Editorial in The Oregonian
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Even in a good financial year, the Oregon Community Foundation sets out to show that it takes more than money to really address problems all over the state.
The Oregon Community Foundation celebrated its 37th birthday recently with the good news that its total endowment had edged back above the $1 billion mark and the recognition that money isn’t everything – even when it comes to foundations.
For the most part, the successful community foundation has been a way for wealthy Oregonians to give back to their communities by donating money for specific purposes, and depending on the organization to manage the money and aid in putting it to its intended use.
The foundation also has drawn contributions from people whose plans are less specific and want the OCF to use their money to benefit communities, without earmarking the funds for any specific program or purpose.
Both approaches are legitimate ways for individuals who can afford it to give back to communities in which they have built their personal success over the years. In the past, the foundation has set the bar at $50,000 for individuals, families or businesses to create named funds. But last year, it lowered the minimum to $25,000, helping the OCF generate $33 million in new funds in 2009 and stay on pace to show similar growth this year.
The community foundation has 1,500 individual donor funds averaging $500,000 and showed a 23.5 percent growth investment return on its endowment in 2009. In turn, OCF distributed $62.5 million in grants and scholarships.
And not everything is about the money.
Keynoting the OCF annual meeting earlier this month, Kristin Lindsey, executive vice president and chief operating officer of the national Council on Foundations, pointed out that most U.S. foundations lost money last year, underlining the need for them to move more aggressively into marshaling volunteers and human capital in communities.
To that end, in 2008 and 2009 the OCF set up regional leadership councils around Oregon to identify local problems and try to solve them – not just through money, but through leveraging efforts and mobilizing local volunteers. You won’t find many surprises in what the foundation’s efforts identified as issues – economic hard times, children, families and education – but you will find more effort to use community resources to both identify and help solve the problems.
The OCF councils have focused on needs such as better access to dental care in southern Oregon and the lack of mentorship opportunities in eastern Oregon, and are directing financial and volunteer efforts toward them. The aim is not just to spend discretionary funds, but also to help build local capacity to address these problems and to attract other funders to the causes as well.
This approach serves to build citizen-led efforts that attract support, both from other funding sources and from creating networks aimed at solving problems.
No single organization is big enough or smart enough, as Lindsey pointed out, to solve such problems on its own. But it can help add social capital to the effort. To tell the truth, money is important, which is why organizations such as the Oregon Community Foundation exist in the first place. But human capital is just as critical. It is the key element in addressing community problems and sustaining the solutions, through good times and bad.