“Visualizing Our Commitment to Equity” is an infographic demonstrating how the Community Foundation is advancing equity through our partnerships and through organizational operations.
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As Grand Rapids Community Foundation has stepped boldly into a new century of service and impact in Kent County, our staff and partners have been hard at work. Together we’ve been building our resources and positioning ourselves to continue pushing toward our North Star. We aim to create a West Michigan where opportunity, prosperity and belonging are the right of everyone who calls this region home, today and into the future.
A conversation featuring: Diana R. Sieger, president; Kyle D. Caldwell, Board of Trustees chair; and Ashley René Lee, vice president, strategic communications
What we’re exploring: What we are building on and working toward? How are we working with our partners to activate the North Star in our community?
For West Michigan to grow and prosper, we must make sure that everyone can apply their talents and creativity to fuel our future. It is only by connecting across perspectives and overcoming inequities that we can build and sustain an inclusive economy and thriving community.
Our Mission: To build and manage our community’s permanent endowment and lead the community to strengthen the lives of its people.
Our Vision: We envision a magnetic and interconnected West Michigan community.
Our Values: Integrity, Excellence, Inclusion, Sustainability and Bold Aspirations
The last year has been one of celebration, assessment and transition. We’ve been reflecting on the visions shared with us during our centennial year about what an inclusive economy and thriving community might look like.
We’ve been “in the lab,” interrogating, testing, proving theories and learning from mistakes. In this year’s annual report, we’re inviting you into the lab with us to see what we’ve been up to. When you peek inside, you’ll see that the work is messy, nuanced, layered, delicate and complex. But we keep showing up each day because the work is important, the future of our community is important and you are important.
We’ve also been preparing for our next chapter where we will welcome our next president and CEO, who will bring a renewed commitment to equity and reinforce our identity as an organization committed to social change.
While on this incredible journey preparing for our next century, we are also focusing on making an impact now. We are actively growing gifts from our generous donor partners and distributing resources to support the work of students and nonprofit and community partners. Our finance team and Investment Review Committee have stewarded our assets to $406,276,566. As this community’s foundation, we exist to do good today and in the future. Therefore, we continue to prioritize a healthy balance of leveraging our resources to address current critical community needs, while sustaining our endowment to ensure our ability to respond to future needs that are sure to arise.
We have welcomed 24 new funds established by dedicated donor partners and awarded $17,013,523 in grants to passionate nonprofit partners and scholarships to dedicated students.
In this year’s annual report, we will share our progress and provide insight into the big issues and ideas we’ve been wrestling with by inviting you into conversations between our staff and partners, including volunteer, donor, nonprofit and community partners. Together, we explore our role as a convener and philanthropic resource; how our donor partners are aligning their giving with our commitment to racial, social and economic justice; how we’re leaning into new partnerships and processes as we elevate the role of community members in our work; how we’re working to realize the collective visions we share for the future of Kent County and so much more.
Thank you for your continued support. Our work is possible because of your partnership.
With deepest appreciation and gratitude,
President
Board of Trustees Chair
“Visualizing Our Commitment to Equity” is an infographic demonstrating how the Community Foundation is advancing equity through our partnerships and through organizational operations.
Want to learn more about Grand Rapids Community Foundation and the people behind the work? Explore our Board of Trustees and volunteers on our website, you will also find our staff page with contact information for our staff team.
“Applying Our North Star to Our Investment Strategy” outlines recent successes in how shifts in how we manage financial resources has created greater North Star alignment.
