Leslie Lilly, President & CEO of the Community Foundation of Palm Beach and Martin Counties, recently posted an excellent opinion piece in the Sun Sentinel, noting the importance of community foundations' contributions in Florida and across the country.
I have been fascinated by community foundations since I started working in the field back in the mid-80's. At the time, I was in New Haven, Connecticut, where the local community foundation, under the leadership of Helmer Ekstrom, was forging new ground in a number of social areas and bridging the difficult donor chasm of Town and Gown in a community where Yale University dominates the landscape.
Shortly after that, I had the pleasure of working for Alicia Philipp at the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta when she hired me to help launch what's now the Georgia Center for Nonprofits. Alicia has a long history of incubating important missions, from the arts fund to AIDS fund to the women's foundation -- she's the walking example of Mr. Woodruff's famous remark about how much can be accomplished when folks aren't concerned about getting the credit.
Since that time I've watched the community foundation field grow at a tremendous rate and continue to mature in ways both expected and surprising. In the current environment, across the South, community foundations have played an important leadership role. Not only do they raise and distribute much-needed unrestricted cash to the front lines, they have convened difficult conversations, challenged donors to think in new ways about the needs of their communities, and led the way in listening and responding to local nonprofits.
At SECF, our membership includes all kinds of community foundations -- small ones, big ones, old and new ones. But whether they are powerful players or struggling nonprofits, they have become key ingredients in the broader recipe for a healthy philanthropic community. We value community foundations and recognize the vital role they play in our field -- bridging donors and nonprofits in flexible ways and helping lead other foundations in their communities with new grantmaking knowledge and skills.
Here's to another year of health and growth for CFs!
I have been fascinated by community foundations since I started working in the field back in the mid-80's. At the time, I was in New Haven, Connecticut, where the local community foundation, under the leadership of Helmer Ekstrom, was forging new ground in a number of social areas and bridging the difficult donor chasm of Town and Gown in a community where Yale University dominates the landscape.
Shortly after that, I had the pleasure of working for Alicia Philipp at the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta when she hired me to help launch what's now the Georgia Center for Nonprofits. Alicia has a long history of incubating important missions, from the arts fund to AIDS fund to the women's foundation -- she's the walking example of Mr. Woodruff's famous remark about how much can be accomplished when folks aren't concerned about getting the credit.
Since that time I've watched the community foundation field grow at a tremendous rate and continue to mature in ways both expected and surprising. In the current environment, across the South, community foundations have played an important leadership role. Not only do they raise and distribute much-needed unrestricted cash to the front lines, they have convened difficult conversations, challenged donors to think in new ways about the needs of their communities, and led the way in listening and responding to local nonprofits.
At SECF, our membership includes all kinds of community foundations -- small ones, big ones, old and new ones. But whether they are powerful players or struggling nonprofits, they have become key ingredients in the broader recipe for a healthy philanthropic community. We value community foundations and recognize the vital role they play in our field -- bridging donors and nonprofits in flexible ways and helping lead other foundations in their communities with new grantmaking knowledge and skills.
Here's to another year of health and growth for CFs!
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