Hays ? The numbers simply are staggering, the amount of money that soon will transfer from one generation to the next.

By the time 2020 arrives, the transfer in northwest Kansas alone will be more than $2 billion.

In Ellis, Rooks and Trego counties, the transfer will be nearly $836 million. Those counties joined forces to create the Heartland Community Foundation, whose goal it is to enhance life in the communities in the three counties.

Heartland is a relatively young foundation, created late last fall as an affiliate of the Greater Salina Community Foundation. Heartland board member Bob Muirhead, who also serves as director of economic and community development for Midwest Energy, provided the transfer of wealth numbers.

While the greatest wealth in northwest Kansas is in Ellis County, the amount to be transferred in the coming years from the 20 counties is staggering.

During the course of the next 50 years, for example, the amount of assets that will be transferred from one generation to another will total $11 billion.

In the past, that wealth generally stayed where it was.

Today, much of it is leaving the area – considering children who inherit land or savings from a parent, for example, often live elsewhere.

Foundations elsewhere are using the transfer of wealth information as a rallying cry to urge residents to dedicate at least some of that wealth to the community where it came from.

Generally speaking, foundations have suggested just 5 percent of that wealth – an amount they consider achievable – would mean huge benefits for communities.

By 2020, that could mean nearly $40 million for northwest Kansas.

While the three-county Heartland foundation distributed the numbers, they aren’t going to immediately launch a campaign to seek that money.

Part of that’s because the foundation is relatively new.

Now, the group is in the process of completing its founder’s campaign, that initial push to obtain enough money to provide a framework for hiring staff and provide at least some annual gifts for people who seek them.

The goal of that campaign is about $630,000, Muirhead said. They are approaching $200,000, he said.

Once that campaign is completed, the group could then use the transfer of wealth data to work with accountants and tax planners. That way, people could set up scheduled donations or bequests as the transfers take place.