First, an historical perspective: the first community foundation was established in 1914 by banker Frederic Goff who realized the value of creating a permanent endowment that would benefit residents of Cleveland for generations to come. Closer to home, The Community Foundation Serving Boulder County is celebrating a quarter century of inspired action to improve the lives of everybody who calls our community “home.”
Today, there are more than 1,700 community foundations around the world. Unlike private foundations, community foundations are supported by a network of individuals, families, businesses and institutions with a common commitment to improving local communities. Here in Boulder County, The Community Foundation has become a center for charitable giving – we help make connections between the people who want to give, and the people and causes who need their support.
Put another way, The Community Foundation is so much more than a grantmaker. We’ve worked hard to be a credible, trusted steward of the shared values that make Boulder County great – from community-mindedness and inclusivity, to authenticity and accountability in everything we do.
Area nonprofits, volunteers, donors and partners are – for the most part – familiar with our efforts to encourage a countywide culture of giving, even as we prepare for future challenges and opportunities. At our core – through informed decisionmaking and a focus on community leadership – we seek to bring together and galvanize diverse resources to address our community’s most urgent and basic needs; as well as proactively sustain and strengthen our collective future by investing in children, youth and education, the arts and culture, animals and the environment, health and human services, senior support services, social change and social justice, and training and technical assistance for nonprofits.
Beyond lip service or a specific focus on one or a handful issue areas, we consider the community as a whole. We put hands and feet to the best, most innovative ideas: our board, staff and legion of committed volunteers and donors are the infrastructure we need to tackle even the most entrenched community problems – like poverty, the achievement gap, underemployment, access to health services and environmental concerns. We do all this, and more, through collaborative partnerships and shared knowledge, and by working across sectors to create better systems that empower and transform our community.
We also offer donors strategic advice about philanthropy, and broad-based charitable giving options that make a difference in Boulder County while providing tax advantages.
In a word, The Community Foundation is you. Your participation in building a better Boulder County is what revs our engines. Together, we can accomplish more than ever in 2016.
Contact us anytime for more information about how to get involved.
