Normally, it’s our grant-making that captures the most attention. On Monday, it was the less glamorous investment side of our work that drew the headlines.

The Fox Cities Convention and Visitor’s Bureau released an updated economic impact analysis of a proposed Fox Cities Exhibition Center proposed for a site south of the Radisson Paper Valley Hotel. At that news conference, we announced our Board of Directors has approved our first mission-related investment — $5 million from our endowment portfolio to buy bonds that will be issued to support the Center.

Mission-related investments are a growing practice among community foundations nationally that uses the power of our endowment to do community good in a new way.

This is NOT a grant, but rather an investment to be repaid from revenue generated by the dedicated room tax paid by visitors to Fox Cities hotels and motels. Based on the judgment of the very knowledgeable members of our Investment Committee, we believe these bonds are at least as safe as the investments they will replace in our endowment portfolio.

We have details available on our website and there has been plenty of news coverage of the developments with the project. Please call me at 920-830-1290 or email [email protected] if you have questions or concerns.