By Curt Detjen President and CEO

When we measure the quality of life in any region, one key factor is the degree to which people give. Our region being home to the 61^st largest community foundation in the U.S., and second in Wisconsin only to Milwaukee, suggests a strong quality of life today and for future generations.   

The Fox Valley region, as a community of donors, has made 2017 an incredibly special year. During just the last four weeks of the year, we have mail out 799 grant checks to charities that total $4.5 million awarded from charitable funds we manage for our donors. That’s a very good kind of busy. Thank you!

We are honored and proud to serve our donors, nonprofit organizations and the community in general. We are excited when donors share with us what they would like to do next and how we can help them accomplish it. There is so much opportunity to further improve our community, and our world, and we are grateful every time donors ask us to help them to do their part.

Recently we had a donor interested is helping with hurricane relief. He had two organizations in mind and asked our help in determining which would be more effective. Our staff did the due diligence and found one group worked in the U.S. while the other concentrated on international relief. He could then choose whether to help people in Texas and Florida or those in the Caribbean.

We have been helping another couple use their family fund to teach their daughters about giving. The girls do the research on organizations doing work important to them and we facilitate the grants. They aren’t our largest grant checks but — with what they do to carry on philanthropy to the next generation — they are among the most important.

So don’t be shy about asking us to help you to give. Helping Donors Share is our much beloved tagline. In the coming year, I invite you to consider how you might engage us to help you fulfill all your charitable dreams and aspirations, while making a difference in our community.

Let’s join together to make 2018 a truly happy new year for even more people and in more ways. It’s our wish for 2018 and we want to accomplish it with you.

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