You know your true friends, right?

They’re the people you don’t necessarily see every day —  maybe you’ve lost track of each other a bit — but if you need them, they drop what they’re doing and help.

You know they’re a phone call away. You know they’ll give it their best shot. You know they’ll make a difference. And you know you can call them again.

That’s the relationship between Post-Crescent Media and the Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region.

When we launch one of our annual Do It! Community Challenges, we know the Community Foundation is our partner, not only providing high-quality and efficient collection and disbursal of donated funds, but adding credibility and professionalism to a meaningful community cause.

And there’s more than the handling of money, and the almost constant communication between our offices during a Do It! campaign, to this relationship. There’s a willingness to offer ideas, make suggestions, to work for the greater good, and to honestly help each other.

This happens on the CEO-to-CEO level, and it happens on every other level that I’m aware of. When we ask for help, we get help, ideas, friendship, honesty and — perhaps most importantly — a confidence that makes us more comfortable in asking our readers, partners and other community members to help in a worthy cause.

Over the past five years, Post-Crescent Media’s Do It! Community Challenges have set (and re-set) records for participation and results. Our “Stock the Shelves” “Backpacks for Kids” and “Dollars for Diapers” campaigns have reached levels that we never thought were possible, and make a positive difference in the lives of thousands of in-need Fox Valley residents.

That’s because we live and work in a community that continues to set the bar higher and higher for caring and giving.

But it’s also because we’ve created an uncommon partnership with the Community Foundation to handle — and nurture — the responses of our uncommonly caring community.

And that’s a true friendship.

Dan Flannery is the Executive Editor of Post-Crescent Media and the Regional Executive Editor of Gannett Wisconsin Media