By Carrie Summy, OPRF Community Foundation President & CEO
Never have community foundations been more important to the places they serve. And never has it been more important to join forces with other foundations across the country to learn from them and fight together for economic mobility, racial justice, and the basic rights and freedoms of our constitution we all know to be “self-evident” (but lately seem less so).
Recently I had the opportunity to travel to Fort Worth, Texas to attend the CF Leads Economic Mobility Summit with one of our board members, Tawa Mitchell. It was hot, alright! And very inspiring. CF Leads is a coalition of community foundations changing the odds together. Meeting colleagues from rural areas to major metropolises, the conference confirmed how much we have in common across the country.
We are all working to move people from surviving to stability, from stability to mobility, and from mobility to lasting prosperity and resilience. We know that “million dollar” problems can’t be solved with “five cents” of support; we need to use all our philanthropic powers available to create durable, sustainable solutions in our communities. We’ve been leveraging our investment portfolio and consumer power to influence companies to create positive outcomes, or at the very least do no harm. Now we’re learning how to use those same dollars to loan out and invest in unique, tangible, local projects.
For example, the Boreal Waters Community Foundation’s strategic focus on affordable housing, and their decision to provide some of the “capital stack” to fund construction of a community housing complex in Grand Marais, MN. Similarly, the Fort Worth Community Land Trust brought together private and public funding to create and maintain attainable housing so teachers, first responders and blue collar workers can continue to live in a region that has seen property values increase at three times the speed of median incomes.
No community can program or grant its way out of economic disparity and racial inequity. It requires all of us — government, local business, nonprofits, donors, you and me and all our neighbors — working together to achieve long-term progress. Community foundations serve as the central hub for these efforts. Through convening power, trusted relationships, and shared leadership, we help shape policy, support community engagement and infrastructure, and promote residents’ collective vision. We speak up as champions for causes, as the voice of our nonprofit community and those they serve, providing not only grant funding but networking and training opportunities.
It was a thrill to meet dedicated leaders from every corner of our country and learn what’s working where they are, and how we can put some of those same great ideas into action in the West Cook region. We hope you’ll join us to make it happen.