Grand Rapids Community Foundation

Award winning communications - strengthening philanthropic leadership

May 31^st, 2008

I am an avid reader of anything relating to social and economic trends, philanthropy, leadership, popular culture and strengthening communities. Okay so popular culture seems out of place but in truth it isn't! It provides some amusement and diversion and mostly provides a handle on what various outlets view as "hot"!

This then gets me thinking about how does an idea, a person, a business, a community, a product, or anything for that matter get to be in the "hot" category. Watching the CNBC show The Big Idea with the host Donny Deutsch, does provide a glimpse at how "something" may be in the spotlight. Actually making sure that an idea - product - business has staying power is what is really crucial!

All this said, I try to make sure that this community foundation continues to be relevant, is in the forefront of key issues and uses the collective brainpower of our great staff, board members and volunteers - AND our donors to be innovative in our approaches that may or may not attract the attention of people locally or beyond West Michigan. It is the impact that is important - not the accolades. But the accolades are appreciated!

Which brings me to critical roles of marketing, public relations and communications and how GRCF has been fortunate to have the leader on our staff to successfully communicate complex ideas and at times intangible information. This leader is Roberta King who is our Vice President for PR & Marketing. This past March we were informed that this foundation won an unprecedented SIX communications awards from the Council on Foundations through the Wilmer Shields Rich Awards program.

In fact, GRCF won 4 Gold awards and 2 Bronze awards. The Gold awards were for our website, our 2006-07 Annual Report, a special report honoring the 10th anniversary of the Lowell Area Community Fund and our quarterly publication Current. The Bronze awards were for a special marketing piece entitled the Elements of Planned Giving and for a very unique public information campaign involving our Youth Grant Committee.

This is not just the standard run of the mill "hey aren't we something because we won these awards" commentary. Community Foundations many times do not have the resources that other types of foundations or businesses do to produce high level publications, sophisticated public awareness campaigns and the expertise to sustain a well thought out marketing program. I have found that when I study how other foundations are communicating their messages through the lens of this awards program, I am exposed to great ideas for sharpening our approaches that I would not have been aware of otherwise. Thankfully, we have the talent to accomplish this remarkable feat and not necessarily the financial resources in our budget that others may.

Roberta and along with PR & Marketing Associate Amanda St. Pierre have done this extraordinarily well and they are indeed exceptional leaders whom I admire and applaud!

This past Thursday evening, Roberta and her team were honored once again receiving 5 PRoof awards from the West Michigan Public Relations Society of America. One Gold award was given to the publication Current and 4 Silver awards in areas that were given awards in the previously noted program with honor also being given to the year long awareness effort that Roberta orchestrated for our 85th anniversary in 2007. The PRSA program involves businesses, major corporations and nonprofits - all pooled together - so it is competitive to say the least.

Congratulations to our "hot" marketing staff of Roberta and Amanda and their entire team!

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Rock on Next Gen

May 6^th, 2008

It seems the blog entries that get attention beyond the borders of West Michigan are those that show my more crabby side like the entry from yesterday! To show that I'm not that crabby, I want to say that the staff at the GRCF are all enjoying the Council on Foundations Philanthropy Summit from afar through the blogs and the COF website chronicling the plenary sessions and other breakout meetings. The different perspectives are very interesting.

What I am particularly thrilled about is the focus on the Next Generation and the sessions that are designed specifically to focus on this! This has also caught the eye of one of our millenials at the GRCF, Amanda St. Pierre, who is working on developing other ways to attract the younger audience not only to the GRCF but ideas for attraction and keeping 'em here in the most beautiful part of the state of Michigan!

I wrote about the Youth Grant Committee a few posts ago and we are honored to have so many bright young people from across our county involved with us! So keep it going!

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Philanthropy - 700 miles away!

May 5^th, 2008

The Council on Foundations is hosting a "one of its kind" summit near Washington D.C. at this very moment. There are a reported 3,000 participants congregating at the newly constructed Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center for this gathering. The Council has been promoting this conference for two years and meetings specific to family foundations, community foundations and others are not being held this year so that the entire field of philanthropy including our international colleagues can share their collective knowledge.

Do I feel the pang of not being there? Not necessarily as part of the reason I'm not there is due to the press of business going on here on the home front. For those who don't know me or our great staff, we are usually front and center at many of our field gatherings - leading sessions, teaching classes, providing leadership on key issues so it isn't that we don't understand the strong dynamic of sharing information and networking.

In fact, what surprised me after being in this field for more than two decades was the look of disdain from one of our larger Community Foundation CEOs when it was learned I was not going. Oh please! And added to that was a mini-lecture from another prominent CEO who actually told me that he was disappointed that I chose not to go because "it is so necessary for our private foundation colleagues to see that community foundations do regard themselves as part of the larger field of philanthropy". As if I didn't know that! He did hear my perspective after that comment!

In spite of the "peer pressure" and the daily emails from the Council designed to promote attendance, we all decided to take a pass on this important Summit. The good news is that there are a number of bloggers who will be reporting on the conference which while not the same as being there, will provide a variety of perspectives. Sean Stannard-Stockton in his Tactical Philanthropy site, Lucy Bernholz's Philanthropy 2173, as well as the Chronicle of Philanthropy's blog.

I am off to enjoy my day of philanthropy from my perch in GR! I look forward to learning from our colleagues from around the world as to what new discoveries, insights and networks will rise to the top.

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