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Foundation Executive of the Year: Mary Gibble, Community Foundation of Hancock County
Mary Gibble is the seventh generation of her family to have “lived, loved, farmed and contributed to Hancock County,” and, except for her years at Ball State University, she has lived there her entire life. As president and CEO of the Community Foundation of Hancock County for almost 20 years, she said it’s been “so rewarding to contribute to a community that I love.”
Those contributions include:
• Growing the foundation’s endowment from $11 million to almost $70 million, thanks to “a generous community.” “That was through careful stewardship,” she added. “It’s from building trust with donors who are looking to the community foundation to steward their gifts into perpetuity.”
• Increasing the foundation’s grantmaking from about $40,000 a year to almost $2 million a year. “I’m humbled by the work that nonprofit organizations do every day because, while a community foundation is officially a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, we are not a direct service provider. We are helping those organizations that do the hard work through funding that we are privileged to send their way.”
• Relocating the foundation from its old offices to “a very visible, open, welcoming community center, The Thrive Center.” In the new space, “we have been able to encourage people to contribute to the well-being of the county through a variety of programming that we have initiated as well as gatherings of community organizations that are moving the needle.” The facility the foundation vacated is serving the community now as a nonprofit center.
• Endowing Hancock County’s participation in Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library program. Every child born in Hancock County has access to the Imagination Library program free of charge and always will, Gibble said, thanks to community fundraising that brought in $2 million to create an endowment that covers the cost of books. Gibble said 2,700 children are currently enrolled in that program, and more than that have graduated. “That will perpetually be a gift from our community, thanks to the many donors who contributed.”
“I, alone, have done very little,” Gibble said. “I, together, with others, have been able to be part of something pretty great.”
The staff, executive committee and former board chairs of the Community Foundation of Hancock County—14 in all—signed a letter supporting Gibble’s nomination for Foundation Executive of the Year, saying she “exemplifies what it means to be a foundation executive in the truest and most honorable sense. She is a powerhouse whose work has shaped lives, strengthened systems, and elevated the role of philanthropy in community transformation.”
Gibble plans to retire at the end of this year, and she and her husband intend to stay in Hancock County. She will “hit the pause button for a little bit,” but eventually, Gibble said, she will return to community service in the county she loves.•
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