The Alexandria Area Community Foundation, the Brainerd Lakes Area Community Foundation, Central Minnesota Community Foundation and the Willmar Area Community Foundation are pleased to introduce a new partnership in philanthropy called CommunityGiving.
For 30 years the Central Minnesota Community Foundation, along with its partner foundations have fueled positive change, transforming today’s goodwill into tomorrow’s legacies. In the beginning Alex Didier, the founder of the Central Minnesota Community Foundation (CMCF), believed that if they created a community foundation generous people would come forward to give back to their local communities. George Torrey, as Board Chair in the 1990’s, believed that the CMCF should extend that dream beyond the boundaries of Greater St. Cloud to support the Brainerd, Willmar and Alexandria areas. Most recently, Dennis Gregory, immediate CMCF Past Board Chair and Brian Myres, who chaired the CommunityGiving task force, believed the Foundation needed to create the right structure to sustain these partnerships and possibly create new ones. Their collective wisdom and the wisdom of many others have led to the creation of CommunityGiving.
CommunityGiving is the new name of the corporate structure which supports community foundations in the Alexandria, Brainerd, Willmar and greater St. Cloud areas. On April 1 of this year, a new Board with representation from all four core affiliates was established. Maryanne Mahowald is the first chair of this new Board.
This partnership of the four communities is built on three core values. It includes respect for the autonomy of each of the partners, a focus on economies of scale to achieve greater operating efficiencies and a willingness of all partners to collaborate with one another. It is believed this partnership will ultimately result in more dollars available for local charities and greater charitable impact in each respective community.
Steve Joul has been named the first president/CEO of CommunityGiving. A new Executive Director of the Central Minnesota Community Foundation, the largest of the foundation partners, will be hired to focus on growing assets and community leadership in the greater St. Cloud area.
Today CommunityGiving unites foundations in Alexandria, Brainerd, Willmar and the Greater St. Cloud area under a single framework to create efficiencies that maximize donors’ impact. CommunityGiving will continue to assist donors with managing their charitable funds and connecting them with charities making a difference in their local communities. Collectively CommunityGiving has over $115 million in assets and manages over 650 component funds. Last year over $6 million was donated back to charities throughout the region through the collective efforts of all the foundations.
The primary focus of CommunityGiving is to help donors create lasting legacies by managing their charitable funds and connecting them with community-minded partners to engage and support local causes.
Visit CommunityGiving.org for more information!