Lake Rabun Foundation History

In 1986, the LRA became involved in a zoning battle on the far end of the lake.  Although we were ultimately able to defeat the re-zoning, we learned that our image in the community as “lake people” was not stellar and that our political influence was weak at best.  In the aftermath, the Trustees, at the suggestion of Pres.  Pete Halter, felt we needed to correct this problem.  It was decided that a foundation would be established so that we, the “lake people”, could collectively give back to the Rabun community and generally be a better citizen.  Trustee Henry Bowden suggested that rather than create our own independent charitable foundation, that we become a part of the existing Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta - an umbrella 501(c)(3) entity that is comprised of hundreds of small Donor Advised Funds.  That was accomplished in 1987, and the “Lake Rabun Fund” has been a Donor Advised Fund ever since, but it transferred its assets in 2006 to The North Georgia Community Foundation (“NGCF”) in Gainesville that also oversees the Lake Rabun Pavilion Fund.

Initially, Pete’s idea was to have the Foundation give scholarships for college-bound seniors graduating from Rabun County High School, Pete and Buz Stone interviewed and selected the first scholarship recipient in May, 1987, awarding $1,000 per year for 4 years to Melanie Deitz.  Thanks to the early efforts of Jack King and the subsequent tireless work of folks on the lake, fund raising has steadily grown the corpus.  The dollar amount and number of student recipients has also grown as can be seen on the “Scholarship Summary” which is included on our website.  A list of scholarship

recipients is also set forth in our Directory.  Buz Stone was elected Director of the Foundation in 1987 and, for the sake of continuity, has remained in that position.

In 1989, the Trustees voted to expand our giving to non-scholarship causes within Rabun County.  The only restrictions were that the beneficiary be located in Rabun County and that the gift not directly benefit us.  As you will see from the “Non-scholarship Summary”, also included in this handout, the amount spent on charitable causes in Rabun County has also steadily grown.

The financial activities of the Lake Rabun Fund is reported annually at the Labor Day meeting.  We attempt to maintain the corpus between $250,000 and $300,000.  The fund is professionally managed along with the numerous other funds within the NGCF.  The return on these investments along with fund-raising activities during the summers and annual gifts from members, has allowed us to maintain a constant level of giving to the Rabun community, even in a down economy.

After 21 years, the folks on Lake Rabun have not only become good citizens of Rabun County, but have helped to educate 59 Rabun County young people, many of whom have returned to the County, college degrees in hand.

(last updated May 2007)