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Update / Kalamazoo Community Foundation / Issue 2 2015
UEducation:Investing in the future OUR BIG 3 GOALS — EDUCATION, EQUITY AND ENGAGEMENT — ARE INTERCONNECTED AND EQUALLY IMPORTANT, BUT EDUCATION IS VIEWED AS THE PATH TO GROWTH AND PROSPERITY [PAGE 4]
On the verge of dropping out of high school after just a year, Jeremiah Mansfield seized hold of an opportunity to change his life. Thanks to the support of coaches, teachers, guidance counselors and The Learning Network of Greater Kalamazoo’s College and Career Access Network, he graduated from Gull Lake High School in 2014 and went on to attend Spring Arbor University.
Photo by Erik Holladay
Suprotik Stotz-Ghosh Vice President, Community Investment
2 KALAMAZOO COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ISSUE 2 2015
To ensure that all children have a fair, equal, and significant opportunity to obtain a high-quality education and reach, at a minimum, proficiency on challenging State academic achievement standards and state academic assessments. That was the purpose of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson on April 11, 1965.
I recently read about the ESEA because I wanted to learn the origins of “Title funding.” As I read, I was struck by how similar the language of the original legislation is to the language we still use today, now 50 years later. The persistence and increased complexity of the challenges we face to provide a “fair, equal, and significant” education to all helps explain why the Kalamazoo Community Foundation is so heavily invested in The Learning Network of Greater Kalamazoo.
We view The Learning Network as our community’s best strategy to provide a fair and equal education for all. The Community Foundation’s five year investment in The Learning Network is bringing educators together in partnership with nonprofit and other community partners to build the capacity necessary to address community-level outcomes such as college readiness.
We continue to invest in The Learning Network because, through collaboration between schools and the community, we may be able to fully realize the potential of the ESEA, and in so doing, achieve our vision of a community where every person can reach full potential.
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ConnectGiveGive online www.kalfound.org/give
Mail a check Kalamazoo Community Foundation 402 East Michigan Avenue Kalamazoo, MI 49007-3888
Make a planned gift There are many ways for you to plan now for a gift later. To learn more, get in touch with our Donor Relations team at 269.381.4416 or [email protected].
ReceiveWhat we fund We fund 501(c)(3) nonprofits for projects that fit within our community investment priorities and will benefit Kalamazoo County.
What we don’t fund We don’t fund for-profit business development projects, private land purchases or private home purchases.
How to apply Start the process at www.kalfound.org/howtoapply.
ISSUE 2 2015 KALFOUND.ORG 3
Ta-Nehisi Coates will be keynote speaker at 2015 Community Meeting
Ta-Nehisi Coates, the author of
“The Beautiful Struggle” and a
national correspondent for
The Atlantic, will be the keynote
speaker for our 2015 Community
Meeting. The event, which will be
free and open to the public,
is scheduled for November 3 at
Miller Auditorium on the campus of
Western Michigan University.
“The Beautiful Struggle” is Coates’
memoir about growing up in
Baltimore. His next book,
“Between the World and Me,” is
scheduled to be released in the fall.
Considered one of the most
original and perceptive African
American voices of our time,
Coates has written on how pop
culture, politics and history shape
discussions of equity, diversity and
inclusion. His articles have covered
a history of racism in America, the
case for reparations, generational
and ideological rifts in the black
community, the meaning of black
culture, and the role of both older
and younger generations in shaping
that culture.
The New Yorker says he “is one of the
most elegant and sharp observers of
race in America. He is an upholder
of universal values, a brave and
compassionate writer who
challenges his readers to transcend
narrow self-definitions and focus
on shared humanity.”
Coates, whose Atlantic blog was
named as one of the best 25 in
the world by Time magazine, is
Journalist-in-Residence at the School
of Journalism at City University of
New York and previously served as
Martin Luther King Visiting Associate
Professor at MIT. His writing for
The Atlantic covers culture, politics
and social issues. He received the
Hillman Prize for Opinion and Analysis
Journalism in 2012 and the George
Polk Award for Commentary in 2014.
Before joining The Atlantic, he wrote
for The Village Voice and was a
contributor to Time, O and
The New York Times.
For the 13th time, PNC Bank is the
lead sponsor for the event, which
will be a highlight of the University
Center for the Humanities at
WMU’s 2015-2016 Speaker Series:
Reimagining Communities. We also
are partnering with other people and
organizations to maximize the impact
of Coates’ visit to our community.
Registration for the 2015
Community Meeting is open now
at surveymonkey.com/s/kzcf15.
Ta-Nehisi Coates
AUTHOR OF “THE BEAUTIFUL STRUGGLE” TO SPEAK ABOUT RACIAL EQUITY AT THE NOVEMBER 3 EVENT
Education: Investing in the future When Kalamazoo Community
Foundation President/CEO Carrie
Pickett-Erway and our team talk
about education, we think Big Picture.
Education is one of the Community
Foundation’s Big 3 Goals, along with
equity and engagement. The three
goals are interconnected and
equally important, but education
is viewed as the path to future
growth and prosperity.
With education as one of our major
goals, the Community Foundation
has continued to invest in existing
partnerships with local nonprofits.
For example, last year we gave a
$161,783 grant to the Kalamazoo
Center for Youth and Community,
which serves students in the Eastside
and Eastwood neighborhoods.
But the Community Foundation’s main
education efforts are our decades-old
scholarship program and The Learning
Network of Greater Kalamazoo, which
we helped create in 2011.
“Each year our scholarship program
helps hundreds of students in
Kalamazoo and Van Buren counties
continue their education after high
school,” says Pickett-Erway. “And
The Learning Network is a powerful
demonstration of our commitment
to collaboration that can generate
community-level outcomes.”
The Learning Network
Housed at the Community Foundation
and supported by the Community
Foundation with financial and other
resources, The Learning Network was
established by community leaders who
recognized the importance of lifetime
learning. Central to its mission is a
philosophy that education and learning
are keys to community prosperity as
4 KALAMAZOO COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ISSUE 2 2015
Anthony Everson (pictured above) left school after the 10th grade. As an adult, he wanted to improve his reading and writing to get a high school equivalency diploma. Thanks to The Learning Network and adult literacy classes through the Kalamazoo Literacy Council, in just one year Anthony was halfway to his goal. The experience helped him get a job at Goodwill Industries.
Photo by Erik Holladay
You have to have an education to live in
this society...If you’re motivated to do that,
there is help right here. Anthony Everson
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Changing lives with education Through its scholarship program, the
Community Foundation has been
helping change lives with education for
more than 60 years. The earliest fund,
the S. Rudolph Light Medical Education
Scholarship, was established in 1954.
Now, according to Scholarship Manager
Nancy Timmons, the Community
Foundation administers 53 Scholarship
Funds that in 2014 provided local
students with more that $1.1 million
in scholarships.
“Each of our scholarships is unique
and has its own purpose and eligibility
criteria,” Timmons explains. “And our
website has become the area’s central
access point for information about
scholarships sponsored by school
districts and other local organizations.
“Ultimately, our scholarship program is
all about people,” she concludes. “It’s
about individuals who are able to attend
college and whose lives are changed by
the generosity of donors.”
ISSUE 2 2015 KALFOUND.ORG 5
well as individual success. Today it is
led by a council of leaders from local
institutions representing business,
healthcare, law enforcement,
education and social services.
Pickett-Erway serves as its chair.
“In today’s economy, when it comes
to finding a good job that will
support an individual, enable him
or her to provide for a family and
begin to build wealth, we know that
education beyond high school is
critical,” says Amy Slancik, director of
The Learning Network. “But it’s not
enough to tell someone they need to
continue their education. We have to
help them succeed.”
The Learning Network was inspired
by the Kalamazoo Promise, but is
not a scholarship program. Rather, it
is a dynamic, growing collaboration
of individuals and organizations
embracing a vision that every person
in Kalamazoo County will be ready for
school, post-secondary education and
the world. To achieve this ambitious
goal, The Learning Network knits
together aligned local resources
to offer wrap-around support for
students from cradle to career.
Since its inception, accountability and
transparency have been core values
of The Learning Network. It supports
these through a public scorecard that
makes milestones in education easily
identifiable and understandable by all
stakeholders: parents, practitioners,
educators, evaluators and others.
The result of evidence-based
research, the scorecard shows
performance data that measure how
well Kalamazoo County is meeting
broad educational goals. This focus
on measurement helps ensure The
Learning Network generates results,
not just effort.
The Learning Network also is part
of a national alliance of communities
doing similar work, which enables
it to draw from best practices
— and share its own — with
organizations in more than 60
communities nationwide.
Says Pickett-Erway, “If we have
more educated residents earning
a wage, paying taxes, taking care of
their families, and giving back with
their volunteer time and resources,
everyone in this community has
greater quality of life.”
Our Big 3 Goals
Education
We want to help provide a path to prosperity for everyone by supporting cradle to career initiatives.
2.Engagement
We are aligning resources for transformative change by collaborating with county-wide partners.
3.Equity
We are partnering with others to remove barriers to opportunity and full potential by increasing capacity for awareness and action.
1.
6 KALAMAZOO COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ISSUE 2 2015
20 GRANTS AWARDED FROM UNRESTRICTED RESOURCES
First quarter grant highlights
The Community Foundation awarded 20 grants totaling
$2.4 million to Kalamazoo County nonprofits from its
unrestricted resources in the first quarter of 2015.
We make community investments in quality programs
that we believe will make Kalamazoo County a place
where every person can reach full potential.
The nonprofits that received grants are:
• Big Brothers Big Sisters
• Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Kalamazoo
• Communities In Schools of Kalamazoo
• Family & Children Services
• Friendship House
• Girls on the Run
• Goodwill Industries of Southwestern Michigan
• Guardian Finance and Advocacy Services
• ISAAC
• Kalamazoo Civic Theatre
• Kalamazoo Collective Housing
• Kalamazoo County 9th District Court Youthful
Offender Transition Program
• Kalamazoo County Ready 4s
• Kalamazoo Nature Center
• Kalamazoo Neighborhood Housing Services
• Kalamazoo Valley Community College
• Open Roads Bike Program
• Planned Parenthood Mid and South Michigan
• Pretty Lake Vacation Camp
• Residential Opportunities, Inc.
Investment performance is net of manager fees and derived from core Kalamazoo Community Foundation assets allocated into its two investment strategies. Historic performance for each is then derived from linkages to prior quarterly returns. Performance reflects prior changes in asset allocations while benchmarks assume current allocations. For more information about our investment performance, please contact Susan Springgate at 269.381.4416 or [email protected].
Kalamazoo Community Foundation Investment PerformanceFIRST QUARTER 2015
Core Assets Qtr 1 YTD 3 Yrs 5 Yrs 7 Yrs
Moderate Growth Performance
Actual
Benchmark
1.6%
1.2%
1.6%
1.2%
11.1%
9.9%
10.6%
9.8%
8.0%
7.2%
Income and Growth Performance
Actual
Benchmark
1.6%
1.4%
1.6%
1.4%
10.1%
9.6%
10.3%
9.6%
8.3%
7.2%
Deed Shepherd died in 2005.
Deed herself was a joyful, confident woman
who loved where she lived: Kalamazoo.
She also loved Kalamazoo’s young people.
Their zest for life only added to her
own. Thanks to a bequest she left to the
Community Foundation, thousands of
Kalamazoo County girls who participate in
Girls on the Run learn how to embrace who
they are, define who they want to be, rise to
any challenge, and change the world.
We can help you leave a legacy too.
Contact our Donor Relations team to
learn how.
Zach Bauer 269.585.7236 / [email protected]
Coby Chalmers 269.585.7249 / [email protected]
Joanna Donnelly Dales 269.585.7260 / [email protected]
Ann Fergemann 269.585.7238 / [email protected]
Jeanne Grubb 269.585.7248 / [email protected]
Today she’s helping Kalamazoo area girls lead joyful, confident lives.
ISSUE 2 2015 KALFOUND.ORG 7
Nonprofit OrganizationU.S. PostagepaidKalamazoo, MI Permit Number 66
402 East Michigan Avenue Kalamazoo, MI 49007-3888
269.381.4416 www.kalfound.org
ShareWe’d love to know what you think of this publication. To share your feedback, fill out our online survey at surveymonkey.com/s/updatekzcf.
KZCF: Then and NowA few things have changed since the Community Foundation was born in 1925.
Then
For much of our 90 year history, while our work was visible and accessible
throughout the community, our office was practically invisible. From 1925
until 1973 we were tucked away at The Upjohn Company — the company
co-founded by brothers Henry and W.E. Upjohn, who provided us with our very
first gift. Then, until September 2014, we were ensconced on the third floor of
the Comerica Building on South Rose Street in downtown Kalamazoo.
Now We have a visible, accessible, permanent home at 402 East Michigan Avenue,
on the edge of Kalamazoo’s Edison neighborhood. When the Arcus Foundation
provided us with the transformative gift of this building, we partnered with experts
in workplace innovation to design a space that enhances our work. We wanted
a welcoming space that inspires collaboration amongst our team and with the
community. We have several meeting spaces that nonprofit organizations and
other partners are welcome to use, at no cost to them.
1925 2015