The Effingham County Community Foundation and Mattoon Area Community Foundation have forged an alliance that will extend philanthropic opportunities for southeastern Illinois.

The resulting organization, Southeastern Illinois Community Foundation, will provide administrative and technical assistance to its local member community foundations (initially Effingham County Community Foundation and Mattoon Area Community Foundation).

Joedy Hightower, president/CEO of the foundation, said, “Across the country, these community foundation partnerships have proven to be an effective way for communities to support local charities without taking on the cost and administrative burden of managing an endowment. The member foundations retain their own identities, but have access to the professional staff, fund management and investment expertise of the umbrella foundation. This results in reduced administrative expenses for the local foundations.”

The Communities Foundation of Texas recently embarked on a campaign to launch DonorBridge, a portal that provides both its donors (Donor Advised Fund holders) and the greater community of Dallas a resource with which they could make informed decisions on whom to volunteer with, support, donate to or simply learn more about. CFT has always been a leading community foundation, but in my eyes, this groundbreaking initiative has propelled them into the “visionary” category. They are taking a leading role in fostering philanthropy in their community, at a time when it needs it most.

To encourage donations, Communities Foundation of Texas, with support from The Dallas Foundation, designated a total of $300,000 in matching funds for contributions made through DonorBridge to participating nonprofit organizations on that day.

All in all, Dallas Giving Day raised over $4 million dollars for Dallas based charities. For example, CFT brought in 50 to 100 nonprofits from Dallas and shared with them the vision of the matched gifts (up to $300,000) program on Dallas Giving Day and allowed them to reach out to their donors.

The 59-year-old Connecticut native becomes president of the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts July 15, and he is excited about the opportunity.

"We're starting with a solid foundation," said Ancrum, who was unanimously elected last week by the foundation's trustees to succeed Kent W. Faerber, the foundation's president for more than 10 years.

Ancrum has a positive outlook despite the Springfield-based foundation's assets having dropped from $126 million to $90 million in the past year, mostly because of the impact of the stock market meltdown.

Despite the growing number of homeless individuals needing shelter, some Valley agencies have empty beds.

But it's not because those agencies have served everyone needing help.

Budget cuts, layoffs and hiring freezes, in response to less government funding and donation dollars, means fewer staff to provide services at a time when the need is even greater.

A new fundraising campaign is aimed in part at helping the agencies that help ease homelessness in the state. It is called the Changing Face of Poverty. Ten charitable groups in the state have pledged $1.3 million with the goal of raising the same amount in donations. The money will be used for food services, housing, health care and such emergency needs as help paying mortgages, rent or utilities.

Who makes this possible? A collaboration of the Arizona Grantmakers Forum, the contributing partners include Arizona Community Foundation, Arizona Republic Charities, BHHS Legacy Foundation, the Bidstrup Foundation, JP Morgan Chase, Lodestar Foundation, Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust, Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust, Valley of the Sun United Way and Wells Fargo.

A Maricopa Association of Governments survey counted 2,918 homeless people throughout the county this year, a 20 percent increase from the 2,426 counted in 2008.

Under the terms of the mandate, Cardinal Capital Management will manage two separate funds totaling $4.2 million for the Triangle Community Foundation. The accounts are expected to fund early in the second quarter of 2009.

"We are very honored to work with the Triangle Community Foundation, a fine organization, founded by the late Noble Laureate, Dr. George Hitchings, which has been highly effective in helping non-profit organizations in the Triangle area and beyond,” said Glenn Andrews, President of Cardinal Capital Management. We have had a very good relationship with the Triangle Community Foundation for a number of years and they have had funds invested with Cardinal Capital before this new mandate. We are delighted to have this unique opportunity to further expand and strengthen our partnership with the Triangle Community Foundation."

The Triangle Community Foundation worked with independent investment consultant, Colonial Consulting, LLC in the review of asset allocation and portfolio manager selection.

The surveys reveal a relatively split foundation community on whether a recession means that foundations should hunker down on existing missions or rethink purpose. A debate in a Council on Foundations newsletter between Karl Stauber of the Danville Regional Foundation and Emmett Carson of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation summarized the merits and liabilities of revising foundation mission during a down period. Stauber argued for continuity and suggested that foundations “must have the courage and will to balance the short-term charity needs with the long-term philanthropic opportunities.” Carson, on the other hand, argued for change, saying, “Each foundation has an obligation to consider whether, and how, to respond to this crisis.”

Both Stauber and Carson lead community foundations whose discretionary grant pools may have more room to consider these questions than at private foundations whose restrictions are tied to their endowments.

The Central Indiana Community Foundation, a pool of several hundred private funds, isn't bound to the 5 percent requirement that independent foundations such as Lilly and Lumina face. But it isn't immune to a plummeting stock market. Its 2008 losses reached $184 million, a drop of 27 percent from the previous year.

Foundation President Brian Payne said he is in denial about the losses, which likely mean the organization will give away $5 million to $10 million less than the $40 million it gave away last year to organizations including homeless shelters and the Indiana Repertory Theatre. The cuts would be deeper except that the foundation plans to increase its percentage of giving this year because of the great needs.

Everyone wants to know — needs to know — whether Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will be able to continue giving tens of millions of dollars to local charities. But nobody knows, maybe not even the staff at Fannie Mae and the Freddie Mac Foundation, maybe not even administrators at the Federal Housing Finance Agency who are reviewing the companies’ giving.

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Poudre School District Foundation Board is moving its charitable funds to the Community Foundation of Northern Colorado.

The move allows the foundation to decrease operating costs and increase its efforts on building relationships with donors.

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Yesterday, in the company of more than 1,000 people, I attended the first regional meeting of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation (SVCF) at the Flint Center in Cupertino. The new foundation was formed in January 2007 through the merger of Community Foundation Silicon Valley and Peninsula Community Foundation.  Several board and staff members spoke about the complexities of the merger, SVFC's current progress and remaining work, and the opportunities and challenges in building the foundation's reputation for leadership both in the community and among philanthropic institutions.

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