The Evergreen Legacy Fund is a program to raise funds to complete improvements and infrastructure in the Greater Evergreen area that improve public safety, improve our mountain lifestyle and support our local businesses. The ELF Board was established in 2010 and elected by our community business and property owners:
Dean Dalvit, EVstudio; Gail Riley, Highland Haven;
Bob Cardwell, Stillwater Partners;
Kathleen Davis, Evergreen Players; Eric Gill, Bearpaw Management;
Rachel Nicks, Seasonally Yours; Alexa Cowley, Alexa Interiors;
Richard Toussaint; and Linda Kirkpatrick
Mail: PO Box 252 Evergreen, CO 80437
e-mail: contact@evergreenlegacyfund.org
or post a comment below and we will get in touch with you directly!
Evergreen Legacy Fund 
Aside from following the blog, are there other ways to be involved with DEED?
You bet – we’re actually currently working on developing ways for non board members to help on DEED projects, tasks, or anything else that needs some horsepower. Just get in touch with anyone on the board and we can make sure you’re on that list. Thanks!!
I would like to see some sort of specific accounting on ELF, how much has been raised, from which partners, how much has been spent and towards what. Every time I buy something, it seems I am paying an extra fee for…working on trails around the lake? Surely this fund can do more than that. I did read the letter that went out last year. Perhaps the Canyon Courier can do a story?
Hi Janet, thanks for your question. We report on the ELF fund on a semi-regular basis and share the account balance openly. Our next board meeting is later this week, so I don’t have the latest exact information as I write this, but as of the last reporting, the account has grown to over $250,000 over the past five years. Contributions from individual members is strictly confidential, and in fact, our system allows for accountability with anonymity, so I couldn’t provide you that detail if I wanted to, though individual members may share that information on their own if they so choose. The funds are used as leverage for much larger projects such as the elevated lake loop trail and the trails master plan. Our current objective is a river trail on the East end of downtown along Independence Trail/Lower Meadow Drive. As far as how far a dollar can go on projects like this, if you’ve followed any of the EPRD Lake trail reconstruction, they’re looking at trail options that range from $800,000-$3M. So unfortunately, ~$50k per year of growth doesn’t actually go as far as anyone would like. But it’s a heck of a start and it’s garnered the attention of the officials at Jefferson County to both express support as government partner on the river trail project as well as encourage Evergreen to form a LID so many more projects could be accomplished (because every grant requires a government applicant/sponsor). Like all things, it takes time to navigate the process (lake loop elevated trail for example was 4+ years that amounted to literally 1000s of hours of volunteer time). But we’re committed to doing everything we can to make Evergreen a better, safer place for residents and visitors alike. As far as the Courier doing a story, we regularly keep them up to date. They’ve covered DEED projects fairly well as well as ELF from time to time. And most recently, they’ve done a pretty good job covering the LID that we’re working on with Jeffco. It’s ultimately up to them though when to write a story and what to cover, but we’d certainly welcome it.
Thanks!
Hi, Can you provide me with ELF’s EIN so that I can confirm their nonprofit status on Guidestar or the IRS list of nonprofits? I would like to do so before I consider donating or volunteering. Thanks so much!
~Stephanie
Hi Stephanie, I forwarded your comment and contact information to Rachel Emmer on our board, so I hope you were able to get what you needed. If you need anything else, please don’t hesitate to reach out. Thanks!
How exactly does the ELID “voluntary” tax work? Does it automatically get added to your bill?
Hi Stacey – thanks so much for your question!
Firstly, there is no tax whatsoever. A Tax by its very definition is “a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer by a governmental organization”. This is neither compulsory nor is it imposed by a governmental organization. ELID will be funded by the Evergreen Legacy Fund (ELF), which is administered by our non-profit group of volunteers.
ELF receives funds in a number of ways:
1) Member businesses add a voluntary 1% contribution to the sale of goods and services. It’s voluntary, so the purchaser can elect to remove it from the bill. To date, I don’t believe anyone has ever actually done this. But if you go buy Fudge at Seasonally Yours for example, you’ll see it on the receipt. You’ll also see signage in the member businesses identifying this 1% and that it is voluntary.
2) Some businesses that do not charge sales tax but wish to be members elect to just make a monthly, quarterly or annual donation. Several service businesses do this – like Tupper’s Team, Bear Paw Property Management, and many others.
3) We also have a 501C3 foundation set up for people who wish to make an individual charitable donation. People like Linda Kirkpatrick have contributed in this way.
Then, we take those funds and use them as a cash match on eligible grants for projects. An example of this is when we did the elevated trail between main street and the lake. The project was around $350,000, and between in-kind services that we provided plus cash from the ELF, we only needed to provide less than $35k in cash. So if we’re able to find and win the eligible grants for these projects, the total price tag of all 17 projects at $3.3M will only actually cost ELF a fraction of that in cash (estimated between 10% and 20% depending on the grant). Our hope is that ELF generates a surplus of funds above that the ELID requires so that we can continue to do other things like the mural at the underpass or the new drinking fountain in downtown…things that enhance our quality of life in Evergreen.
I hope that makes sense. Let me know if you have any other questions. Thanks!