2015 Vermont Community Foundation

ANNUAL REPORT 2015

Board of Directors Deb Brighton

Michael Metz, Charlotte

(Treasurer), Salisbury

President, Michael Metz & Associates, Inc.

Fiscal Analyst Julie Peterson, Brattleboro Lisa Cashdan, Norwich

Associate Director, Southeast Vermont

Community Leader

Learning Collaborative

Foundation was founded

Carolyn Dwyer, Essex

Betsy Rathbun-Gunn, Sandgate

in 1986 with a mission

Management Consultant

Director, Early Childhood Services,

The Vermont Community

to grow philanthropy in the state and ensure that donors and nonprofits have the resources they need to be effective.

We are proud to work with the more than 700 individuals, families, businesses, and organizations that have

United Counseling Service A. Jay Kenlan, Esq., Wallingford A. Jay Kenlan, Esq., PLLC

Margaret Seely (Secretary), Bridgewater

Peter D. Kinder, East Dorset

Community Leader

Co-founder and Former President KLD Research & Analytics, Inc.

Timothy R. Volk (Chair), Charlotte

Spencer Knapp, Burlington

Partner, Kelliher Samets Volk

Senior Vice President & General Counsel UVM Medical Partners

James G. Wheeler, Jr. (Vice Chair), East Burke

charitable funds

Allyson Laackman, Burlington

Attorney, Director

with us.

Community Leader

Downs Rachlin Martin PLLC

Pictured at right: Felipe Rivera and Tim Volk at the SunCommon community solar array in Monkton. Read about how the Foundation invests locally in companies like SunCommon on page 27.

From the Interim President & Chair of the Board We want to share an interesting statistic with you. If you take the total amount of money that the Vermont Community Foundation granted out in the first five years of its life, it works out to an average of about $245,000 per year.

Today, the Community Foundation grants out that much, on average, about every six days.

That’s what happens when generous individuals, businesses, and organizations are supported in efforts to strengthen the communities in which we live, work, and play. It’s one of the most important roles that we serve—allowing the generosity of our donors to flow freely, helping it grow to a torrent.

We do this by following the principles that inspired the people who established this foundation, and which beat as strongly as ever in the heart of this organization: helping donors find and support the causes they love, strengthening communities with grants and investments, and working closely with our partners to find solutions to the most pressing needs in our communities.

The report you hold in your hands is a window into the work that you make possible. We are honored to be a part of it.

Felipe Rivera Interim President & CEO

Timothy R. Volk Board Chair

2015 Annual Report

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The Year in Numbers A

TO TAL G R

O

million

A

RD

F

D

A N T S AW

$16.7

ED

O

UN

D ATI ON

Overall Grantmaking Arts, Culture & Humanities

7% 2

Education

Environment

Health & Human Services

19% 21% 21%

The Vermont Community Foundation

S AWA R D E

GR

2,450

NT

F

million

S TO TH E

$37.1

ON

million

NUMBER

U

TI

$223.5

S

DS

748

CONTRIB

TO TAL A SS

ET

TO TAL F UN

Community Benefit & Economic Development

Other Grantmaking

29%

3%

Making an Impact: Our Major Areas of Work The Samara Fund

Helping to create healthy and empowered communities for LGBTQ Vermonters.

Samara’s mission is to help create a vibrant Vermont LGBTQ community and ensure that LGBTQ Vermonters are connected, healthy, appreciated, safe, and empowered. More on page 6.

The Northeast Kingdom Fund

Strengthening the Kingdom through local giving.

This Fund is a permanent philanthropic resource for the people and communities of Caledonia, Essex, and Orleans Counties. It was established with the strong belief that this region exemplifies the best of Vermonters’ aspirations for their communities. More on page 7.

The High Meadows Fund

Building vibrant communities and a healthy environment.

High Meadows aims to help Vermonters lower their contribution to a warming planet, while also helping them adapt to the ways climate disruption is threatening Vermont’s communities and working landscape. More on page 8.

The Vermont Women’s Fund

Helping girls and women rise and thrive.

The Women’s Fund encourages philanthropy among women and directs its giving to support women and girls ages 12 to 25, with an emphasis on financial literacy and job and life-skill training. More on page 10.

The Permanent Fund for Vermont’s Children

Putting kids and families first.

The Permanent Fund has a straightforward mission with a lasting influence: Ensure that all Vermont children and families have access to high-quality, affordable child care by 2025. More on page 12.

The J. Warren & Lois McClure Foundation

Promoting access to postsecondary and career education—for all Vermonters.

The McClure Foundation envisions a Vermont in which no promising job goes unfilled for lack of a qualified applicant. The foundation supports projects and partnerships that improve Vermonters’ access to postsecondary and career education. More on page 14.

Addison Community Athletics Foundation (ACAF)

Promoting health and athletics in Addison County.

ACAF is devoted to improving the health, well-being, and nutrition of the greater Addison County community.

More on page 16.

Big Impact: Food and Farm Initiative

Hungering for a sustainable, vibrant food system.

The Initiative works at the nexus of hunger, health, and the state’s agricultural traditions. The goal: Connect all Vermont families with healthy, local food and strengthen Vermont’s food economy in the process. More on page 18.

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Opportunity identifies 11 issue areas that present especially strong opportunities for charitable giving in Vermont at this time. These issues are the challenges that Vermonters think about every day and include bringing quality education to all residents, cleaning up our rivers and lakes, expanding affordable housing, and tackling substance abuse,

Highlights Opportunity!

In November of 2015, we published Opportunity: 11 Critical Paths for Philanthropy in Vermont, the latest report in the Foundation’s Understanding Vermont series, which helps people learn about community needs, lead through investment in innovative and model programs, and grow philanthropy by inspiring others to give. This resource was made possible by contributions to the Community Foundation’s Philanthropic Leadership Fund.

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The Vermont Community Foundation

among others. The 40-page publication offers a concise background on each issue and highlights some successful approaches already underway in towns and cities across the state.

Our hope is that the report sparks dialogue about what philanthropy can do and stimulates new thinking about the opportunities that exist today to help our communities thrive. We think it can be a useful guide for charitable giving throughout the year.

Honoring Con Hogan

New Burlington Office

The Con Hogan Award for Creative, Entrepreneurial, Community Leadership made its debut in 2015. Established by Con’s colleagues, the annual award recognizes his life’s work by rewarding a mid-career community leader who shares his vision of a better Vermont through deep community involvement, generosity, enthusiasm, a collaborative approach, and a focus on data and outcomes. Twenty-five Vermonters from across the state were nominated in the inaugural year. Ellen Kahler received the $15,000 award in October.

Ellen has been the executive director of the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund (VSJF) since 2005, demonstrating critical leadership on the Farm to Plate Strategic Plan, a ten-year plan to strengthen the food and farm economy in Vermont. Ellen is a passionate leader who encourages trust between people and organizations, enabling them to

We are excited to have opened a satellite office in Burlington in the summer of 2015. It is the new home of the High Meadows Fund, one of our supporting organizations, as well as a place for Community Foundation staff to work and have meetings in the region. Having the space also helps us meet our mission of improving Vermont’s environmental health by reducing our staff carbon footprint through shorter commutes.

work together toward a vision of an equitable, sustainable, and just Vermont.

Pictured are (l to r): Con Hogan, Ellen Kahler, and former VCF President & CEO Stuart Comstock-Gay

2015 Annual Report

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$65,006

The Samara Fund

IN GRANTS

For all the forward progress, there remains a tremendous need for support among the state’s LGBTQ population and for those living with HIV/AIDS.

The Samara Fund is answering that call. For more than

From monthly game nights to training for transgender

two decades, the Fund has supported the work of

allies, from support groups for young people to family

Vermont’s LGBTQ and HIV/AIDS organizations. In 2015,

picnics, Green Mountain Crossroads provides crucial

its fourth year under the Community Foundation umbrella,

programming in a part of the state far removed from

the Samara Fund made 18 grants totaling $65,006.

other LGBTQ organizations, and runs almost entirely on

The money went both to program and general operating

a volunteer basis.

support to keep the doors open at organizations serving vulnerable populations.

Pictured above are participants attending Camp Outright, which marked its fifth season in 2015 and was supported

Among them is Green Mountain Crossroads, which Sama-

by a Samara grant. The summer camp has been trans-

ra has supported since its inception. Based in Brattleboro,

formative for queer Vermont youth, helping them build

the organization focuses on helping rural LGBTQ individ-

community, find peers, and reduce the isolation they

uals build community, visibility, knowledge, and power.

often experience.

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Learn more at www.vermontcf.org/samara

The Northeast Kingdom Fund

$59,560 IN GRANTS

Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom is a place unto itself—hardscrabble, ruggedly beautiful, and faced with deep economic challenges.

Unemployment numbers here are the highest in the state.

It also broadened horizons, enabling students from Island

Wages are the lowest. The Northeast Kingdom Fund

Pond to venture beyond their remote town for a field trip

provides grants to the three counties that make up the

to New Hampshire. And it provided bilingual signage for

Kingdom, focusing on small, grassroots organizations

the Old Stone House Museum that recognized the French

for whom a small philanthropic infusion can make

heritage of Orleans County.

a tremendous difference.

Underpinning all of these projects is a deep commitment In 2015, the Fund made 24 grants totaling $59,560.

to strengthening and protecting the health and cultural

This funding helped Wonder & Wisdom offer a full slate

vibrancy of one of Vermont’s most distinct regions. Grant

of theme-based summer camps. Pictured above is

proposals are vetted by a committee of local residents for

a group taking a break during their Down on the Farm

a true buy local approach to giving—by the Kingdom,

camp week.

for the Kingdom.

Learn more at www.vermontcf.org/nek

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The High Meadows Fund

Resilience Taking Root On a swath of farmland beside the Winooski River, farmers nurture young goats, hens, community gardens—and a fragile stretch of the floodplain.

This is Pine Island Community Farm in Colchester, just across the river from Burlington’s Intervale. The farm is a partnership of the Vermont Land Trust (VLT) and the Association of Africans Living in Vermont.

A two-year $50,000 grant from High Meadows for the farm project is helping a collaborative of New American farmers raise meat for the resettled refugee community of greater Burlington, and also helping four dozen families from Somalia, Bhutan, Burma, Congo, Rwanda, Sudan, and Kenya cultivate seven acres of community gardens.

In part, Pine Island is about creating agricultural opportunities and strengthening the local food network for New Americans living in Vermont.

But there’s more at stake here; as Vermont faces more frequent and catastrophic flooding events

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Learn more at www.highmeadowsfund.org

in the years ahead, farmers in the floodplains need to embrace models of agriculture that nurture the soil, limit runoff, and can ebb and flow with the river. For this, Pine Island—which the VLT bought at auction in 2012—is a kind of field experiment. Here farmers are replanting silver maples, willows, and wild roses, the diverse and multi-storied mix of species of the traditional floodplain. Where once large trucks carried chemical fertilizers down to the low-lying fields, goats and chickens now graze. Unlike corn, these agricultural activities can be moved to higher ground in the event of a flood.

It’s an exercise in resilience of all kinds, meant to nurture both the farmers and the land that sustains them.

2015 Annual Report

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The Vermont Women’s Fund

Together We Can Do Better Women represent a tremendous, if underdeveloped, resource in Vermont—and yet this population faces undeniable challenges. They’re more likely to live in poverty than men.

Forty-three percent of those working full-time don’t earn enough to cover basic living expenses. Women disproportionately hold low-wage jobs, and they’re particularly vulnerable as they age because they collect on average half of what men earn in Social Security income.

Vermont can do better. That’s the goal of Change the Story, a new initiative led by the Women’s Fund, the Vermont Commission on Women, and Vermont Works for Women that aims to fast-track economic progress for Vermont women. In 2015, these three organizations joined forces and began digging into the numbers in an effort to align policy, public awareness, and philanthropy to improve economic conditions for women.

For the Women’s Fund, Change the Story marks a new chapter in philanthropic thinking and giving that builds on more than two decades of grantmaking supporting women and girls. This is an opportunity to push a social agenda in a way that philanthropy is especially well-suited to do. The statistics today tell a sobering story. Now, it’s time to write a better one.

FACT: 43% of Vermont women working full-time do not make enough to pay basic living expenses.

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Learn more at www.vermontwomensfund.org

With this Initiative,

the Women’s Fund,

the Vermont Commission on Women, and Vermont Works for Women aim to radically improve

economic conditions for Vermont Women.

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The Permanent Fund for Vermont’s Children

The Numbers Matter Child care in Vermont is expensive for both parents and providers, limited in quantity, and inconsistent in quality. Any way you slice the numbers, working families in Vermont, and their children, come up short. The Permanent Fund for Vermont’s Children is out to change that equation. In 2015, together with the A.D. Henderson Foundation and the Turrell Fund, the Permanent Fund mapped out metrics to strengthen Vermont’s commitment to early childhood care and education. By 2025, the Permanent Fund wants 80% of Vermont kids enrolled in child care to be in programs that meet the highest levels of the state’s quality rating system. The Fund also wants to ensure that every family in Vermont has access to high-quality child care for their children, and that they don’t need to spend more than 7-15% of their gross annual income on that care.

The fund is taking a three-pronged approach to achieving these goals: •

Increasing Public Awareness: Thanks to the Let’s Grow Kids public education campaign, 52% of Vermonters now believe that the first five years of a child’s life are the most important for ensuring a child’s future success—a 13-point increase in two years.

•

Strengthening Pre-Kindergarten Programs: In 2015, the Vermont Community Preschool Collaborative made $400,000 in grants to 22 communities to increase program quality and/or capacity, and statewide pre-K enrollment saw an increase of 1,077 students.

•

Improving the Quality of Child Care: The Vermont Birth to Five Initiative helps home providers increase program quality through professional development, incentives, and a mentoring network. Since its inception in 2011, the number of registered home providers participating in STARS—the state’s quality recognition system for child care—increased from 11% to 80% at the end of 2015.

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Learn more at www.permanentfund.org

These numbers

matter; behind each one is the story of

a child whose early years are made

that much brighter

because of a qualified teacher, or of a family who isn’t straining

under the burden of

high childcare costs.

That’s the kind of

math we can all get behind.

2015 Annual Report

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The J. Warren & Lois McClure Foundation

Pathways to Promising Jobs High-paying, high-demand jobs exist in Vermont, and yet many Vermonters struggle with a critical skills gap that prevents them from seizing those opportunities. The McClure Foundation envisions a different future, one in which, by 2025, 70% of Vermont’s working age adults possess a postsecondary degree or credential of value. Education, training, meaningful employment: this is the pathway to success that the McClure Foundation supports.

It’s a pathway being paved with programs tailored to individuals. Low-income high school students whose parents do not have college degrees are receiving personalized encouragement to pursue dual enrollment; high schoolers are learning about jobs in clean energy through the Vermont Energy Education Program; and teens in foster care are receiving help as they apply for college and make the transition to independent life.

And a group of funders, including McClure, sponsored the Women Can Do conference at Vermont Technical College (VTC), where 500 girls designed bridges, learned about firefighting, and wrote computer code. In 2014, every one of VTC’s 89 engineering technology graduates, most of them men, received job offers. In the same year, girls accounted for only 15% of students enrolled in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) or trades programs in Vermont’s technical schools. Girls should have more opportunities to compete for these promising jobs.

Whether it’s encouraging women to pursue STEM careers, connecting single parents with educational opportunities, or providing community college students with hands-on career counseling, the McClure Foundation is supporting the next generation of Vermont workers.

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Learn more at www.mcclurevt.org

300 plumbers.

More than 600 construction

managers. 240 web developers.

These are some

of the jobs expected to open in Vermont

in the next ten years.

The question is, will

Vermont’s young men and women be ready

to fill these positions?

2015 Annual Report

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Addison Community Athletics Foundation

Making a Racket Tennis isn’t widely taught in the United States and unfairly holds a lingering reputation as a sport for the elite.

In Addison County, we’re changing that perception.

The Addison Community Athletics Foundation (ACAF), a supporting organization of the Community Foundation, assumed ownership of the Middlebury Indoor Tennis facility from donors David and Eleanor Ignat in 2014. Using the facility as its base of operation, ACAF aims to hook more kids and families on tennis and over the long-term, provide other programs that encourage healthful behaviors for youth and adults in the region.

And ACAF is taking its mission on the road by bringing tennis instruction into schools throughout the county.

The programming is built on a new approach to teaching tennis pioneered by the U.S. Tennis Association; these lessons ditch the days of endless drills in favor of playful exercises, low-bounce balls, and techniques that get kids playing right away. Schools don’t need a tennis pro, or even a traditional tennis court. The idea is to to have fun, and in the process, develop a genuine love for a lifelong sport.

In 2015, ACAF piloted their program in Bridport, where six volunteers partnered with the local physical education teacher to get rackets into the hands of kids.

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Learn more at www.vermontcf.org/acaf

Thus far, ACAF programming

has reached more than 300 people, and they are

recruiting volunteers in the region who

can help expand the program into more local schools.

Come out and play!

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VER

Big Impact: Food and Farm Initiative

At the Table Together Bringing local foods into meal programs is a new undertaking for many Vermont schools. Teaching children about those foods, concocting tasty recipes, and encouraging curiosity about the natural world and food systems—that’s the work that will make local foods the new normal in Vermont schools.

That’s where the Vermont Harvest of the Month program kicks in; the program provides compelling art, recipes, and even lesson plans to more than schools and institutions to bring local foods into all parts of a child’s education. In February—cabbage month—students might use red cabbage juice in a science experiment to determine the pH of liquids; later, they may sit down to a lunch of cider-braised cabbage and apples.

A partnership of Green Mountain Farm to School, Food Connects, and Vital Communities, the Harvest of the Month program—supported for two and a half years by the Food and Farm Initiative—illustrates the power of collaborative partnerships. Not only did Harvest of the Month strengthen schools’ ability to incorporate local foods into their curriculum, it built capacity and long-lasting connections within the state’s network of nonprofits working on local foods and farm-to-school programs.

This kind of work gets at the heart of the Food and Farm Initiative, which aims to create a local foods economy that is both inclusive and sustainable. Now three years in to a five-year push, the initiative is seeing substantive gains fueled by more than $1.6 million in giving since its launch.

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Learn more at www.vermontcf.org/localfood

MONT

With the support of the Initiative, farm-to-school programs are actively collaborating with antihunger efforts in Vermont. Local foods programming in schools is more inclusive than ever before.

And, the state is making headway in strengthening the systems that get Vermont food from farm to plate, in particular by focusing on wholesale markets.

Crucially, more Vermonters see local food as their own; the Food and Farm Initiative is, above all else, a collaborative one, and the only way to build a resilient food system that serves all Vermonters is with everyone at the table.

2015 Annual Report

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Our Fundholders

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The Vermont Community Foundation

Giving Back is a Family Value Growing up in Columbus, Ohio, Josh Traeger learned about giving back—both with time and money—early on. His parents established a foundation with earnings from their family business, and Josh and his siblings sat in on discussions about charitable giving. As the children grew older, his parents entrusted each with increasing responsibility for deciding how and where to give.

Today, Josh and his wife, Kate, hope to instill the same spirit of giving in their daughter. Educators by trade, the Traegers opened their fund in 2006.

Now in their early 40s, they are quick to point out that philanthropy need not be the domain of the fabulously wealthy, or the retired. “My goal is to work really hard in life right now and grow the fund,” said Josh, who works in both education and his family’s real estate development business.

Given Josh’s early exposure to giving, the Traegers appreciated what the Community Foundation could offer young philanthropists. “The Foundation helped us organize our thinking around giving through an easy-to-use online tool,” said Kate. “And they connected us to a broader network of philanthropists in the state.”

After all, what drew the Traegers to settle in Vermont was the sense of community they found. Today, both are committed volunteers: He’s a Rotarian who spends time at Groundworks Collaborative and promotes bicycling safety; Kate is deeply invested in the local arts community, and serves on the board of the Brattleboro Women’s Chorus. “Giving a check is great, but we both love being connected to the work,” said Josh.

“I like the ‘community’ part of the Community Foundation,” said Kate. “That’s very important to me.” And as their daughter continues to grow, they plan to increasingly include her in that work.

“We work hard so we can have the space to give,” said Josh. “The world needs people to step up.

We’re hoping to answer that call.”

“I like the ‘community’ part of the Community Foundation...

That’s very important to me.”

“Giving a check is great, but we both love being connected to the work.”

2015 Annual Report

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Our Fundholders Deep Loss Leads to Giving The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 hit close to home for David Stapleton and Joyce Manchester—literally and figuratively. At the time, the two economists were living with their children just outside of Washington, D.C. Soon came devastating news: David and Joyce learned that close friends—a family traveling with their two young daughters—had been aboard the flight that crashed into the Pentagon.

“It could have been us,” said David. They felt compelled to do something to honor their lost friends and help make the world a little bit safer for their own children. That decision began 15 years of both global and local philanthropy. Soon the couple began giving to initiatives to support education, especially for girls, in Afghanistan and central Asia to counter the appeal of extremists and terrorist tactics.

Philanthropy became a “joint project of our relationship and marriage,” said Joyce—as well as a means for gathering with friends. In 2007, they partnered with friends to create the Afghan Education Giving Circle of Northern Virginia, which has since made annual grants to support education for girls in Afghanistan. Many of their grants have been made to Sahar Education International, a program that builds schools and computer centers

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The Vermont Community Foundation

“We feel we have a responsibility to do something good for the world because we are able to do something good for the world.” in Afghanistan; David now serves as treasurer of Sahar’s board.

While much of the couple’s giving has focused on global initiatives, Joyce and David are also committed to giving back locally. After relocating to Vermont in 2014, they set up their fund with the Community Foundation the following year. They used the Community Foundation’s 2015 Opportunity report to learn more about programs they might support in the state, and targeted their giving to programs focused on helping young people become productive members of society.

“We feel we have a responsibility to do something good for the world because we are able to do something good for the world,” said Joyce. Be it at home or halfway around the world, that’s the philosophy that guides their giving.

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“The Community Foundation is one of the pillars of Vermont’s resiliency. The people and the organization continue to be a key resource for me and for my clients.”

—Jason Cadwell, Vermont Pure Financial

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The Vermont Community Foundation

Thank You to Our Advisors

By referring clients to us, you have helped build philanthropic resources that will keep Vermont communities healthier and more vital now and into the future.

L. Randolph Amis, Esq. L. Randolph Amis Esq., PC

Leigh Cole, Esq. Dinse, Knapp & McAndrew, PC

David M. Gates, CFP GateHouse Financial Advisors, LLP

Jeanne C. Blackmore, Esq. Gravel & Shea, PC

Leo V. Connolly Edward Jones

Susan Otto Goodell, CFP Otto & Associates, Inc.

Reginald Boucher, CRPS Wells Fargo Advisors

Joseph F. Cook, Esq. Corum, Mabie, Cook, Prodan, Angell & Secrest, PLC

Kathryn G. R. Granai, CPA Montgomery & Merrill PC

Paul D. Briody, CFP Wells Fargo Advisors Gary T. Brooks, Esq. Stebbins Bradley, PA Molly Bucci, Esq. Clarke Demas & Baker, PLC Jonathan Bump, Esq. Law Office of Jonathan Bump, Esq. Jason Cadwell, CPA/PFS, CFP Vermont Pure Financial Timothy W. Caldwell, Esq. Caldwell Law Edgar T. Campbell, Esq. Witten, Woolmington, Campbell & Bernal, PC Barbara H. Cane, Esq. Cane & Boniface, PC David Carris UBS Financial Services, Inc. Albert A. Cicchetti Little & Cicchetti, PC C. Kirk Clarke, Esq. Clarke Demas & Baker, PLC

Charles R. Cummings, Esq. Retired Nancy K. de Tarnowsky, Esq. Dinse, Knapp & McAndrew, PC Charles N. Dinklage, CRPS Sequoia Financial Group James L. Donohue, CPA, CFP Gallagher, Flynn & Company, PLC Pamela J. Douglass, CPA McCormack, Guyette & Associates, PC Holly K. Dustin, Esq. Ledyard Financial Advisors Jon R. Eggleston, Esq. Primmer, Piper, Eggleston & Cramer, PC Sandra K. Enman, CPA, CFP, CVA Enman & Associates, PC John E. (Jeff) Fothergill, CPA Fothergill Segale & Valley Ethan Frechette Stebbins Bradley, PA

John Harrington, PhD Harrington Investments, Inc. Nicholas D.N. Harvey, Jr., Esq. Stebbins Bradley, PA Richard D. Hausman Clean Yield Asset Management, Retired Susan M. Hill, CPA, CFP Hill & Thompson, PC Thomas H. Jacobs, Esq. Jacobs Law Offices, LLC Eric W. Janson, Esq. Law Office of Eric W. Janson, PLLC Glenn A. Jarrett, Esq. Jarrett Law Office, PLC A. Jay Kenlan, Esq. A. Jay Kenlan, Esq., PLLC Theo Kennedy, JD, MPH Otis & Kennedy, LLC Gary W. Lange, Esq. Lange Law Offices Stephen P. Magowan, Esq. Sunrise Management Services, LLC

2015 Annual Report

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Advisors Cont’d Stephen P. Marsh Community National Bank John H. Marshall, Esq. Downs Rachlin Martin PLLC L. Raymond Massucco, Esq. Massucco Law Office, PC Douglas McCauley Madison Avenue Securities, LLC Lon T. McClintock, Esq. McClintock Law Office, PC Mark E. Melendy, Esq. Sheehey Furlong & Behm PC Marcia S. Merrill, CPA Montgomery & Merrill PC David Mickenberg, Esq. Mickenberg, Dunn, Lachs & Smith, PLC Willemien Dingemans Miller, Esq. Downs Rachlin Martin PLLC Colleen L. Montgomery, CPA Montgomery & Merrill PC Christine D. Moriarty, CFP MoneyPeace, Inc. Daphne Moritz, Esq. Sheehey Furlong & Behm PC Emily R. Morrow, Esq. Emily Morrow Executive Consulting Brian R. Murphy, Esq. Dinse, Knapp & McAndrew, PC Kenneth M. Nussbaum, CPA/PFS, JD K. Nussbaum & Associates Anthony Otis, JD Otis & Kennedy, LLC Kevin M. O’Toole, Esq. Law Office of Kevin M. O’Toole, Esq. David W. Otto, CFP Otto & Associates, Inc.

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The Vermont Community Foundation

Leigh Keyser Phillips, Esq. Law Office of Leigh Keyser Phillips, Esq. William G. Post, Jr., Esq. Gravel & Shea, PC, Retired Claudia Inés Pringles, Esq. Law Office of Claudia I. Pringles Robert S. Pratt, Esq. Pratt Vreeland Kennelly Martin & White, LTD E. Randall Ralston E. Randall Ralston, PC Kristin Reed, CPA, CFP Williams Financial Management, LLC Pamela A. Rodriguez, CPA Pamela A. Rodriguez, CPA Randall L. Sargent, CPA Jacobs, Morrissette, Marchand & Associates Henry Scheier, CPA, CFP Fine Plan Professional Corp.

Steven E. Schindler, Esq. Schindler Law Office, PLC Jonathan D. Secrest, Esq. Corum, Mabie, Cook, Prodan, Angell & Secrest, PLC Shelley M. Seward, CFP Commonwealth Financial Network John Simson, CLU Retired

Tom Stransky, CLU, ChFC, CLTC Northwestern Mutual Cathy Systo Edward Jones Wallace W. Tapia, CPA Wallace W. Tapia, PC Robert Thompson, CPA Hill & Thompson, PC Sarah Gentry Tischler, Esq. Langrock, Sperry & Wool, LLP Erik Valdes, Esq. The Law Firm of Erik Valdes Thomas Wagner, CFP Summit Wealth Group, LLC Fred Wainwright Ledyard Financial Advisors David A. Ward, Esq. Ward Legal Group, PC Allen D. Webster, Esq. Paul Frank + Collins, PC Robert A. Wells, Esq. McLane, Graf, Raulerson & Middleton James G. Wheeler, Jr., Esq. Downs Rachlin Martin PLLC Richard C. White Community National Bank, Retired R. Marshall Witten, Esq. Witten, Woolmington, Campbell & Bernal, PC, Retired

Launa L. Slater, Esq. Aaron J. Goldberg, PLC

Robert E. Woolmington, Esq. Witten, Woolmington, Campbell & Bernal, PC

M. Brent Sleeper, AIF Granite Financial Group

Thomas P. Wright, Esq. Wright & Reeves, PLC

David B. Stackpole, Esq. Stackpole & French Law Offices

Investing Locally

Beyond our grantmaking in the state, the Community Foundation contributes directly to the health and sustainability of our communities through its Vermont Investments program, which began in 2001. The program allocates 5% of our investments in Vermont. At the end of 2015, we had $8 million invested in local organizations and companies, including Vermont HousingFinance Agency, Vermont Community Loan Fund, Vermont Land Trust, Vermont Sustainable JobsFund, SunCommon, Vermont Smoke and Cure, and FreshTracks Capital. Our investments support a variety of sectors from affordable housing to early-stage companies to food and farm enterprises. The investment allocation by impact area for 2015 is noted on the right.

Affordable Housing . . . . . . . 45%

Pictured above: A SunCommon community solar array in Monkton.

Community Outreach . . . . . . . 2%

Business Development . . . . . 20% Food and Farm . . . . . . . . . . . 26% Energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4% Child Care . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3%

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Financials

(as of December 31) 2015 2014

ASSETS

(unaudited)

Cash and Cash Equivalents

$10,315,469

Investments

$7,128,470

$193,165,075 $185,594,048

Other Assets

$20,039,306

T O TA L A S S E T S

$22,073,205

$223,519,850 $214,795,723

LIABILITIES AND NET ASSETS Grants Payable, Accounts Payable, and Other Liabilities

$2,271,597

Life Income Gifts Liabilities

$2,095,537

$7,251,862

$7,735,309

Funds Held for Nonprofit Organizations

$36,308,663

$29,283,607

Total Liabilities

$45,832,122

$39,114,453

$150,643,293

$145,343,654

$27,044,435

$30,337,616

$177,687,728

$175,681,270

$223,519,850

$214,795,723

Unrestricted Net Assets Temporarily Restricted Net Assets Total Net Assets T O TA L L I A B I L I T I E S A N D N E T A S S E T S

Audited financial statements are available at www.vermontcf.org/financials.

VCF Target Benchmark

4.4%

4.2%

4.3%

-2.6%

Please visit www.vermontcf.org/investments for current investment returns and historical performance.

$167

6.4%

$152

10 Yr.

6.2%

$157

5 Yr.

6.5%

$143

3 Yr.

$117

1 Yr.

VCF Long-Term Pool -1.4%

$153

. . . through December 31, 2015

$163

$192

Net Investment Returns

$224

Total Assets in Millions

$215

2006 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2015

S TA F F

Felipe Rivera

Please visit www.vermontcf.org/staff for the most up-to-date staff list.

Interim President & CEO and Vice President for Strategy and Communications

Patrick H. Berry

Debra Rooney, CPA

Vice President for Philanthropy

Vice President for Finance & CFO

Lydia Brownell

Richard Ruane

Fund Manager

Information Systems Manager

Lauren Bruno

Meg Smith

Program and Grants Associate

Director, The Vermont Women’s Fund

Heather Carlton

Carolyn Weir

Accountant

Philanthropic Advisor for the McClure Foundation

Emilye Pelow Corbett

& Program and Grants

Philanthropic Advisor

Michael J. Gabriele Senior Accountant/Analyst

Kim Haigis

OUR SUPPORTING O R G A N I Z AT I O N S Please visit their websites to learn more.

Administrative Coordinator for Program and Grants

Addison Community Athletics Foundation

Maria Hoaglund

www.vermontcf.org/acaf

Human Resource and Finance Specialist

The High Meadows Fund

Christopher Kaufman Ilstrup

www.highmeadowsfund.org

Senior Philanthropic Advisor for Program and Grants

The J. Warren and Lois McClure Foundation

Jane Kimble

www.mcclurevt.org

Philanthropy Associate

The Permanent Fund for Vermont’s Children

Laurie Lowy

www.permanentfund.org

Accountant

Janet Malcolm

Photography: Todd Balfour – Cover, back cover, pages 1, 16,17, 27;

Grants Associate

Sabin Gratz – pages 12-13. John Lazenby – pages 8, 9, 24; Jerry and

Janet McLaughlin Special Projects Director

Maggie Morris

Marcy Monkman/EcoPhotography – page 4; Jeff Woodward, Woodward Photography – pages 20, 23.

Photos/Images Courtesy of: Community College of Vermont – page 14-15; Outright Vermont – page 6; Vermont Harvest of the

Community Philanthropy Fellow

Month–- page 18-19; Wonder & Wisdom – page 7.

David Morrissey

Writing: Kathryn Flagg, Press Forward, Shoreham

Controller

Design: Serena Fox Design Company, Waitsfield

Martha Trombley Oakes Senior Philanthropic Advisor

Jen Peterson Vice President for Program and Grants

Paige Pierson Senior Communications Manager

2015 Annual Report

29

Changing lives. One relationship at a time.

Pictured here and on the front cover are participants in the Northeast Kingdom Youth Services (NEKYS) JUMP Mentoring Program.

More than 120 youth have been matched with caring adult mentors through the program. And NEKYS has been providing a strong continuum of care for individuals, youth, and families in Caledonia and Southern Essex Counties since 1975.

NEKYS was one of more than 25 Vermont nonprofits that opened a fund with us in 2015, and the Community Foundation manages nonprofit funds for more than 140 organizations. As part of helping philanthropists cultivate their love of giving to the community, we are committed to strengthening the capacity of the state’s nonprofit sector through services that go beyond grantmaking.

Learn more at www.vermontcf.org/nonprofits

3 Court Steet Middlebury, VT 05753

www.vermontcf.org