After attending the Council on Foundations’ Fall Conference for Community Foundations in San Diego last week with my colleague Shelly Leadley, our director of donor services, and 700 other people, we left with these key takeaways shared at one of the sessions on community leadership:

• Empower young people to participate in decision-making by involving them in discussions where they can join in the “community voice.”
• When you have bold goals, it’s important to look at whether entire systems need to change instead of just looking at individual programs.
• Evaluate what real community engagement means within each community.
• The role of a community foundation: listen, convene, align and act to do something that makes a difference in the community.
• Being focused in your collaboration is important, because as one speaker said, “A big tent can become a circus.”
•  The power of partnership is critical during times of disaster, and it’s important to strategically create partnerships before disaster happens.

Good food for thought, consideration and discussion as your Community Foundation moves forward with its own leadership initiatives.

Tammy Williams is vice president for communications and marketing at the Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region. Email her at [email protected].