event will take place on August 3rd complete with a Donor Recognition Party the night before.   Please save those dates and plan to make it a weekend…more information to follow!
  • As always, 100% of your contributions were directed to current or future scholarships.  All expenses to operate the fund are personally paid by our Board of Directors.  These expenses include the Donor Recognition Party, tax filings, web design and maintenance, graphics, and postage.
 
Operations
  • To keep pace with rising college costs, the Board voted to increase the value of the Mel Douglass Scholarship from $8,000 to $10,000.  The increase will take effect this year.  The honorable mention scholarships will remain valued at $1,000 for the near term.
  • The Board hosted our second Donor Recognition Party on Friday August 3rd.  The approximately 75 of you who joined us had such a wonderful evening at the Grand View Golf Club remembering Mel that we are planning to continue this party annually.     
  • We continued to align all of our activities to build an endowment that is self-sustaining in perpetuity to make sure Mel’s legacy endures and continues to benefit young people in Edgewood.  We balanced short-term and long-term financial objectives again in 2018:
    • Short-term:  We financially supported all of the scholarships awarded and met all of our other obligations to operate the fund.
    • Long-term:  We set aside a portion of your contributions to continue building a sustaining endowment.  Thanks to your generosity, the December 31 endowment balance grew for the eleventh straight year.