Whitefish organization to be headed by retired banker

Retired international banker Dave Stewart of Whitefish has been named president of the Whitefish Community Foundation. He replaces Mike Jenson, who had served as president since the organization was founded in 2000.

Stewart grew up in Whitefish and spent 22 years in banking before retiring in 1989 and returning to Whitefish. During his career in international banking he lived in England for six years and spent time in Egypt, Congo and Lebanon.

Since his return to Whitefish, Stewart has been involved in several fund-raising projects. He headed the fund raising to renovate the historic train depot in Whitefish, and was chairman of the organization that raised the money to build the Whitefish library and O'Shaughnessy Cultural Arts Center.

Stewart helped start the Whitefish Community Foundation and has been involved since its inception, serving on the executive committee and as the foundation's first treasurer.

He plans to focus on growing the foundation's endowment fund and increasing the foundation's donor-advised funds, those funds designated by the donor for a specific charity.

The Whitefish Community Foundation has a goal of reaching $10 million in endowment funds by 2010. To date, the foundation has between $6 million and $8 million in bequests and about $250,000 cash in its endowment fund.

Last year the foundation awarded $366,400 in foundation and donor-advised grants to 36 Flathead County nonprofit organizations, bringing the total to $921,000 distributed to nonprofits over the past four years.