Christmas decorations around town, a small veterans' memorial in Nicollet Commons Park and -- perhaps someday -- an ice rink in front of the Burnsville Performing Arts Center.

They're not the huge, multi-million-dollar projects that typically make headlines. They're just a handful of things that add to a community's character and, some might say, its quality of life.

They're also some of the things the Burnsville Community Foundation spends its time working on. The foundation, like many other community-minded groups south of the river and elsewhere, is a consortium of people who want to do what they can to make their city a better place.

That includes more than the visible projects, said the group's president, Allan Stillers. It also means encouraging, and serving as a conduit for, charitable giving. "We want people to look locally to make contributions," Stillers said.

In times like these, it's been well documented that charities and foundations are struggling to attract as many donors as they're accustomed to. The irony, of course, is that these are the times when charitable organizations are needed most.

The food shelves, energy assistance programs and homeless shelters are the last line of defense keeping people from peril. In addition to those vital services, nonprofits like the Burnsville Community Foundation play a role in civic life that's less about life and death, but still worth noting: They can help to provide some of the "extras" that government can't always muster the money to provide.

That's where the holiday decorations and veterans' memorials come in. And that's what the foundation had in mind when it proposed, last summer, getting an ice-skating rink set up in the Heart of the City.

The city expressed its interest in seeing the project go forward, and it was originally hoped that the rink would be ready before this winter was over. The foundation would need to find private funding to pay for the sheet of ice, which would either be an artificial surface or the genuine kind. But there was some hesitation about raising funds right now.

"A lot of people were saying it's a very good idea, but it might not be the best time right now because of the economy," Stillers said.

That doesn't mean the project is a bust, but it does mean that if it happens, it won't be till next winter. The foundation plans to get a feasibility study going after the first of the year and, it hopes, have some conclusions by March, Stillers said.

The ice rink project is a great example of one of those extras -- something people would notice and use, but which would be hard to justify spending public money on, especially with the Heart of the City under such a microscope and the city already cutting its budget.

"Our sense was that the park gets a whole lot of use in the summer, and it sits, other than the Performing Arts Center, empty in the winter," Stillers said.

Like many of the things the foundation does, the ice rink fits its mission. So does the planned veterans' walk, in which individuals can purchase engraved bricks to commemorate a past or current member of the military.

"We want to enhance the community, and create opportunities for civic benefit by making sure that public spaces are something people feel proud about," Stillers said.

South Extra editor Dylan Belden writes a biweekly column. E-mail him at dylan.belden@startribune.com. You can follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/StribDylan.