Legacy Award: Pete Peterson

In March 1999, Pete Peterson drafted a white paper called “Creating the Future- Part 2: The Greater Salina Community Foundation.” In it Pete states that a community foundation “is not a place to give money, but is rather a method of giving money,” and that it does not compete with other local nonprofits. Those principles, among a few others, have helped guide the Foundation for the last 25 years to the largest endowed community foundation in Kansas.

After the white paper, Pete recruited a committee of 10 leaders to serve as the founding board, in which he served as the first board chair for three years. Since then, Pete has been an fierce advocate of the Foundation, where he served a total of 15 years on the board and is still a member-at-large on the finance committee. He took the task of asking a majority of our founding donors to make a mark in the community that would serve as a “catalyst or yeast for significant capital contributions for the long-term benefit of the community,” including his law firm, Clark, Mize & Linville.

His law firm has sponsored planned giving workshops as an Education Partner, and he has spoken at many Foundation and affiliate events about the power of endowment and community foundations. As an estate planning attorney, he has also helped numerous clients make their mark by creating permanent funds through their estates. Pete and his wife Rita are also Sustainers and are making their mark through the Give Back 5 Community Giving Pledge.