The Foundation just held its Annual Meeting this past Wednesday.  It’s our opportunity to put on a show for our donors and the professional advisors that we work with along with recognizing our scholarship recipients and providing our agency stakeholders with investment and grant updates.  We try to make it nice — an opportunity for folks to come together and visit, but it is what it is.

The challenge for me, who puts it together, is to keep it interesting.  We try to highlight a grantee.  This year it was FAVA, who put together a great exhibit of student artists from a grant that we actually funded.  We try to mix it up by changing the order, including different speakers, going from one podium to interactive dialogue between two, premiering our video.

We want everyone to leave inspired to give, to volunteer, to continue serving the community.  We share a moving story about the work of one of our organizations.  This year, Neighborhood House Association was highlighted with a story of a homeless man who refused shelter because he would not part with his dog.  Truly a moving piece becomes more meaningful when we learn that the man has returned to his chosen career and is back on track — and back with his dog.

We always wonder, what’s the result?  Does anything happen after we’ve brought 320 very diverse individuals together.  We’ve learned of a few things — internships for our scholarship recipients, the nomination of a board member for a prestigious award, a donor’s change of heart about estate plans to include more of a gift to this Foundation. 

So, it works.  There’s actually an energy that comes from the room that day — I’m not the only one who has felt it.  Bringing people together to do and celebrate good work can result in change and betterment for the community.  Now, how can we make it better next year?

It is my privilege as Senior Program Officer to visit hundreds of programs throughout Lorain County when they apply to the Community Foundation of Lorain County for grants. In my 12 years here at the Foundation, I have seen and heard many heart breaking and heart warming stories; please allow me to share one with you.

In 1996, on a site visit to an after school program, I wandered into a small building in south Elyria.  Asbury United Methodist Church had started an after school program called “Save Our Children” for children, ages five to sixteen years. Pastor Freed showed me groups of children toiling over homework with adult and teenage volunteers. At one point, Pastor Freed introduced me to Amanda, a high school senior from Elyria High School. Amanda and three other teenagers were working through skill development programs on some old donated computers. Pastor Freed told me that Amanda was their star student. She had been accepted by several colleges including MIT but she could not go because of the costs of college. Amanda had not applied for our scholarships (but I just happened to have an application with me!).

At that time, I was also managing scholarships and knew many wonderful and generous donors at the Community Foundation of Lorain County who would help a bright student like Amanda. In 1997, Amanda received our Lake Erie Electric Scholarship for engineering when she enrolled at GMI. In 1998, the Lakeland Women’s Club Fund gave Amanda another scholarship; and so on.  I lost touch with Amanda as I pulled back from scholarships and focused totally on grants. (Our grants program was growing and took up all my attention; so we hired Ramona Grigsby, Program Associate, to manage scholarships.)

Last year, in 2007, I was back on another site visit at Save Our Children. I met an older gentleman and introduced myself. He told me his name and I asked him if he knew Amanda? He said he did! Amanda is his daughter. I asked him about Amanda and he proudly told me that Amanda is now working on her Ph.D. in engineering! Both of us a little older, we hadn’t recognized each other from our frantic calls and meetings 12 years ago. He told me he had been a construction worker and he never even understood the things his daughter said she wanted to do; but as his eyes watered a little, his pride and happiness showed. I asked him what he was doing at Save Our Children since Amanda had graduated. He was there with his little granddaughter. Amanda’s younger sister was a single mom, working and studying at the same time.  He brought his granddaughter to after school programs at Save Our Children so that they would save his little grandbaby too. We looked down at this little girl who hung on to this older man’s big rough hands and looked into our future. 

To all of you, who support grants to youth programs and so many other wonderful projects, thank you!   It was your support that sent me to Save Our Children twelve years ago. Your support ensures that well run programs make a difference every day and into the future. Thank you.       

Just as soon as I have a handle on what I think is the very latest in technology, I learn that I know nothing at all. 

We have been working diligently to upgrade our website with blogs, video, and audio in an effort to keep up with the times and expand a website visitor’s experience.  Our latest conquest has been to add a Flickr page with a photo library.  And I’m considering a MySpace page for our Youth Fund.  This is, of course, in addition to our current ways of communicating which includes emails, newsletters, events, and our annual report.

Today, as we were overcoming our issues with photos, my boss informed me of Second Life and how other nonprofit agencies were actually making products and money through participating in this virtual world.  Frankly, it’s a bit too 2001 Space Odyssey  for me. I’m still baffled by watching Robert Downey Jr. assemble Iron Man with a virtual toolbox and workbench.

We’ll figure it out, though, as this Foundation is committed to spreading our messages using as many mediums as possible.  I suppose that I need to start picking out my Avatar ….

     The Women’s Fund, established in 1991, has gone through a needed rejuvenation of sorts since the beginning of 2004.  They appreciate the work the founding sisters contributed and are committed to continuing their important work.  Currently the Women’s Fund Committee consists of eighteen dedicated women of the community who meet monthly.  These women are passionate about finding and creating ways to educate our Lorain County community about the important issues and concerns of our women and girls and the services needed in our community to better serve this 50% of our population. 

     They are also creating ways to encourage philanthropy and to build endowment for the Women’s Fund.  Last year the Women’s Fund added funding to three programs: Save Our Children, Big Brothers Big Sisters and Little Lighthouse Learning Center.  The committee is eager to review new proposals in June and to once again add funding support to selected programs, in particular for women and girls.

The women on this committee strongly believe that women give of themselves and give financial support to expedite change, rather than to preserve the status quo.

     Currently the committee is working on two separate activities.  The first is a $25,000 challenge issued to us by a very caring women’s advocate in our community.  They are reaching their goal slowly, but the committee is working diligently every day and believes they will meet that challenge by the end of May.

The second activity is a friend/fundraiser to be held on Sunday, May 18^th from 1:00pm to 5:00pm at the Avon Lake Public Library.  This is another one of the committee’s “Power of the Purse” events.  This is a spa and relaxation day event which will include a brunch, fashion show, workshops, presentations and demonstrations and all around the theme Purpose, Power, Pamper and Passion. 

     The women of this committee are very serious about their contributions and they believe, unique to women, that giving to a cause should be fun, with creative opportunities and celebrations.

My husband and I were driving through downtown Lorain last Sunday, and he commented to me, “Beth, this area looks as bad and run-down as it did when we were kids.”  I can’t disagree with him — as an Elyria girl, Lorain was always a big mystery to me.  It was lacking in most activity, other than the International Fesitval Parade, while Elyria, in comparison, with all of its county offices, seemed pretty lively.  Granted, we were both too young to remember either city in its glory days, but we’ve heard the tales of shopping and dining on our local city streets instead of at the mall.

This conversation really led me to thinking about the work that we do here at The Community Foundation, which is really investing in the county’s future.  It’s difficult to see the immediate impact of a $20,000 grant to a Main Street organization, yet we have faith that this agency’s work and planning will pay off.  We work with donors on planned gifts that will most likely occur both after their deaths and the termination of our employment with the Foundation.  Yet, they have faith in our organization and in Lorain County that their contributions will be put to good use. 

The truth is, there have been improvements made all over Lorain County. You just have to dig a bit to find those treasures.  The construction of a new Lakeview Park and the Black River Landing are playing on Lorain’s second largest asset, it’s waterfront on Lake Erie.  I think that we’re all hoping that these investments will spur more.

Lord Orrery once said, “Trees are the best monuments that a man can erect to his own memory.  They speak his praises without flattery, and they are blessings to children yet unborn.”   I feel this way about our work.  What we do not see today will make an impact tomorrow.

Most people have a misconception that giving money away is easy, especially when it’s not your own.  Here at The Community Foundation of Lorain County, 11 staff members work at least 40 hours per week giving away nearly $4 million annually and continually raising and investing funds so that we’ll have even more to give away.

This blog is the staff’s way of helping to clear up some of the myths about grantmaking and foundations.  You’ll read perspectives, hopefully, from all angles about dealing with the public, donors, nonprofit agencies, and everyone else all the while striving to make Lorain County,Ohio, a better place.