The Central Montcalm Community Foundation originally was know as the Central Montcalm Public School Foundation and was founded in 1992. It was brought about by the desire to continue the positive support for the school as demonstrated by the then recently completed sports complex. It initially consisted of 7 directors and over time has been increased to the now present 17. In 1993 the Foundation applied to the Internal Revenue Service to become a 501 (c) (3). This is our status at this time. The original purpose of the foundation was to "PROMOTE, ENCOURAGE, AID AND SUPPLEMENT EXISTING FUNDS FOR SCHOOL AND RELATED ACTIVITIES INCLUDING ACADEMIC, ATHLETIC OR ARTISTIC IN THE CENTRAL MONTCALM SCHOOL DISTRICT. This was done by raising money which went into an endowed fund where the principal is never touched but the income generated annually from the principal was used to give small grants and annual scholarships to Central Montcalm teachers and students.

Our assets grew from 0 in 1992 to $30,000.00 in 1997. In 1997 the Foundation applied to the State of Michigan to become a community Foundation. The original Foundation was recognized by the State as a Community Foundation in 1998 and the name was changed to reflect our current status. There were two primary reasons for this change: the desire to be able to assist in meeting the needs of the entire population in the Foundation's service area and a Community Foundation provided significantly greater opportunities and options for obtaining funds and support to expand the Foundation's asset base. This has allowed our assets to grow from the $30,000.00 in 1997 to over ten times that amount and has allowed us to participate in the Michigan Tobacco Settlement. We have been able to increase our grants from a few hundred dollars a year to several thousand dollars and to support a broad range of needy community programs. Our revised purpose then became: "TO PROMOTE, ENCOURAGE, AID AND SUPPLEMENT FUNDS FOR EDUCATIONAL AND COMMUNITY ORIENTED PROJECTS IN THE CENTRAL MONTCALM AREA". (The area is defined as all of those townships which are wholly or partly served by the Central Montcalm School District.)