The community in the foundation: a bit of history…or, why being a community foundation is important to PFund (part one)

The two of us were grantwriters long before we were grantmakers. We knew how to differentiate between general operations, capacity building and project-focused grant proposals. What we didn’t pay as much attention to was the various kinds of foundations. We knew them generally as “likely to fund us,” or “not meeting their guidelines.” It’s kind of how most grantwriters think about the funding world.

We weren’t completely naïve, we were aware of the basic differences between community and family and corporate foundations. But being aware of the basic differences didn’t mean that we really appreciated what a community foundation does. At least, not until we came to PFund.

While all foundations are vital avenues for sending dollars into communities, we are both particularly proud to work for a community foundation. A “community foundation” is just what it says it is: a foundation that takes seriously the voices, the vision and direction of the members of a community, raises money from that community, and then directs those resources back into community in way that is responsive to our current needs and issues. In other words, the foundation only provides the infrastructure for the work, the real excitement circulates throughout the members of the community.

There is a Midwest tradition to community giving that it’s worth taking a moment to be proud of.

The first community foundation was set up in 1914 in Cleveland, Ohio (which, by the way, is where Susan was born and raised so she wanted to include that factoid). It’s now the Cleveland Foundation, a model for urban-based community foundations across the country. Here’s another fascinating factoid: the majority of community foundations in the early part of their development were found in the Midwest. And still, in 2011, there is a greater percentage of community foundations here than in almost any other region except the Northeast.

So, 1914 and the first community foundation – the legacy that eventually led to the establishment of PFund. What was happening in 1914 in the Midwest that would enable the birth of this new form of giving?

Woodrow Wilson is President of the United States and this country is in the middle of what is called “The Progressive Era.”  In 1913, the 16^th Amendment is ratified and the first income tax is put into place – marking a decisive moment in our national debate about the role of government and taxation in redistributing resources and providing a social safety net. There’s another historical tidbit to add to this picture: the early 20^th century, the period we are talking about, is the first time that the United States had seen a sizable middle class.  And the Midwest, with its combination of industrial and agricultural resources, was the leader in this national economic change.

In the context of these national conversations about how best to provide for the common good and in this moment where more community members than ever before have enough to live comfortably with a little left over - that’s when the model of the community foundation was born.

There are a lot of responses that a community can have when it finds itself in the midst of abundance. One is to just stick the cash under the mattress, hoard the gold, make sure that my own savings account is full and let my neighbors worry about themselves. The other thing is to look at what is extra and then to dream about sharing it. To ask where that extra can be spent so that it does the most good.

This legacy of sharing for the common good is the legacy of the Upper Midwest. This is part of the legacy that PFund draws from. A funny thing about legacies: they inform you even when you are largely unaware of their details. The more we understand about the region we are part of, the more we understand where we come from, the more it makes sense that when PFund’s founders met together to consider how they would leave their legacy, they decided to create a community foundation. One can’t help but wonder if this propensity to sharing, to paying attention to the broader community, is in the water. Wherever it comes from, it’s a good legacy to continue passing along.

-Kate and Susan

PS – We’ve been talking a lot about this thing we call “community” in the office lately, and why the way that PFund connects to our community is so important. Stay tuned next week for an update on our community-driven scholarship process and how PFund is unusual even among other community foundations…