CULTIVATING ARTS AND CULTURE
Across Our Community
Arts and culture help make West Michigan special. They give people of all ages and backgrounds a chance to connect, celebrate who they are and feel they belong. They also help people learn more about the world around them. Artists, institutions and cultural experiences bring our community together. Grand Rapids Community Foundation supports arts and engagement efforts in many ways. We know how important this is for creating a more equitable and vibrant community. Here are some examples that show how our partnerships use creativity and culture to strengthen connections, enrich lives and make our region uniquely its own.
Partnering with the Community Foundation offers access to the strength and flexibility of a diversified investment portfolio. Last year around $4 million went to nonprofits from these funds to help support their work. Investments through Donor Advised funds The Community Foundation also manages 230 Donor Advised funds, which together make up about a quarter of our total assets. They have huge potential to impact our community. Donor advisors—the people who set up these funds—recommend which nonprofits receive grants. Many choose to support local arts and cultural organizations. Last year, DAFs recommended more than 1,400 grants to organizations in West Michigan and beyond. Many of these grants supported arts and culture nonprofits. Some of the top supported were Grand Rapids Art Museum, Grand Rapids Public Museum, Grand Rapids Symphony and WGVU Public Media.
Pictured: courtesy of Ebony Road Players
Growing partnerships in the arts Ebony Road Players works with youth and community members through theater. Their programs teach about Black history, storytelling and real-life experiences. After years of partnership through other funds, we recently awarded Ebony Road Players $200,000 through the Fund for Community Good, the Community Foundation’s largest grant to the organization. The grant shows the strength of the relationship built over time and supports their everyday operations and future planning. This partnership includes support from the Leonard and Eileen Newman Fund, a Field of Interest fund set up in 2014 to nourish the arts, especially the performing arts, in the Greater Grand Rapids community.
Each group uses its funds in their own ways. But for all of them, the endowment creates a permanent source of support. The Community Foundation invests the funds, and the organization has access to an annual distribution that can be used to advance their mission.
Leaving lasting legacies West Michigan is filled with people committed to investing in arts and culture during their lifetime and beyond. Fred Sebulske is one of them. Theater has shaped Fred’s whole life. He’s been a teacher, director, community volunteer and philanthropist. Fred helped start Actor’s Theatre and plans to keep supporting it through a gift from his estate. He also played an important role in establishing the Grand Rapids Combined Theatre Scholarships at the Community Foundation.
WANT TO LEARN MORE?
Call our development team at 616.454.1751 to find out how you can support local arts and culture through a gift to the Community Foundation.
A.H.S. Isabel Media Studios
PARTNERS in community | 5
Providing support for institutions Many local institutions partner with the Community Foundation through an endowment for their organization. We hold nearly 200 Nonprofit Endowed funds, including funds for Girls Choral Academy and many other arts organizations.
Pictured: Fred Sebulske