MOSES LAKE — The Columbia Basin Foundation celebrated its 30th birthday Sunday with a party at ENZO in Moses Lake.

“Each of you comes to CBF for a different purpose,” Executive Director Corinne Isaak told the assembly. “Sometimes it’s sad, sometimes it’s a happy time. But we all come together for a common purpose: to be charitable (and) to make an impact.”

The Columbia Basin Foundation is a nonprofit organization that serves as a vehicle of charitable giving, Isaak said in an informational video shown at the celebration that described the foundation’s history and work. 

“People come to us, whether it’s an individual, a family, a business, some kind of organization, and they want to utilize our services to execute their mission,” Isaak said in the video.

Many of the guests at Sunday’s celebration wore name tags bearing not their own name but the name of the foundation they represented.

One of those was the Samaritan Foundation, which uses the money for scholarships for Samaritan Healthcare staff, said Executive Director Roberta Bigalk.

“This year we gave over $48,000 to our staff in order to continue their education,” Bigalk said. “Some of them are going from an LPN to an RN degree. Some of them are wanting to move from a BSN to a nurse practitioner. Some of them are wanting to finish their AA degrees. It’s not just medical staff; it’s staff as a whole.”

The only requirements for those scholarships are that the employees have worked at Samaritan for six months and then stay at least two years after the education is completed.

“It’s a great program for staff to feel supported in continuing their education,” Bigalk said. “In many cases, the scholarship can pay all of their tuition fees.”

The Columbia Basin Foundation was officially organized in 1996 by Rick Honsowetz of CliftonLarsonAllen and Randy Dickinson of Edward Jones, according to the foundation’s website. The purpose was to take the complexities of managing a charitable fund off the shoulders of the donor and help them get their money where they wanted it to go.

“My husband owned and operated his own business here for over 30 years until he got diagnosed with cancer, so one of the things that he wanted was to have a scholarship established in his name after he passed,” said Randy Martin in the video. Martin’s husband Bernie Martin passed away from cancer in 2021. The Columbia Basin Foundation manages the Bernie Martin Agricultural Scholarship, which awards two scholarships every year for students pursuing ag careers.

Other donors who spoke in the video had designated funds for the Ephrata Food Bank, to benefit foster children or to be disbursed in grants to recipients chosen by the Columbia Basin Foundation for a particular area of interest.

Dave Campbell, who came on board at the foundation as its first fund manager in 1997, said in the video that at that time the foundation had only one fund, and now manages almost $20 million.

“Looking now at the Columbia Basin Foundation, the growth, the evolution that it's had, the impact it has on the Columbia Basin, having a place and a space for community members to support nonprofits, create nonprofits, create scholarships to help students is so powerful,” said Chelan Kleyn, of the Paul Lauzier Foundation, in the video. “And to reflect back 30 years, knowing that we were able to be a part of it from the very beginning, it just it feels really good.”

To learn more about the Columbia Basin Foundation, visit cbfcommunity.org.

    Guests mingle at the Columbia Basin Foundation’s 30th anniversary celebration Sunday at ENZO in Moses Lake.
  

    Columbia Basin Foundation Executive Director Corinne Isaak shows attendees at the foundation’s 25th anniversary celebration how far the funds the foundation manages have grown in that time. The foundation now handles nearly $20 million.