Aspen Education Foundation Endowment Fund

Aspen Education Foundation (AEF) opened the Aspen Education Foundation Endowment Fund of Aspen Community Foundation in 2006. A volunteer-led, nonprofit organization devoted to promoting excellence in public education by raising money for the Aspen School District, Aspen Education Foundation has raised nearly $2.5 million in 13 years. Their newly established endowment fund at Aspen Community Foundation will allow AEF to assure its donors that funds earmarked for the future will be invested wisely and allocated appropriately. Lisa Chiles, Executive Director of AEF, and AEF Board members Kathy Alexander, Lynn DeBoer, Al Dietsch and Kristin MacDermott, were instrumental in establishing the endowment fund. Al Dietsch spearheaded the effort because he believed that since, “Aspen Education Foundation is not large enough to hire its own independent financial manager, the Community Foundation would allow AEF to do just what it wanted to do: earn money in a safe place with a large pool of investments. Aspen Community Foundation was able to fit our needs exactly.”