The Loop

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 […]

One of the best parts of my job is being able to connect our donors with a community need that matches their interests, values, beliefs and convictions. The Emergency Shelter of the Fox Valley had changed its name to Homeless Connections and needed to use this time of rebranding to draw attention to the growing needs of […]

I just experienced what “being summoned to the White House” feels like. On Dec. 2, I and about 100 colleagues from across the country in the community foundation field, convened with White House officials for the first time. This event marked the 100th anniversary of community foundations. Our foundation ranks in size among the top […]

  The Community Clothes Closet unveiled its new addition recently at an open house, and what a difference the addition has made!

We have been eagerly awaiting the release of the latest “Wisconsin Gives Report” from the Donors Forum of Wisconsin, a Milwaukee-based industry group for grant makers on whose board I serve. It arrived this week and gives the Fox Cities plenty to feel good about. Outagamie is fourth among Wisconsin’s 72 counties in grants awarded, […]

The new Community Early Learning Center in the former St. Mary School building in Appleton is the focal point for making the most of that potential for children across the Fox Cities. The 2006 and 2011 Fox Cities LIFE Studies indicated a need for early intervention services for children age 5 and younger, along with […]