The Center will oversee the development and implementation of the community-endorsed ideas chosen through the World Equestrian Games Legacy Initiative recently funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The Center will concurrently grow the collaboration and civic engagement that began through the community conversations of the Legacy Initiative, strategically connecting our community through digital media, community meetings and workshops, and volunteer efforts.

More specifically, the Center will oversee the development, implementation, and project management of Legacy projects. This will involve working with local and state government, nonprofits, the business community, funders, and citizens to fully develop the project ideas, set timelines and benchmarks, address project obstacles, solicit funding, and market the project. This work will be accomplished with the guidance of a steering committee and the expertise of a professional staff, overseeing outsourced technical resources and possibly a professional volunteer or loaned-executive network.

The Center also will serve as the hub for the development of a robust social network in the community.

At the end of five years:

* Top priority Legacy Initiative capital and civic projects will be completed by 2010, with other projects following as identified through continuing community conversations.
* Lexington will have a powerful networking model enabling ongoing, collaborative problem-solving through the Blue Grass Community Foundation and its new center.
* BGCF will have the capacity to identify and act upon broad-based community initiatives with far-reaching application. It will assume a new and critical civic leadership role.


The Blue Grass Community Foundation’s mission is to connect people who give to causes they care about and to the needs of our community by providing philanthropic leadership and support. The foundation advances charitable giving, and seeks to enhance the quality of life in the region, for today and tomorrow.

More broadly, “A community foundation is a publicly supported philanthropic institution serving a defined geographic area and governed by a volunteer board of private citizens who represent the public interest. It administers funds from an endowment built from contributions by individuals, corporations, other foundations or government. It distributes grants to non profit agencies in such areas as human services, education health, community development, arts and other civic endeavors.”

The Center for Community Legacy Initiatives will oversee the development and implementation of the community-endorsed ideas chosen through the World Equestrian Games Legacy Initiative recently funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The Center will concurrently grow the collaboration and civic engagement that began through the community conversations of the Legacy Initiative, strategically connecting our community through digital media, community meetings and workshops, and volunteer efforts.

The Center is the civic engagement arm of the BGCF, implementing community initiatives and engaging the community around them. It is physically located at the BGCF, and BGCF has oversight of Center activities and staff. Center employees are not actively involved in day-to-day activities of the BGCF.


The Center is funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation for the next five years. BGCF will provide some in-kind through staff support from the BGCF executive director and staff. BGCF will begin to take over some of the Center expenses in years three and four.

Per the Knight grant, all of the funding goes to support the Center operations only. None of the grant money goes to support core BGCF activities.

Some technical assistance money has been built into the grant to help mitigate the risk to BGCF of such a rapid expansion into a new arena. The money will pay for a national consultant to conduct a thorough cost and revenue analysis of BGCF based on an Activities Based Costing model, and to forecast future performance for BGCF and the Center. This will ensure the stability of BGCF, and a successful integration of the Center into BGCF. It will also provide sustainability planning for the Center.


The Center will have a steering committee, which will serve in an advisory capacity to Center staff on implementation and community engagement issues.