RAPID CITY, SD – The inaugural members to serve on Rapid City’s Impact Fund board were approved Monday night by the Rapid City Common Council but not before a discussion about the development of the list and the use of publicly-generated Vision Fund dollars.

In 2025, the Rapid City Council allocated $3 million from the Vision Fund to seed the Rapid City Impact Fund endowment – a permanently invested endowment at Black Hills Area Community Foundation.

The Impact Fund can’t be deployed until an additional $3 million is raised from private and philanthropic sources. When the fund does reach that amount, planners say it will support large-scale, community benefitting nonprofit capital projects in Rapid City.

Councilman Bill Evans said he had concerns that the use of the Vision Funds was moving away from the original intention of the funds, calling to table the approval of the board members pending further discussion.

“In this particular case, I still see these appointments as being inappropriate,” Evans said. “I believe it’s taken completely out of the hands of the citizens of Rapid City who have paid the tax on this.”

The dollars driving Rapid City’s Vision Fund are derived from municipal sales taxes – a portion of a two-cent sales tax on every dollar spent is diverted into the Vision Fund. The Vision Fund dates back to 1972 when the revenue was dedicated to the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center but today has grown to include civic improvements, economic development, and community projects.

Council member Lindsey Seachris said the Impact Fund board members would primarily serve in a fund-raising capacity, getting the endowment to $6 million which would trigger its use.

“I think the composition of this board makes a lot of sense to me that we put the movers and shakers of our community on this board,” Seachris said. “Ultimately the community wins. When we have this endowment fund fully invested …. We can allocate $500,000 annually to our community.”

Impact Fund board members being considered were Don Warne, Hani Shafai, Jim Scull, Kyle Weise, Marnie Herrmann, Paulette Davidson, Daniel Ainslie, Briana Vande Pol, and Kristin Conzet.

Council member Laura Armstrong reiterated some of Evans’ concerns, saying the board members had been selected by the mayor’s office and the $3 million seeding the fund was no longer under taxpayer control.

“All of the people that are being brought forward, I think they are stellar people in our community, and I hold them in high regard,” Armstrong said. “I just wonder about the little people, the middle class, the people of color, that are not a part of this board. While I have faith Black Hills Area Community Foundation will be good stewards of this money I just don’t like how this was done.”

The council approved the inaugural board members for the Impact Endowment Fund with Armstrong and Evans voting no.