Community Foundations - a small view
Post by Guest Writer - Mouse
A Community Foundation came to talk to our volunteer group. The whole idea sounded great; an organization to promote the local charities and to possibly fund them. It would be a place for local charities to share ideas and resources. I could imagine all kinds of possibilities. They could inform local charities on new ideas, like management and grant writing and advise local charities on how to meet certain standards. They could teach classes. A real solution to many of the problems faced by small charities, doing the hard work of serving the community.
I listened intently; $12 million in assets and growing. The speaker discussed the services available, such as the Foundation could assist you in setting up your own “mini” Foundation and the Foundation would donate the money on our behalf to the “deserving” local charities. The Foundation would also provide the legal services so you could leave your entire estate to the Foundation. The speaker proudly mentioned that they regularly visit all of the local senior centers, so they could “help” the seniors donate all there monies to the Foundation. I began to think I was listening to a big “sucking machine”.
Finally the “hard ball sales pitch” came to an end and our group of volunteers sat in silence. We had no questions; I think we were all stunned. I was. I wanted to hear about the local charities helped, the money donated and the Foundation’s real accomplishments that helped our community.
To end the silence I asked, “How do the local non-profits contact you?”
Answer “They don’t, we contact them.”
The speaker must have heard my thoughts and quickly continued. “We review the local charities against certain standards and we add them to the recommended list. Our Board is aware of the community needs and we contact the organizations that fit within our focus.”
I immediately thought of 3 non-profits that are obviously not on their list, since they have never been contacted. “Focus”, by definition the “focus is the geographic area called the “community”, all of it. Before I could open my mouth, the speaker summed up and ran from the room. Wow, we sat in silence. We did not even have time to clap and thank the speaker for his time.
Arriving home, I signed onto their website. I immediately noticed there are no instructions on how to apply for a grant. After a quick calculation, I determine that 20+ non-profits received grants from $2000-$6000 for a total .2% (that is point 2 percent) of their assets. With a few exceptions, the bulk of the grants went to parks, museums, libraries, the arts, festivals and entertainment events. The charities serving the poor, hungry, homeless and drug-addicted appeared to be missing from the list.
Do not get me wrong, I like the arts and parks. I just wrote a check to my favorite PBS station and a local park. But the sales pitch was that the Community Foundation was “a vehicle to give back to the community” and “to be a significant force in improving the quality of life” and I read that to include all aspects of our community, even the “disadvantaged”.
So I called and asked for a copy of the Grant Guidelines. After some hemming and hawing, they agreed to send me a copy. For a moment, I thought I was reading the guidelines for a private Foundation, not a Community Foundation. The answer was clear; our Community Foundation’s goals were to enhance the community and not to solve our social problems.
So do we have a Community Foundation or a small group of individuals sucking up the community’s charitable-giving resources and granting money to their favorite “pretty” charities? The “unsightly” charities need not apply. The “soup kitchen” does not fit within their focus unless they can emphasize the nutritional value of their food, without mentioning the unfortunate people actually eating the food.
I obviously need to do some more research.
