Lawton Community Foundation to mark 25 years

Lawton Community Foundation continues its tradition of supporting community enhancement efforts, 25 years after its creation.

The foundation will officially mark its anniversary Tuesday with a celebration at the Lawton Farmers Market, said Foundation President Mike Mayhall. That celebration will laud those who came before to create an entity that, to date, has invested $3.1 million into the community via support of nonprofit organizations, schools and scholarship programs. In his year-end report, Mayhall said: “It gets back to the core of why Lawton is such a wonderful place to call home. Because when we work together, everyone can make an impact.”

Longtime community leader Dr. Gib Gibson, who played a major role in getting the foundation off the ground, said the foundation traces its roots to Lawton’s Retail Merchants Association. Gibson said the association had some money members wanted to do something with and in the quest to identify that “something,” they were referred to the Oklahoma City Community Foundation. That association, which predates Lawton’s foundation, helped get the Lawton Community Foundation off the ground and continues to play a role today.

“They manage it (the foundation) for us,” Mayhall said, adding the Oklahoma City Community Foundation sponsors 15 foundations around the state, and Lawton’s is the largest.

Gene Love, a member of the board of trustees, was chairman of the foundation in its early days and remembers early-day efforts to help nonprofit organizations create their own endowments and foundations. He said in that initial five-year period, foundation members talked to 21 nonprofits, and all 21 established endowments, using the Lawton foundation’s pledge to provide $10,000 in matching funds to nonprofits who started endowments.

“It’s very important to take care of people, and I think the Lawton Community Foundation has done that,” Gibson said.

The Lawton Community Foundation began with $400,000. Today, it has grown to $14 million, Mayhall said.

Since its beginning, the foundation has distributed $3.1 million, and will distribute $334,000 in 2024. It has a total of 53 endowed funds, with those entities ranging from Arts for All to the Western Trail Heritage Society, the Senior Center for Creative Living to the U.S. Field Artillery Association Foundation. It helped launch the Lawton Public Schools Foundation in 2000, a foundation that today directs 95 cents of every dollar donated to the classroom.

Mayhall said scholarships remain an important community asset, with $486,000 in 342 scholarships awarded since 2001 ($35,000 is to be distributed to 19 individuals in 2024).

Mayhall also is proud of the foundation’s investment in the community, providing $827,000 in community grants and $679,000 in matching grants over those 25 years, with $57,000 in community grants and $32,000 in matching grants planned in 2024. Those funds have supported a wide range of activities, from Teen Court to Lawton AMBUC’s Lou Brox Endowment Fund. One notable recipient was Lawton Farmers Market Institute, the entity that built the Lawton Farmers Market in downtown Lawton. That facility, which opened in February 2022, has an average weekly use of 2,000 people for activities that run year-round.

Today’s board of trustees represent a cross-section of the community: Jennifer Dennis, Phil Ferrell, Natalie Fitch, Gene Love, David Madigan, Linda Neal, Ervin Randle, Jennifer Stewart, David Towe and Mayhall.

Information about the foundation, to include making donations, can be found at LawtonCF.org.