Janelle Leiseth
Director, Moorhead Legacy Education Fund

Moorhead students, alumni and parents take part in the Legacy Education Foundation’s Spud Giving Days during Homecoming in October.

Nancy Edmonds Hanson

When Moorhead students and teachers need a helping hand, the Moorhead Legacy Education Foundation is there for them. Whether it’s an educator needing support for an innovative STEM project or youngsters whose families have come up short on providing essential supplies, the organization directed by faithful local supporters of education stands ready to lend a helping hand.
But there’s a limit to what even year-round fund-raising can achieve, says executive director Janelle Leiseth. That’s why Legacy is looking to the public for long-term gifts – gifts that will become their donors’ legacies as well.
“We’re seeking both planned gifts and outright donations to build a secure foundation for the future,” Janelle says. “That has already been built for Spuds Scholars, which has been awarding scholarships to graduating seniors since 1990. Now we need to build the same reserves for Spud Impact grants.”
The Legacy Education Foundation has been around only since 2019, when boards of two separate school-oriented charities joined forces to create it.
Spuds Scholars (originally called Dollars for Scholars) dates back almost 35 years, when local businessman Lloyd Paulson organized the fund to assist Spud graduates in furthering their education. Legally known as the Moorhead Area Education Foundation, it was launched with a charitable lead trust established by 1939 graduate Roger Pitzenbarger. The endowment has grown over the years to a principal of $1.6 million. Over the years, it has awarded more than $2 million to 2,000 MHS graduates. Just 4% of the ever-growing amount is disbursed in scholarships ranging from $500 to $3,500. About 120 applications were received last year.
The Moorhead Schools Legacy Foundation – the other original leg of today’s combined organization – is much younger. “It was the brainchild of Supt. Lynne Kovash,” Janelle explains. “She had a dream of providing what all students need to learn and thrive.”
In 2015, that program was born as Food for Thought, providing snacks for elementary students during the school day. As private gifts and fund-raising campaigns helped it grow, its reach was extended to Spud Impact grants for teachers and staff. The Kovash fund was begun as a memorial to the late superintendent, who died in 2019. In addition to family gifts, it launch was supported by a $25,000 grant from the Moorhead Rotary Club, of which she was a past president.
Spud Impact grants fund classroom needs in every school and at every grade level, from classroom resources, books and supplies to more specific requests. “We spent two days this fall going over 25 applications,” the foundation director says. “They totaled $21,000, but we have a much smaller budget than that. We ultimately awarded $10,250 to 20 applicants, with some getting only partial amounts.”
Among this year’s successful proposals: Exercise equipment for occupational therapy to build children’s fine and visual motor skills and body strength; grief comfort kits used by counselors supporting grieving children; and materials for Career Academy welding students to built adjustable welding tables for classmates in wheelchairs.
Fund-raising continues year-round, she says. In addition to Giving Hearts Day – a major source, generating $20,000 to $25,000 per year – the foundation holds a Jonathon in March, staffed by high school students who belong to the MHS Student Council, Key Club and PAY (Philanthropy and Youth). Over the summer, Janelle joins with Spud TV to find corporate support; Legacy’s share underwrites printing and distribution of 7,500 school events calendars. When homecoming rolls around on the first weekend in October, students and parents join forces for Spud Giving Days. And, finally, there’s the 152 Club, a membership group, whose members receive a free pass to school activities plus popcorn. Too, the foundation receives income from sales of “Once a Spud, Always a Spud,” the massive 150-year school history book published last year.
Janelle and the board of directors, now headed by Katherine Halvorson, dream of building a true endowment to cover the foundation’s operating costs “in perpetuity,” she says. Spud Impact’s long-term fund now stands at just $36,000.
“Our ultimate goal is $1.5 million,” she says. “We’d like to get to $1.5 million incrementally, ideally, starting with $500 thousand over the next 3 years. We have a lot of leg work to do!”
The Legacy Foundation is hoping to find donors who can make major gifts. Planned legacy gifts through cash and non-cash outright gifts often involve assets whose value has appreciated over the years. Bequests — made through the donor’s will or trust – are one form; others include life insurance and charitable lead trusts, in which the assets pay income to the foundation for a set number of years before reverting back to the donor’s heirs.
Janelle concedes that the Legacy Education Foundation’s goal is an ambitious one. But her board, too, is ambitious to build that foundation, and she says they’re ready to go.
“Our board knows and fully supports our mission. They’re the key to telling our story,” she predicts. “Some are alumni. Some have kids in school right now. Others are businesses that have worked with the district and want to help.
“They – and our whole community – believe in the foundation’s mission: To support and enhance the ever-changing needs of students, programs, staff and facilities to help shape the future of Moorhead Area Public Schools and make an impact on lifelong learning.”
For more information on the foundation and its work, go to www.moorheadlegacy.org.