Grand Rapids Community Foundation

Impact, grants and the future!

February 15^th, 2011

The Philanthropy Roundtable recently asked philanthropic leaders from around the country two questions: "What is the single most daring, audacious and successful grant of the past 100 years?" and "What grant will people be talking about 100 years from now?" Various opinions from the foremost leaders in the foundation world are listed and it's quite interesting - click on the link attached to the Philanthropy Roundtable above.

I posed the following questions to all the staff at Grand Rapids Community Foundation with the link to the Philanthropy Roundtable article in an email last week:
"This is interesting . . . BUT what would you say has been our most daring, audacious grant since 1922 for those who are aware of our grants and for everyone, what could be a great grant we would make or a community change for which we could be the spark for the needed change in the future - not necessarily 100 years out but maybe in the next 5 to 10 years?"

I received some great responses and here are some of them:

"I have always felt that the initial planning grant we gave to what is now called the Coalition to End Homelessness is our most successful grant - I believe it was for $50,000 in 2004. That grant laid the groundwork for a community-centered collaborative that is revolutionizing a new approach to housing for all members of our community. . . Suffice it to say, in my opinion, not only did it lead to a significant shift in how a system is approaching an important community issue, I also feel that it helped define the values of this Foundation. The results of that grant are informing nearly everything we do in the Program department - our goals, priorities, and strategies. . . I think Kent County as a whole is better suited to do the same!"

"My favorite grant was for the Legacy Trees at Millennium Park which commemorated our $75 million in GRCF grants - a $75,000 grant from the Charles Evenson Fund in 2003. The trees will live on for decades to come like our grant making!"

"I have two grants in mind when I think of "long-lasting" impact . . . Encore - Putting experienced adults to work to better our community and enrich their lives. This is such an important endeavor as all the "baby boomers" start reaching retirement plus. Purchase Development Rights (PDR) - Permanently preserving farmland throughout Kent County. These grants will impact our community for years and years."

"Our initial $5,000 grant to Grand Valley State University back in 1959 to start a "committee for a 4-year college" and our 1960/61 grant totaling $200,000 for start-up and land purchase which influenced the location of the then college PLUS the grants we approved for buying land and building buildings in downtown Grand Rapids ($300,000 in 1985 for a "downtown center", $300,000 in 1994 for land acquisition and $500,000 in 1996 for the business school.) What a huge difference having a strong downtown GVSU campus has made!"

As we continue to identify great grants, I'll share them as well as any ideas for the future. In the meantime, anyone can add their thoughts too!

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Hey! No hunkering allowed!

March 25^th, 2009

In my last blog entry I referenced the ideas of two outstanding thought leaders - Lucy Bernholz and Marty Linsky - re: how we may think and act in this recession. I agree with them both - don't hunker down, get up and let's push forward! I was part of a panel last week for the March day session of Leadership Grand Rapids (LGR) alongside Lynne Ferrell from the Frey Foundation and John Wheeler, philanthropist as well as the founder and owner of the Rockford Construction companies. Amazing how the three of us all agreed about moving on even with the effects of the economic downturn. I spoke about how we need to keep giving and trying to make sure that the nonprofit sector can respond as best as possible to the growing needs and yet we need to make sure that we are not neglecting the long term growth needs for the greater Grand Rapids community. AND that we should not, as a community, pit the arts versus human services! Roberta King, VP for PR/Marketing, and I were interviewed by Chris Knape of The Grand Rapids Press today re: impact of the economy on area foundations and our ability to respond and fund programs. I told him the same thing I told the LGR group. We anticipate granting the same amount of funding this year as we did last year. Our fiscal year is July 1 to June 30 and right now we are on track with being able to respond the same as last year. Hey - it is still a good deal of money poured back into our community! If the recession continues on beyond another 1 to 2 years, then we may see a decrease in grants. We have a spending rule that takes into account the vagaries of the market and evens out the spending rate and ultimately we will have these down quarters when figuring our average market value based on 16 rolling quarters. Here's the message - we are not hunkering down we are moving forward. We are watching spending and making wise business decisions about expenses and the like. We will be interested in looking at different ways nonprofit organizations can organize themselves to stay afloat and eventually rebound and thrive. This is the time to step forward with a positive community attitude!! P.S. - sorry I haven't blogged in awhile - too busy looking at our financials! ;-) Keep movin' on!

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Delving into cultural competency sparks strong emotions

March 15^th, 2008

The flu knocked me out for a few days . . . now I'm back in action!

Nothing seems to spark a reaction like race. And now that cultural competency is taking center stage as a process to embrace diversity and to embrace differences. Understanding cultural differences is critical! As a person whose core values were developed primarily during the tumultuous sixties with a loving family that honored having an open mind, I have been always been eager to learn more about people and their backgrounds. It is an insatiable journey.

We have been delving into our individual and group's understanding of all cultures and backgrounds as staff of this Foundation. First and foremost we are focusing on how we interact with one another as well as the entire community. This isn't just one event. It is an ongoing process.

We ask all of the nonprofits we fund to report on their diversity in terms of staff, board members and either the people being served or the people who participate in the organization. If a grantee organization does not demonstrate its commitment to being open to all, then we do identify contingencies designed to help them. If they do not try and ultimately show positive progress, then we will not be inclined to provide funding.

This may be totally blown out of proportion by the recipient organization as they make arguments about this issue or they may use it as a good way to improve on their outreach and understand how they may be perceived in various communities.

Recently one of our staff and I invited some members of our Resource Committee (the group that makes grant decisions) to visit an organization that did not follow through on a promise they had made a few years ago that would help them be more welcoming to the many diverse cultures in our community and a contingency had been developed. The meeting was difficult as it became clear that the leadership was defending its record in spite of the fact that one of our volunteers pointed out that while representational diversity was noted in their publications, the sense she got from our conversation and their other external pieces reaching out to the community, that they couldn't see "what face" they may have been projecting. There was the reference to "we tried and we couldn't attract people" so what else do you expect us to do.

The Resource Committee member noting the concern is African American and she pointed out that the representation of diversity in one of their brochures was laudable but that the manner of presenting their programs to all persons still needed work. Her comment was if her daughters were still of an age to take advantage of this organization's offerings, she would have a difficult time sending them there. The response from the board leadership was immediate and sharp - "look at the faces noted in our brochure. What else do you expect?"

Our volunteer very calmly and carefully stated the following: "What you have just done to me is ignore my statement and the cumulative effect of ignoring and discounting my opinions and comments is something referred to as a micro-inequity or micro-aggression."

I personally had never heard of this concept before and wanted to learn more.

But back to the meeting. It definitely ended without the understanding needed to make change. In fact, we have since received a letter from the organization's board chair who stated that they would not be following our recommendations even though we released the balance of their grant with the hope that they would try. The result will likely not be positive as the next time they do come to us for funding, we will have to either refuse them or ask them to help us with understanding what they have done to address the issues we raised. And then their supporters, board members and ultimately their patrons will never know what was at the core of this issue.

The upside is that we learned about a concept regarding not being heard or ignored- it has a name and further study is being done to help us in our journey. It is time for all of us to listen and learn for understanding especially me and especially this Foundation.

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