The Loop

Imagine someone launching a teaching career in the late 1930s and still being in the classroom as the 21st century drew near. That was Violet Laack. She taught in various Calumet County school districts for 49 years, and then spent the next 10 as a substitute teacher. And her commitment to education didn’t end there. […]

The League of Women Voters of Appleton offered a forum on sex trafficking in February. More than 100 people came to Fox Valley Technical College’s Bordini Center and most were probably shocked to hear how big of a problem this is locally. Appleton Police Lt. Steve Elliot gave a powerful talk on the how this type […]

I attended NAMI Fox Valley’s Report to the Community with over 100 other community members a few weeks ago.  I think it’s safe to say NAMI is exploding with new staff, projects and programs. They are serving up a record number of programs to a record number of participants. Beth Clay, executive director of NAMI, held up […]

As part of the It Gets Better project in the Fox Cities this week, community members, including sponsors of the project, were asked to record a short video about why it gets better for LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) and other young people who are bullied. The Community Foundation is helping to make project activities […]

Even presidents and NFL coaches have to take time to evaluate how their team is performing, and we recently did exactly that at the Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region. Our job is to manage, invest and grant out to nonprofits the charitable gifts people and organizations entrust to us, helping them make a […]

Five programs — five more ways to help people pull themselves out of poverty — will share $688,000 in grant money over the next three years awarded by the Basic Needs Giving Partnership. The Basic Needs Giving Partnership is funded by the U.S. Venture Fund for Basic Needs within the Community Foundation for the Fox Valley […]

Walking into the council chambers Wednesday evening to hear the debate on the Fox Cities Exhibition Center proposed for downtown Appleton was like a flashback to another time and a similar issue. That was in 1999. The issue was approval of the site for the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center and I was Appleton’s Economic […]

Now that the hectic holiday season is behind us, we can enter the new year taking a fresh look at our personal charitable giving. Maybe you never got around to donating to that special cause, or held off because you couldn’t find time to research the interesting nonprofit you heard about. Don’t beat yourself up […]

I was so proud of the generosity of my co-workers at the Community Foundation when I recently helped to deliver Christmas gifts for our adopted family to Santa’s shop at the Boys and Girls Brigade in Neenah. When we pulled up in front of the Brigade and opened the back end of my overflowing Jeep, the […]

It seems like season-ending cliffhangers have become as much a part of legislating charitable IRA distributions as they are for bad TV dramas. Once again this year, Congress waited for the final reel to save charitable distributions from IRAs from certain death. If you are at least age 70 1/2 and have a traditional (not Roth) IRA, you […]