Honoring Extraordinary Commitment to Improving Life in Winona

The Winona Community Foundation is proud to award an individual in the community who has demonstrated an extraordinary commitment to improving life in the Winona area through the use of their time, talent and treasure. Individuals selected to receive the award will have the opportunity to grant dollars from the Founders Endowment Fund of the Winona Community Foundation to the charity of their choice.

Criteria

The Winona Community Foundation Founders Fund Award recognizes individuals who:

  • have demonstrated an extraordinary commitment to improving life in the Winona area community through the use of their time, talent and treasure;
  • have recognized unmet needs and untapped opportunities to better our community;
  • have collaborated with others to create a vision of what could be, then motivated others within the community to take action towards pursuit of that vision;
  • serve as role models for others related to charitable activities & community projects;
  • advance philanthropic activities in the Winona area community.

Nominations are accepted from the Winona area community, with the recipients of the award selected by the Winona Community Foundation Board of Directors.


Timeline

Nominations from the community will be accepted in April and May. The Winona Community Foundation Board of Directors will select the recipient from these nominations.

The Founders Award recipient will be announced in July.

The Founders Event to honor the Founders Award recipient will be held in October.

History

The Founders Fund was created in 2003 to honor all of the individuals who planted the seed for the start of the Winona Community Foundation in the 1980s. This endowed fund awards dollars to local nonprofits chosen in the name of an individual or organization that clearly touched community life for all time.

Past recipients of this award include:

Year Recipient
2021 Phil Feiten
2020 JC Pfeiffer
2012 Patte Peterson, Past Board Member of the Winona Community Foundation
2010 The Winona HIMS
2008 Sue Cornwell, Community Leader & First President of WCF
2007 Tim Burchill, Past Development Program Director at Saint Mary’s University of MN
2005 Ms. Gloria Ames, Community Volunteer
2004 Dr. Darrell Krueger, Winona State University, Past President
Louis De Thomasis, Saint Mary’s University, Past President