Preserving oral history can look deceptively simple.  Someone sits down in front of a camera and tells a story. Later, you click on the Kansas Oral History Project website and there it is — a video to watch, a transcript to read — a piece of Kansas history preserved and available to anyone, anywhere, at no charge.  But quite a bit happens before and between those two moments.

Someone has to recognize a story that needs to be preserved before the opportunity disappears. An interviewer must be identified and prepared with the appropriate research. The interview must be scheduled and recorded. And because KOHP finds stories statewide, capturing a story may mean sending an interviewer, videographer and equipment hundreds of miles across Kansas, with mileage, overnight stays and all the expenses that go with them. After the interview, the recording must be processed, transcribed, reviewed, prepared for posting at KsOralHistory.org and sent to the Kansas Historical Society to be archived.

Volunteers contribute hundreds of hours each year to make this possible. But our efforts also cost money.

How do we pay for the work that needs to be done today?
And just as important:
How do we make certain someone will still be recording Kansas stories ten or twenty years from now?
The answer to both is: Through your generous gifts.

Today — and Tomorrow

Gifts to KOHP help pay the expenses of doing the work now — conducting new interviews, preparing transcripts, maintaining an accessible collection, and undertaking new projects. Grants and charitable contributions, combined with the work of volunteers, have made it possible for KOHP to add many voices to the historical record during the past decade.

Those same gifts and dedicated volunteers have helped KOHP widen its scope. Our earliest interviews focused on legislators, governors and others who shaped public policy as actors “under the dome.” We continue to collect those stories, but our perspective is broadening. The developing Agriculture Policy and Rural Life collection, for example, like several of our collections reaches beyond elected officials to agency leaders, public servants in rural communities, citizen advocates and others whose experiences can inform future generations about how public policy intersected with ‘real’ life across the state.

Broadening the universe of stories that are preserved — and hearing stories from every part of a very large state — requires greater organizational capacity. That additional capacity includes professional expertise needed to sustain a statewide organization.

Several years ago, we began discussing seriously another question: What will sustain this work in the future?

That led KOHP to establish an endowed fund at the Western Kansas Community Foundation (WKCF). An endowed fund is different from an operating account. The fund’s principal is invested for the long term, thus generating revenue that can be a continuing source of support for the work in years to come.

We recognize that we owe it to our donors to stretch each dollar as far as possible. That’s why the KOHP Board is very much a working Board – taking on the day-to-day tasks of the organization along with necessary governance duties. Having this practical perspective makes it easy for us to see that there are some things we can put off until next year. An interview generally isn’t one of them. People move. Health changes. Memories fade. And sometimes the opportunity to record an important story simply disappears. We must be nimble so we can capture stories when they are available.So KOHP needs money for today’s interviews which are sometimes only available in a fleeting moment — and resources that will help make tomorrow’s methodically planned interviews possible.
And that is why we participate in WKCF’s MatchDay.

A Different Kind of MatchDay

Each year the WKCF sponsors MatchDay, a community-wide giving program on the national Giving Day. KOHP is one of the participating nonprofit organizations.
But this isn’t the familiar “give a dollar and someone else gives a dollar” kind of match.

During this year’s MatchDay giving period, November 16 through December 1, donors who give to KOHP through WKCF benefit KOHP’s 2027 operating fund AND help determine KOHP’s share of a $150,000 matching pool provided by WKCF.

The matching dollars earned by KOHP go to our endowed fund.

That means MatchDay donations accomplish something remarkable: the money donors give supports the work KOHP will do during the upcoming fiscal year, while the match helps build the endowed fund that will provide ongoing support for the work that will continue into the future.

A healthy nonprofit needs resources now and in the future. KOHP does, too.

What Does this Mean for Our Donors?

You can make a gift to the Kansas Oral History Project at any time of the year. Every gift is appreciated.

But because we’ve made MatchDay the focus of our annual fundraising campaign, the MatchDay giving period is when your gift can do double duty.

To help KOHP earn its share of the $150,000 Match Day pool, please make your contribution through the Western Kansas Community Foundation for the benefit of KOHP during the giving period.

Mark your calendar and send your gift in time for it to reach WKCF between November 16 and December 1, 2026. If you ordinarily make your charitable contributions from a donor-advised fund or other charitable giving account, work with your financial advisor to ensure the gift arrives during the giving period.

WKCF accepts gifts of any amount. Donations from $20 through $2,000 per donor, per organization count for purposes of calculating the match. A gift larger than $2,000 will, of course, still benefit KOHP for 2027 operations; the Match Day limitation simply applies to the amount used to calculate the match.

Gifts may be made online, by mail, or in person in Garden City on MatchDay.

NOVEMBER 16 – DECEMBER 1, 2026
WKCF Match Day Giving Period

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 1
Match Day • $150,000 Matching Pool

Watch your snail mail for additional information from us in late October.

Because preserving Kansas history isn’t only about saving the stories we can record today.
It is also about making sure someone will be there to record the stories that come next.