The Benton County Foundation is hoping a new address will help raise its profile in the community - and help it raise more money for the causes it supports.

After years of toiling in the virtual invisibility of a second-story office over a downtown dress shop, the foundation hopes to move into the Biddle-Porter House, a historic landmark at Northwest Sixth Street and Harrison Boulevard. Owner John Beardsley plans to donate the property to the foundation for use as an office.

"It's an incredible piece of property, and it will give us great visibility in the community," said Dick Thompson, the foundation's executive director.

The two-story structure with a high-peaked roof, carriage house and white picket fence was built around 1853 by Benjamin Biddle, an entrepreneurial jack of all trades who came to Oregon from Illinois and at one time was Abraham Lincoln's barber, according to Beardsley.

Beardsley's great-grandfather Archie Johnson, a former Corvallis mayor, acquired the house early in the 20th century, and it's been in the family ever since. His grandparents, whose name was Porter, lived in the house for about 60 years.

Beardsley himself is a former Corvallis resident who now lives in the Portland area, where he owns a business that redevelops historic buildings. And while he wanted to preserve the family home in Corvallis, it wasn't practical for him to live there himself.

"This house is the last house I own in Benton County," he said. "I wanted to put it in hands that would respect and preserve the house as I remember it, and the Benton County Foundation is just ideal."

This summer, the foundation persuaded the Corvallis Planning Commission to rezone the property for office use, but the commission attached some conditions. Among them is a requirement that the city Historic Resources Commission sign off on the remodeling plans. The commission will review the foundation's application at its Jan. 8 meeting.

The foundation needs only a small portion of the 3,200-square-foot house for office space, Thompson said. The remodeling plans are relatively modest, primarily involving modifications to the circular driveway and western entry to allow wheelchair access. Two handicapped parking spaces will be added, and handicap-accessible restrooms will be built.

The plans also call for a sign at the southeast corner of the fence.

"We're not changing the house," Thompson said. "We're not changing the windows or the siding or the roofline or any of that."

An anonymous donor has offered to pay the remodeling costs, estimated at around $200,000. Maintenance and utility costs are expected to run $1,500 to $2,000 a month, which the foundation, true to form, aims to cover with an endowment. A target of $500,000 has been set for the facilities endowment fund, which currently stands at $125,000 thanks to donations from longtime board members Ray Stephenson and Pete Sekermestrovich and their wives.

Bennett Hall can be reached at 758-9529 or bennett.hall@lee.net.

Foundation funds have grown over time

By BENNETT HALL

Gazette-Times reporter

A high-profile location is the latest step in the evolution of the Benton County Foundation, which was established by area Rotary Club members in 1953 to manage several endowments set up to support local youth groups.

Over the years, those endowments grew and more were added.

The foundation's assets have expanded dramatically in recent years, spurring a transition to professional management. In 1999 the volunteer board of directors hired Kristy Pribyl to handle the accounting and manage the office. Thompson, who had been the board president since 2003, took the paid position of part-time executive director in June of this year.

Today the foundation manages more than 170 endowments and has more than $9 million in assets. That number will climb above $11 million after the first of the year, when the foundation takes over management of several Oregon State University scholarship funds.

All the money is pooled and invested in stocks, bonds and real estate, with about 5 percent of the foundation's assets paid out each year to various institutions, nonprofit organizations and scholarship funds, mostly benefitting youth in Benton County.

"People are becoming more and more interested in endowments because they know the benefit will be provided year after year for the charity they want to support," Thompson said. "The service we are providing is investment management for endowments."

The foundation collects a management fee of less than 1 percent, which pays for operating costs.

This year, the foundation distributed more than $395,000. Most of the money goes to causes specified by the original donors. A small but growing portion of the foundation's assets, however, consists of unrestricted money to be used at the board's discretion. More than $64,000 was distributed to 60 area nonprofits this year.

The foundation accepts grant applications from Dec. 1 through March 1. The board reviews the applications, and grant awards are made in April and May.

As part of the current campaign to raise the foundation's public profile, the board renamed its general fund the Community Fund in October and is promoting the concept to potential donors and nonprofit agencies.

"There's always changing needs in our community," Thompson said.

One of this year's grant recipients was the Boys & Girls Club of Corvallis, which got $5,000 to fund scholarships for kids who couldn't afford the club's membership dues or athletic league fees. While that amount pales next to the club's annual budget of $1.2 million, Executive Director Helen Higgins said it's helpful for local nonprofits to have an additional funding source in the community.

"We have to raise probably $500,000 each year in direct donations," Higgins said. "We've been able to offer a lot more scholarships this year, and that's great."

Thompson is hoping the Benton County Foundation's new headquarters building will attract the attention of potential donors who may not have the foundation on their radar screen now and who will be inspired to give to the Community Fund.

"The more we can build that up through donations and the larger the foundation gets, the more money we'll have to support the grants process," he said.

Bennett Hall can be reached at 758-9529 or bennett.hall@lee.net.