This Midwest Community Foundation Webinar hosted by the Council of Michigan Foundations explored these timely questions: What is your purpose as a grantmaker now and into the future? How are you adapting your grantmaking to stay accountable to your community, particularly Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) communities? What is the story that your foundation wants to tell about this experience five years from now?

Economic development can be a challenge, and in rural places there are unique factors that create both barriers and opportunities. Watch this Midwest (Tri-State) Community Foundation Series Webinar to learn about the Rural Economic Development Cohort, a partnership program with the Council of Michigan Foundations and the Community Economic Development Association of Michigan, and how this experience helped participating foundations engage their communities.

It is essential that any community foundation involved in the administration of donor-advised and scholarship funds have a thorough understanding of the Pension Protection Act. This Midwest (Tri-State) Community Foundation Webinar was presented by Phil Purcell, our lawyer on call, who explained the Pension Protection Act and more.

Read answers from the community foundation listserv to the question: for foundations that use a percent of moving average computation to determine spending (e.g., 12 trailing quarters), how do you handle funds that are newer than 12 quarters?

Anticipating community crises and preparing your foundation to adapt and respond quickly are key opportunities for community foundation leaders today. Hear from Mike Parks, Jeanne Holihan and Eleanor Comyns, as they share how The Dayton Foundation has responded to three distinct disasters – a history-making series of tornadoes in May 2019, a deadly mass shooting in August 2019 and the current coronavirus pandemic – and how each dictates different approaches in both the community and grants process.

Development and Marketing Coordinator Sample job description from Community Foundation of the Mahoning Valley

Sample scholarship award letter from Community Foundation of Shelby County

Listserv Postback - A colleague is looking for best practices and policies for electronically storing grants paperwork. At this time, they do not have an online grant management platform, so everything is hard copies.

Listserv Responses - A community foundation is interested in knowing how you handle allowing fund advisors who want to know the amounts of gifts to their fund. Specifically, gifts given in memory of someone.