The Corner of History & Progress

The Corner of History & Progress 2014 Annual Report

1925 2015

The Corner of History & Progress The title of this annual report, The Corner of History & Progress, comes from the location of our new home at the corner of East Michigan Avenue and Pitcher Street at the edge of the Edison neighborhood in downtown Kalamazoo.

This 1870s train station — gifted to the Kalamazoo Carrie Pickett-Erway Community Foundation by President/CEO Jon Stryker’s Arcus Foundation in 2013 — is a community landmark. Its historic legacy complements our identity as an organization celebrating its 90th birthday. Its location, and the visibility and accessibility that come with it, supports our progression from transactional grantmaking to transformative change.

While our move to our new location was a visible example of our evolution as an organization in 2014, we also did a lot of behind the scenes work to move the Community Foundation forward. Throughout the year we engaged in a strategic planning process that included collaborations with external partners. We also asked for, and used, feedback from the community at large. The result was a new vision statement — a community where every person can reach full potential — and three big goals: equity, education and engagement.

We are grateful for the solid history on which we build our plans for the future. Thank you for being a part of our history and our progress.

Love where you live.

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The story of connecting memories

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Love had nothing to do with it. In fact, looking back, it was kind of gross.

Paul Moore laughs at his childhood memories of Pretty Lake Vacation Camp’s kissing booth in the early 1980s. For him, camp was a way to spend some time away from his urban neighborhood and take in swimming, fresh air and sleeping among the trees. In school, his class visited the Kalamazoo Nature Center, where he learned that maple syrup didn’t originate in a Mrs. Butterworth’s bottle. As he grew older he frequented the Douglass Community Center for basketball.

And when he prepared to enter the workforce as a teen, he took job readiness classes at Youth Opportunities Unlimited.

Moore sees what connected all of his memories: the Kalamazoo Community Foundation.

And while there isn’t a kissing booth at Pretty Lake today, the camp still provides Kalamazoo area kids with the opportunities it provided Moore. The funds granted to it and other nonprofits by the Community Foundation exposed him to new experiences and helped those organizations carry out their missions.

When I look back on how people in the community gave to help me — people whose names I never knew — it makes me want to do the same. It’s that paying it forward attitude that will allow us to see, in our own community, the power of giving back.

Paul Moore

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Our Trustees

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1926 Alfred Connable 1926 Edward Desenberg 1926 Elias Hoekstra 1926 William Lawrence Sr. 1926 William Harold Upjohn 1928 Donald Gilmore 1930 Henry Desenberg 1931 John Pyl 1934 Merrill Taylor 1936 Cornelius Hoebeke 1940 Ralph Kooi 1941 Louis Simon 1947 Dr. Richard Light 1957 John Jenkins 1957 William Lawrence Jr. 1971 Rhea Fetzer 1972 Joseph Dunnigan 1974 Jud Knapper 1975 Ray Parfet Jr. 1978 Jim Gilmore Jr. 1978 Martha Parfet 1980 Burton Upjohn 1984 Elizabeth Upjohn Mason 1989 David Hatfield 1994 Jeff DeNooyer 1994 Beverly Moore 1996 Dr. Marilyn Schlack 1997 Ronda Stryker 1997 Don VanderKooy 1998 Judith Maze 1998 Rev. J. Louis Felton 2006 Barbara James 2007 Dr. Eileen Wilson-Oyelaran 2009 Hon. Carolyn Williams 2011 Si Johnson 2011 Frank Sardone 2013 Jim Escamilla 2015 Amy Upjohn Listed by year appointed.

38/90 People who have served on our board of trustees during the last 90 years

During the last 90 years, 38 people have served on our board of trustees — stewards of the resources entrusted to the Community Foundation and champions for the people of Kalamazoo County.

Pictured above are just a few of the women and men who have been, and continue to be, such an important part of our history and progress.

Clockwise from Top: Rhea Fetzer, Jim Gilmore Jr. , Elizabeth Upjohn Mason, Rev. J. Louis Felton, Jim Escamilla, William Lawrence Jr and Beverly Moore.

The story of how we came to be

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Love may not have had anything to do with the Pretty Lake kissing booth of the early 1980s, but it had everything to do with the creation of the Kalamazoo Community Foundation in 1925.

It was a love of community and spirit of service that gave W.E. Upjohn the idea to form a community trust based on one founded in 1914 in Cleveland, Ohio. He challenged the local Chamber of Commerce with the undertaking.

Future Incorporated A committee of five community leaders — Alfred Connable, Elias Hoekstra, Edward Desenberg, Harold Upjohn and William Lawrence Sr. — were entrusted with $1,000 in seed money from Upjohn and took the helm of what began as the Kalamazoo Foundation. A long line of visionaries crafted the development of this small, but ambitious, community resource that used “Future Incorporated” as its motto.

Early administrators performed their tasks as additional duties to regular jobs and had the title of secretary, beginning with Earl Weber, who served in that capacity for nearly three decades. There would be acting secretaries such as Richard Light, Harold Allen and Merrill Taylor for more than a decade, until Howard Kalleward became Executive Secretary in 1967 and led the organization for two decades.

In the 1990s, following Kalleward, our leaders became known as President/CEO and include: Dr. Jack Hopkins, Dr. Juan Olivarez, Don VanderKooy (as Interim President/CEO) and Carrie Pickett-Erway.

1930s Kalamazoo Public Schools $1,250 to low-income students » Bronson Hospital » Community Chest for the Civic League and Salvation Army » Constance Brown Society for Better Hearing 1940s Child Welfare League » Borgess Hospital $7,175 for microscopes, patient room furnishings and other equipment » YMCA » Pretty Lake Vacation Camp 1950s Goodwill Industries » YWCA $5,000 for building improvements » Kalamazoo Child Guidance Clinic » Kalamazoo Nursing Council 1960s Comstock Community Center » Youth

Total amount of grants awarded since 1925

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$403,960,672

provide food, clothing and other supports for

Opportunities Unlimited » Douglass Community Association » Senior Citizens Fund $100,000 for housing and care of seniors 1970s Family Health Center $50,000 for clinic operations and maintenance » Lakeside, Inc. » Kalamazoo Civic and Convention Center » Services for Visually Handicapped 1980s Countywide Infrastructure Fund » Kalamazoo Alcohol and Drug Abuse Council $400,000 to build a 30bed treatment facility » Kalamazoo Downtown Development Authority » Jobs for Michigan Graduates 1990s Youth United Way » Housing Resources, Inc. » Northside Economic Potential Group » Women’s Education Coalition $75,000 for educational grants for low-income working women, unemployed women and women re-entering the workforce 2000s Kalamazoo County Juvenile Home » Hispanic American Council » Ministry with Community » Kalamazoo Northside Nonprofit Housing Corp. $7,500 to help draw businesses to the Northside neighborhood 2010s The Learning Network of Greater Kalamazoo » Kalamazoo Loaves & Fishes » Southwest Michigan Black Heritage Society $39,000 to support its Racial Healing Initiative » Kalamazoo Center for Youth & Community

The financial resources available for our grantmaking come from the income earned on the first gift given to the Community Foundation in 1925 and every gift given to us since then. The vision of every donor is realized in every community investment we make in the work of local nonprofits. As times change, needs change. And that is reflected in our grantmaking, which totals almost $404 million since 1925. Shown above is a very small sampling of the grants we’ve awarded during the last 90 years.

As times change, needs change, and that is reflected throughout our history. It is telling that in 1968 our official stationery carried this message: For the administration of philanthropic trusts and contributions in accordance with changing social conditions.

In 1930, the thought of students not reaching their full potential because their basic needs were not being met was a concern for Kalamazoo Public Schools. They realized when a family can’t afford to purchase glasses for their child, it hinders the child’s ability to see the chalkboard and learn.

They knew that when children go to school hungry, they can’t focus.

So they approached the Community Foundation. Hearing the plea, we awarded our first grant of $250 to help children be successful in school, which was later followed by another grant of $1,250.

An Active Force There was a lot of demand in the 1930s. Caring for victims of the Great Depression and purchasing the latest medical technology for hospitals were among the funded requests. By our 35th year, the Community Foundation was described as “an active force for providing an intelligent way to make funds available for the betterment of Kalamazoo County.” In the 1940s and 1950s, grants for everything from quality daycare centers to the support of foreign exchange programs demonstrated the changing times.

By 1950, there were 76 community foundations in the U.S. Kalamazoo, with assets of $1.5 million, was number 14 in size. Ten years later, we had assets of $24 million and ranked fifth in the nation. In 1962, our mission remained consistent: Administer funds placed in trust for charitable, educational and cultural purposes in Kalamazoo County.

Leading Change In the 1960s and 1970s, requests for funding came in to help such efforts as providing immunizations for children and affordable housing and care for senior citizens. In 1971, the first woman — Rhea Fetzer — joined our board of trustees. In 1973, we moved out of our offices at The Upjohn Company and into the Comerica Building in downtown Kalamazoo.

As the 1980s got underway, efforts to expose children to the arts and the outdoors were funded. In 1990, Martha Parfet became the first woman to chair our board of trustees. Four years later, Beverly Moore became the first person of color to join the board. The final decades of the 20th century included development of a vibrant downtown Kalamazoo.

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Another milestone came in 2000 when we added “Community” to the center of our name — much as it had been the center of our work for 75 years. It was a simple addition that would better differentiate our work from that of other types of foundations.

Helping those in the community make life better for themselves and others was on the minds of the Community Foundation’s leaders at our inception.

The opportunity for people who may not have great financial resources, but want to do something, further extends our founders’ spirit of giving back.

Families, companies, individuals and those honoring their loved ones have established hundreds of funds.

The Education Community In 2005, the nation focused on Kalamazoo when anonymous donors created The Kalamazoo Promise, the college tuition scholarship for Kalamazoo Public Schools graduates. While this became another feather in the cap of Kalamazoo County as an education community, this historic event also gave birth to new collaborations.

To help Kalamazoo area students take full advantage of The Kalamazoo Promise — while also extending that support beyond Kalamazoo Public Schools — we helped create The Learning Network of Greater Kalamazoo in 2011. This countywide initiative is confronting the persistent challenge of preparing people, especially those who live in poverty, for success in school and life.

A New Vision In 2013, after decades of leasing office space in the Comerica Building, a gift from Jon Stryker’s Arcus Foundation gave us our first home of our own: the former Arcus Depot, a train station constructed in the 1870s. With our move came a new address and, on a much deeper note, a new vision: A community where every person can reach full potential.

With this history, we have become one of the most successful community foundations in the nation, ranking 38th in asset size of more than 700 U.S. community foundations (in the top six percent per capita), and first in seven-year investment performance.

For 90 years we have remained true to our roots: an organization focused on the future, making our community a place where every person can reach full potential. And the spark that glowed in the hearts of people who loved where they lived and wanted to make life in Kalamazoo County better in 1925, still glows. It glows in the hearts of people like that young Pretty Lake camper, Paul Moore, now the president of All-N-One Delivery.

When he is asked to support the community he loves, he doesn’t hesitate.

He shows his love and gives back.

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The story of what we want to become

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Our Mission To make life better for all through leadership and stewardship of resources that last forever.

Our Vision A community where every person can reach full potential.

Our Core Values • Excellence • Integrity • Diversity / Equity / Inclusion

The love of community and spirit of service that gave W.E. Upjohn, an innovator in his field and in philanthropy, the idea to form the Community Foundation in 1925 live on today.

Another great innovator — Walt Disney — once said, Around here, however, we don’t look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors

Our Big Three Goals • Equity • Education • Engagement

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and doing new things...and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.

We like to think the Community Foundation is the same — learning from our history, always moving forward, being curious, and doing things in innovative ways. And our path is clear. We envision a community where every person can reach full potential. To help us make this vision a reality for Kalamazoo County, we have three clear goals: Equity We are partnering with others to remove barriers to opportunity and full potential by increasing capacity for awareness and action.

Education We are helping provide a path to prosperity for everyone by supporting cradle-to-career initiatives.

Engagement We are aligning resources for transformative change by collaborating with countywide partners.

Equity With the concept of equity, rather than equality, we ask, What does this individual need to achieve a desired outcome? What assets does this person have?

What are the environmental factors? And how do we develop this person’s full potential? Over time, those questions call for a different approach to our work.

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equality

equity

We are partnering with donors and nonprofits to remove barriers to opportunity and full potential by increasing community capacity for awareness and action.

diversity

Counting People

We believe equity will be achieved in Kalamazoo County when social, legal, economic and other barriers are overcome and all people have equitable opportunities to reach full potential and live positive lives.

Connecting In 2014, we held focus groups with a cross-section of Kalamazoo County residents that helped inform our development of a new vision and strategic goals for 2015 and 2016. Participants shared their vision of what Kalamazoo County could be like if every resident had a fair chance. Their visions came together around fewer people living in poverty and more young people graduating from high school; new leaders, new ideas and new ways of working to make life better for all; and dedicated and ongoing community dialogue on challenges, including racism.

inclusion

People Counting 15

Our Journey Increasing diversity, equity and inclusion is important long-term work that we have been investing in for more than 15 years. In 2014, we shared our journey in a nationwide publication, The Foundation Review. While the article itself provided insights to other foundations, we found the reflection required to write our story reinforced our resolve in this work.

equity

Removing Barriers

Conversations A recent survey found that Kalamazoo County residents feel diversity is our community’s biggest strength. We are committed to enhancing this for the benefit of all. In 2014, we committed to creating an initiative that will help us and the community build more capacity for diversity, equity and inclusion work to ensure that every person matters and can reach full potential.

full potential

Education $4,113,000 Invested in Education

$1,300,000 $1,200,000 16

$907,000 $706,000

Donor-Suggested Grants

Scholarships

The Learning Network

Responsive and Field-of-Interest Grants

We are helping provide a path to prosperity for everyone by supporting cradle-to-career initiatives.

Since our very first grant, we have been helping improve education throughout Kalamazoo County. We believe, and research shows, that communities with strong education systems are more successful in addressing the basic needs of their residents.

We are working to improve education outcomes in four ways: Donor Engagement Education was the top priority of our donors who have established Advised Funds, with donor-suggested grants from those funds totaling $1.3 million during 2014.

Scholarships Kalamazoo area students received 376 scholarships totaling $1.2 million from us in 2014.

The Learning Network of Greater Kalamazoo In 2014, we invested $907,000 in The Learning Network of Greater Kalamazoo for operations and grants.

Responsive and Field-of-Interest Grants Kalamazoo County nonprofits received more than $706,000 in grants for education-related programs from the Community Foundation in 2014.

Uniting the Community More than 100 countywide organizations are working together to help every student and adult learner in Kalamazoo County reach their full potential. The Learning Network of Greater Kalamazoo, driven by research-based, community-level outcomes, connects these efforts to make this work more efficient, more effective and more powerful. Its goal is to make Kalamazoo County a national model of an education community that enables every student, from cradle to career, to be successful in school and life.

The Learning Network is one of 60 community partner members in the national Strive Together Cradle to Career Network. In 2014, its Leadership Council connected cross-sector representatives around the common vision of improving education outcomes. The Learning Network unites the community — supporting agencies, educators, parents and students — to create education success.

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Attended 2014 Community Meeting

Visitors to our new space

Partner organizations of The Learning Network

2500+ 600+ 100+ Engagement

We are aligning resources for transformative change by collaborating with countywide partners.

Making life better for all in Kalamazoo County is not something we can do just by writing a check. It requires the active engagement of the whole community, on multiple levels, in a variety of ways. It includes the alignment of money, time and talent. We know that before we start any new initiative, we need to turn outward.

Our Community Meeting In 2014, we collaborated with a number of partners, including the University Center for the Humanities at Western Michigan University, to present our 2014 Community Meeting. The free event, with PNC Bank as the lead sponsor, was open to the public and featured best-selling author and food advocate Michael Pollan. More than 2,500 people benefited from the opportunity to hear his message on healthy food systems and healthy food.

We provided each person who attended with a guide that highlighted community resources that promote buying local, community-supported agriculture, healthy living, education and learning about food and food systems, and volunteering with food-sector nonprofits.

Our Space When we accepted Jon Stryker’s Arcus Foundation’s gift of our new building, we committed to making it a place where all would feel welcome and to sharing it with the community. Our highly visible, accessible location enables us to open our doors to the community to engage with us directly.

In October 2014, hundreds of people flooded our halls to connect with our team and other members of the community and to explore our space. In November, we began offering use of our meeting spaces to nonprofits and other groups. By the end of 2014, eight groups consisting of 164 people had already shared our space, with even more groups making reservations for 2015.

Collaborations As we celebrate our 90th birthday in 2015, we continue to expand our collaborations and engagement throughout the community. We have already begun working on alignment between the capacity of our staff and what we need to engage in impactful equity work with community partners. We began 2015 with some convenings of community voices; over the summer we will learn what our community partners are doing in equity work; we will end the year with racial equity as the topic of our 2015 Community Meeting. We also will continue to welcome community members and organizations to our space as they help us evolve from a transactional to a transformational organization.

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Our complete audited 2014 Financial Statement is available online at www.kalfound.org/publications.

You also can request a printed copy by contacting us at 269.381.4416 or info@kalfound.org.

2014 / Year in Review Financial Position

$449,115,370 Assets

$16,797,761

At the end of 2014, the Community Foundation’s assets totaled $449 million, ranking us 38th in asset size of more than 700 U.S. community foundations, and in the top six percent per capita.

Grants paid

$8,492,335 Gifts received

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Investment Performance 14.0%

12.6% 11.3%

6.3%

10.7%

7.0%

6.0%

1 year

3 years

5 years

Actual

5.7%

7 years

Benchmark

According to a 2014 Council on Foundations survey, our seven-year investment return ranked first among U.S. community foundations.

For endowed funds, we strive to provide grantmaking dollars and preserve the original purchasing value of gifts by growing them for at least inflation. We use a moderate growth strategy in which 70 percent are invested in equities, 25 percent in fixed income vehicles and five percent in real estate funds.

Grants In 2014, nonprofits received $16.8 million in responsive and donor-suggested grants.

$16,797,761 Gifts

Donors gave 1,427 gifts totaling $8.5 million. Thanks to a multi-million dollar bequest, about 85 percent of gifts received were unrestricted, providing the ultimate in flexibility, ensuring there will be resources tomorrow for needs we can’t even imagine today.

1,427 85%

unrestricted

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Funds Thirty new funds were created.

The total number of funds we administer is 847.

+30 847 funds total

Scholarships Kalamazoo area students received 376 scholarships totaling $1.2 million from 53 funds.

$1,206,582 376 scholarships

Our board and team Our board of trustees provides guidance for our grantmaking and community leadership. Our trustees represent diverse community interests and donate their time, energy and expertise to help us identify opportunities for long-term community impact, respond appropriately when unforeseen challenges arise, and address community needs.

Our staff works closely with donors, grantees and others to help people in Kalamazoo County reach full potential.

It includes skilled professionals in community investment, donor relations, finance, administration, human resources and marketing communications.

Contact information for our staff can be found online at www.kalfound.org/ourteam.

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Board of Trustees Si Johnson,

Leadership & Performance Excellence

Chairperson » Frank Sardone,

Sue Bos » Katie Paauwe »

Vice Chairperson » Jim Escamilla

Carrie Pickett-Erway » Community

» Barbara James » Amy Upjohn »

Investment Sandy Barry-Loken »

Hon. Carolyn Williams » Dr. Eileen

Kari Benjamin » Elena Mireles-Hill »

Wilson-Oyelaran

Suprotik Stotz-Ghosh Donor Relations Zach Bauer » Coby Chalmers » Joanna Donnelly Dales » Jill Dykehouse » Ann Fergemann » Jeanne Grubb » Valerie Mitchell Finance & Administration

Connect with us

Kelly Campbell » Stephanie Carrier » Joni Frick » Selena Jepkema » Karen Racette » Susan Springgate

(

269.381.4416

» Debbie Wood Human Resources/

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www.kalfound.org

Facilities Susan Meldrim Marketing

facebook.com/kalfound

Communications Candice Atwater

pinterest.com/kalfound

» Shannon Bronsink » Tom Vance

twitter.com/kalfound linkedin.com/company/kalfound instagram.com/kalfound

Scholarship Brittany Morton » Nancy Timmons The Learning Network of Greater Kalamazoo Melissa Fish » Amy Slancik

Be a part of our work What if, just because you lived in Kalamazoo County, it meant you were cared for, educated, engaged, empowered — that you mattered? That’s what we envision: A community where every person matters. A community where every person can reach full potential. A community where we all love to live.

During the past 90 years we’ve supported hundreds of nonprofits and thousands of people in communities throughout Kalamazoo County. Because community matters.

Unrestricted gifts are one of the most powerful ways for you to be a part of this work. This kind of gift offers the ultimate in flexibility, ensuring there will be resources tomorrow for needs we can’t even imagine today. Any gift you make to one of our Spirit of Community Funds is an unrestricted gift. We use them to address current community needs and invest in the work of organizations that are collaborating with Give Now others to create Use the enclosed envelope transformative change.

Give online at

www.kalfound.org/give

Giving is easy.

You can choose to give a gift to one or more of our Spirit of Community Funds now or later through your estate plan.

269.381.4416

Gifts you give to the Community Foundation become part of a permanent endowment, which means they’ll benefit Kalamazoo County forever.

We invest your gifts so they grow and maximize the resources available to address community needs.

Our grantmaking process is unique because of how we interact with people and how we respond to requests from local nonprofits. We thoughtfully assess community needs, go on site visits, ask tough questions and encourage collaboration.

We give grants to Kalamazoo County nonprofits addressing immediate community needs, as well as those collaborating with others to create long-term, transformative change. The goal is to make Kalamazoo County a community where every person can reach full potential.

Nonprofit Organization U.S. Postage paid Kalamazoo, MI Permit Number 66

402 East Michigan Avenue Kalamazoo, MI 49007-3888 269.381.4416 www.kalfound.org

Writing The historical narrative on pages 4 through 11 was written

by Sonya Bernard-Hollins, Season Press.

Photography Pages 2 and 3 Robert Neumann, Big Event Studios » pages 4 and 5 Pretty Lake Vacation Camp » page 6 Kalamazoo Community Foundation archives and Byce & Associates, Inc. » page 10 Robert Neumann » pages 12 and 13 Robert Neumann » pages 18 and 19 Erik Holladay, Erik Holladay Photography.

Printing This publication was printed with sustainable resource based inks on Green Seal and Forest Stewardship Council® certified papers containing 30 percent post-consumer recycled content. FSC certification ensures that the highest standards of responsible forest management are met. It was printed locally by RiverRun Press, an FSC and SmartWood certified printer.