Healdsburg Tribune, May 4, 2004
Letter to the Editor: Join the circle
Editor: Over the last 12 months the Healdsburg Area Affiliate of the Community Foundation Sonoma County was organized. This month the first Affiliate Board meeting will be held, the Founders Circle will close, and the Grant Program guidelines and applications will be made available. A year of quiet but continuous activity is ending with an effort to expand the Founders Circle.
The Healdsburg Area Fund has grown from nothing, in May of 2003, into a $350,000 endowment. This endowment will perpetually fund annual grants for charitable programs and projects which benefit residents in the Healdsburg Geyserville area (95448 and 95441).
While there have been many direct donations to the Area Fund, many people have indirectly contributed to this endowment, perhaps without realizing it. Because of a $500,000 Challenge Match offered by an anonymous donor, any money brought into the Affiliate, resulted in a matching amount placed in the Healdsburg Area Fund. For example, the $20,000 raised for the Healdsburg Dog Parks resulted in another $20,000 being put into the Healdsburg Area Fund from the match!
So if you bought an engraved paver in support of the Dog Parks, your donation was effectively doubled. The match applies to other Organizational Funds (like the Soroptomists Endowment), Donor Advised Funds (like the Memorial Fund described in Demaris Brinton's letter last week), as well as direct gifts to the Area Fund.
If you or your organization would like to be part of the Founders Circle, send a donation of any amount to the Healdsburg Area Affiliate. This is not about how much, (your gift will grow forever), it is about how many of us will stand together today to meet the future charitable needs of our communities. And your generosity will be doubled because of the Challenge Match.
Richard Burg, Board Member, Healdsburg Area Affiliate
Healdsburg Tribune, April 21, 2004
Foundation launches fund raising effort
Healdsburg Area Affiliate will give out grants this fall to local
groups
By Ray Holley, Tribune Editor
Working quietly behind the scenes, the Healdsburg Area Affiliate, a local
branch of the Community Foundation Sonoma County, has raised hundreds of
thousands of dollars in the past year, and is embarking on a public campaign
to raise awareness about its existence.
The idea of the Affiliate came about last year, when Healdsburg community
leaders began discussing how to raise and distribute more money to help
local causes and organizations.
Representing what Healdsburg City Councilmember Jason Liles calls
"Healdsburg's civic coming of age," Affiliate supporters say that it
benefits from the expertise and efficiency of the larger foundation, but
offers local control of philanthropic dollars.
The Affiliate has been in the organizing phase for almost a year, according
to Richard Burg, who serves on the organization's board of directors, and
who is spearheading a fund-raising drive between now and May 15, the end of
the Affiliate's first year of existence.
"Those who donate before May 15 will be recognized as part of our Founder's
Circle," said Burg. "Donors large and small are being sought, to make the
Founder's Circle as inclusive as possible."
The Affiliate has a big incentive to raise money - an anonymous donor has
plaedged to match up to $500,000 in contributions within the first three
years, and $300,000 of that match has already been made, to what is being
called the "Healdsburg Area Fund."
Healdsburg Rotary has just pledged $25,000 to the Affiliate, to be used for
the renovation of Gibbs Park. That donation is also eligible for the
matching funds.
The fund has $830,000 so far, which includes large endowments from the
Healdsburg Boys & Girls Club, the Healdsburg Dog Park Committee, the
Healdsburg Performing Arts Theater, and St. John Catholic School. The
endowments - and all other funds raised by the Affiliate - are managed by
the financial experts at the Community Foundation Sonoma County.
The Affiliate plans to have a $1 million endowment by May of 2006, and will
offer grants each fall to local groups and good causes. Affiliate organizers
note that the Healdsburg and Geyserville area has become a popular
relocation destination for well-off people, who want the stability and
accountability of a foundation, rather than giving donations directly to
non-profit groups.
The Affiliate has also attracted the support of long-term residents. Eugene
Cuneo, who has lived in Healdsburg for all of his life, made a donation at
the urging of his friend Lee Chandler, who is also a member of the Affiliate
board of directors. "Lee told me that they're doing a lot of good work, and
that other groups are joining in," said Cuneo, who supports many local
causes.
The Affiliate board of directors includes Melissa Bail, Richard Burg,
Demaris Brinton, Lee Chandler, Lisa Schaffner, John van der Zee, and Henry
Wendt.
Funds invested through the Affiliate are pooled with the $88 million in
assets currently invested with the Community Foundation.
The Affiliate is in the process of finalizing HAF competitive grant
guidelines - with $25,000 slated to be disbursed at the end of this year in
Healdsburg and Geyserville (the 95448 and 95441 zip codes).
The Community Foundation Sonoma County was established in 1983 to create an
ongoing source of funds for local charitable organizations. Since that time,
it has distributed nearly $54 million in grants and scholarships, including
more than $6.2 million in 2003.
Healdsburg Tribune, March 24, 2004
Letter to the Editor: Let's keep it local
Editor: The dictionary defines philanthropy as "a desire to help mankind,
indicated by acts of charity." Americans are somewhat unique in this regard
when compared to the rest of the world. We tend to want to help our fellow
man wherever possible. We contribute both money and time to numerous causes
aimed at improving life in our community.
The idea of building a permanent fund, called an endowment, the income from
which would be used to help those in need, is not new. The first Community
Foundation was started in Cleveland, Ohio in the early 1900s. This concept
has now grown to where there are over 600 community foundations nationwide.
The Community Foundation Sonoma County had a very modest beginning in 1983.
It has grown to become one of Sonoma County's largest providers of funds to
the many non-profits in the county. Today our Community Foundation has
assets of over $87 million and has made grants of over $54 million since its
inception.
Even though Community Foundation Sonoma County has always had the entire
county in mind when choosing board members and making grants, it has been
thought of by some residents as being a "Santa Rosa Foundation." Based on my
personal involvement with our community foundation for the past 15 years, I
can tell you that nothing is further from the truth.
About a year ago a few prominent residents of Healdsburg suggested that it
would be valuable to form an "affiliate" fund of Community Foundation Sonoma
County which would take care of the needs of only Healdsburg and
Geyserville. Consequently, the Healdsburg Area Fund was formed. The purpose
of the fund is to build a permanent endowment, the income from which would
be used to support community needs only in Healdsburg and Geyserville.
Thanks to an anonymous donor, the Healdsburg Area Fund has been offered a
matching grant of $500,000 over a three-year period of time.
We now have a wonderful opportunity to create a permanent endowment fund
which can do much to further improve life in Healdsburg and Geyserville.
Contributions, both large and small, made to the Healdsburg Area Fund are
tax deductible. Because of the matching grant, any donation will have the
benefit of being doubled. Anyone making a contribution before May 15, 2004
will be included in the Founder's Circle. The members of the organizing
committee are working to create a permanent memorial to be centrally located
somewhere in Healdsburg that will recognize these founders.
Lee Chandler, Healdsburg
Healdsburg Tribune, June 4, 2003
NEW PHILANTHROPIC FUND AIMS TO KEEP CHARITABLE DONATIONS IN LOCAL HANDS
Healdsburg Area Fund will be affiliated with county Community Foundation
By Ray Holley, Tribune Editor
Hoping to drill a deeper well of local generosity, a group of Healdsburg community activists has started a new charitable organization, the "Healdsburg Area Fund," which will be affiliated with the Community Foundation of Sonoma County.
The idea grew in at least two independent minds over the last couple of years, according to Healdsburg City Councilmember Jason Liles, one of the founders of the fund. "Demaris Brinton called me about an unrelated issue and the idea came up during our conversation. We each had been thinking about it."
Liles said he and Brinton met to discuss the idea of a Healdsburg-based foundation that would raise and distribute money locally.
Brinton contacted the Community Foundation of Sonoma County, a 20-year-old Santa Rosa-based organization that manages $78 million in charitable funds. The foundation was interested in helping start "affiliate funds," charitable funds that would be focused on specific communities, to augment the broader focus of a county-wide organization.
Kate Ecker, Director of Development for the foundation, said that smaller affiliate groups, "encourage local philanthropy" and that the foundation is also working with start-up affiliate groups in the Sonoma Valley, Petaluma, and the West County.
Henry Wendt, a Healdsburg winery owner and the chairman of the board of the Community Foundation, was recruited to help set up the Healdsburg fund.
Wendt described community foundations as, "a vehicle for charity-minded individuals who want to fulfill their personal philanthropic dreams without forming a personal foundation."
Those who give money to community foundations can designate where and how the money is distributed, or can give the foundation guidelines for its distribution.
The Community Foundation of Sonoma County has been very successful raising money over the last two decades, but has been criticized for being too focused on Santa Rosa.
The affiliate fund idea is a national phenomenon, according to Ecker, and is growing rapidly as local philanthropists look for the security of a foundation, but want more local focus on distribution of grants.
According to Brinton, the Healdsburg Area Fund will be solely focused on helping good causes in the Healdsburg and Geyserville area.
"The affiliate will have all the advantages of the foundation's significant back office expertise and fiscal oversight, while a local board and screening committee will be knowledgeable about and experienced in the specific needs of our community," she said.
The fund supporters say that local donations will be safely and securely managed by the foundation's professional money managers. The foundation will take 1.75 percent as an administrative fee.
The Healdsburg Area Fund will form three committees, made up of local people:
The Affiliate Board will oversee and promote the fund, help raise money, and work with grantees;
The Distribution Committee will review grant applications from local groups, and make recommendations about how funds are distributed;
The Advisory Board will offer counsel and special skills to the fund.
The founders are actively soliciting donations, volunteers for the committees, and questions - with a half million dollar incentive.
The fund has received a $500,000 anonymous challenge grant. Every dollar raised for the first three years - up to $500,000 - will be matched by the anonymous donor. "That jumps us ahead two years," said Liles. "It really gives us a head start."
Liles admitted that local charities might feel threatened by a new, well-organized and well-funded group.
"One of our biggest worries has been that if we're raising money, are we taking it away from other non-profit groups?" Liles said. "Our goal is not to take money away, it's to supplement it and help. We want to make sure we don't threaten anyone."
One of the groups that may have felt threatened is the Healthcare Foundation Northern Sonoma County, which is also out raising money, from some of the same sources.
Alson Kemp, president of the healthcare foundation board, said that he has met with Brinton, and feels that their organizations will be able to work together, not in conflict. "We wish them well," said Kemp, who added that he looks forward to applying for grants from the fund for his group's work.
For more information about the Healdsburg Area Fund, call 433-1244.
