Mark Hurtubise: Community foundations find power in collaboration

Community foundations, which are different from private foundations, bring together donations from various sources to support nonprofits in their communities. They are analogous to community savings accounts. The majority of their assets can be permanently endowed and invested to generate in perpetuity income for grants to regional charities. On the other hand, a private foundation’s assets typically come from a single source like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

There are approximately 750 community foundations in the United States, which annually award more than $4 billion to hundreds of thousands of free-standing nonprofits. In spite of this noteworthy amount, community foundations struggle with implementing long-term, widespread enhancements for their communities. One reason is for decades community foundations have focused on a reactive grant-making model (i.e. isolated donors recommending grants from donor-advised funds or nonprofits applying separately for grants from the foundation’s competitive grants programs).

Nonprofits usually act alone, admirably attempting to tackle complex problems. But many times their goals are replicated by similar nonprofits. Thus, their scale of influence is limited. Rarely is there an umbrella organization or an inter-connectedness (albeit commendable attempts are being made) which leads to comprehensive approaches to community problems. This results in few statistics being heralded that indicate a significant number of lives being improved, not simply stabilized.

About 10 years ago Inland Northwest Community Foundation (INWCF), this region’s community foundation, determined it should become a more effective community member. It expanded its role beyond a competent steward of charitable assets and grant-maker to a change-agent and dynamic partner throughout its 20-county service area.

INWCF launched a series of strategic actions, which resulted in its total assets increasing by 168 percent ($42 million to $112.5 million) and the average annual grant dollars awarded expanding by 313 percent ($0.8 million to $3.3 million). Approximately $6 million has been awarded in fiscal year 2017. But this growth alone was not proof of advancement for those served.

It was by entering into community partnerships that INWCF found a proactive, collaborative model capable of producing far greater results than the historical reactive approach to grant-making.

As a founding member of Priority Spokane, INWCF was able to participate with other stakeholders, particularly Spokane Public Schools, and witness sustained yearly on-time graduation rate increases at Rogers High School.

Three years ago, INWCF awarded a $50,000 grant, which was matched individually by seven other funders for a combined $400,000 grant to Gonzaga University, Washington State University, Boys and Girls Clubs, Communities in Schools and Spokane Public Schools to address behavioral, course completion and attendance issues at Shaw and Garry middle schools. INWCF’s role influenced over $1.2 million dedicated to this initiative when the co-funders’ donations and co-grantees’ in-kind contributions were taken into consideration. A recent meeting with the Shaw and Garry principals was encouraging because their reports showed impressive progress in student performance in the above three categories.

In May 2017, five co-funders, which included INWCF, came together for a three-year, $600,000 grant to the University of Idaho, Coeur d’Alene School District and 10 nonprofits to improve reading proficiency for 35 percent of the K-3 students in Coeur d’Alene School District. When the realignment of the co-grantees’ budgets are also taken into consideration, more than $2 million will be dedicated to this project.

Community foundations and INWCF, given their corporate characteristics, must expand this model, making it the primary technique for improving communities. Although reactive competitive grant-making programs will always be part of community foundations’ landscapes, they aren’t structured for ubiquitous positive change within communities. Such grant-making encourages competition among nonprofits, not cooperation.

By implementing this important collaborative template, channels of communications would be opened between stakeholders, such as donors, who historically carry out their charitable intentions independently. Diverse organizations and donors could track the same indicators aligned with agreed-upon strategies to achieve a scale of success only possible through partnerships. There would be greater impact because of shared costs, talent, accountability and lessons learned.

If community foundations awarded only a small percent of the $4 billion given annually to charities for collaborative community initiatives, it could be multiplied 10 times with other donors and nonprofits’ in-kind commitments. The measured impact on people’s lives would be huge.

By entering into this arena more deliberately, community foundations, with local partners, can become celebratory, transformational solution finders for their regions. Locally, INWCF has begun that journey.