STEAMBOAT SPRINGS — After a nationwide search, a new executive director has been chosen to lead the Yampa Valley Community Foundation, which manages $20 million in charity investment pools for Routt and Moffat counties.

Tim Wohlgenant, a Colorado native who helped establish the Colorado Cattleman’s Agricultural Land Trust, one of the nation’s most successful land trusts that was started by local cattleman Jay Fetcher, was selected to lead the foundation. Wohlgenant also was involved in the land exchange that resulted in Emerald Mountain becoming U.S. Bureau of Land Management land.

Denver-born and Yale educated, Wohlgenant spent years helping to establish nonprofits like the Cattlemen’s Land Trust. He has worked in both the private and public sectors raising millions of dollars to protect threatened lands for public enjoyment, said Yampa Valley Community Foundation Board Chairman David Foster.

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“We were looking for somebody with extensive fundraising experience and experience working with large boards and foundations,” Foster said. “We’re anxious to continue growing the foundation, and he seems like the guy.”

Avid outdoorspeople, Tim Wohlgenant and his wife, Annie, are excited to make the move to Steamboat Springs. And although being hired in the middle of a pandemic and national crisis, Wohlgenant will hit the ground running by the end of April.

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“Nonprofit fundraising has been significantly challenged by the stay-at-home orders and their inability to hold fundraisers,” Wohlgenant said.

While he recognizes the local Community Foundation doesn’t have enough money to continuously give out funding to nonprofits during this time, he said he’s ready to go to work to find grants and leverage state and federal dollars to make sure local nonprofits can serve those suffering.

“I think the Community Foundation has a critical role to play in this crisis,” Wohlgenant said.

The Community Foundation has created a fast-action charity fund, the Yampa Valley COVID-19 Response Fund, that funnels money to nonprofits feeling the strain of local unemployment caused by the pandemic.

Wohlgenant said this is the kind of team he is excited to join.

“I believe the heart of every nonprofit organization is its staff and board,” Wohlgenant said. “The YVCF team is passionate about their mission of ‘Connecting People Who Care with Causes that Matter.’”

Wohlgenant replaces Mark Andersen, who served for 10 years as executive director before leaving at the end of 2019. Glory Burns has served the nonprofit as interim director for the past several months.

Wohlgenant leaves a position as coalition director of For the Love of Colorado, a collaboration of water stakeholders from across the state seeking to address the funding gap standing in the way of full implementation of the Colorado Water Plan.

He also served as COO of The Trust for Public Land nonprofit, worked for the World Wildlife Fund’s environmental arm and served on several nonprofit boards including Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado and the Bluff Lake Nature Center.

The Wohlgenants are avid skiers who hike and bike, with Tim having a penchant for whitewater rafting and fishing. Annie has been involved in health policy and health-related philanthropy for decades and is likely to be a big help to her husband.

The Wohlgenants have two daughters, ages 21 and 24, and two English cream golden retrievers, “who love to romp in the mud.”

Frances Hohl is a contributing writer for Steamboat Pilot & Today.