The Loop

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:

My coworker Rosie Sprangers and I recently attended an emotional presentation of iPads to eight amazing students from the Kaukauna Area School District. Why was it so special? The students have cognitive or developmental disabilities, and iPads help them communicate more effectively at school and home.

We suspect it. We talk about it. We’re pretty sure it’s true. The people of the Fox Valley region are a pretty generous bunch. A recent national study says we’re right. The latest Columbus Survey says the folks around here rank in the top 100 nationally — 66th to be exact — in per-person giving […]

Wow. Has there ever been a week in the Fox Cities like the one we just experienced?

You know your true friends, right? They’re the people you don’t necessarily see every day —  maybe you’ve lost track of each other a bit — but if you need them, they drop what they’re doing and help. You know they’re a phone call away. You know they’ll give it their best shot. You know […]

Every Christmas when I was a kid, Grandpa Paulie would give me a $50 EE savings bond. These pink slips of paper weren’t nearly as exciting as the new Barbie outfits and Nancy Drew books I unwrapped. Some (many) years later, however, the 4%-plus rates on those long-neglected pink papers have greater appeal.

The old adage says “a rising tide lifts all boats.”  So how does that play out in community life?

Hello blog readers! My name is Alex Kent and I am spending the summer months as the marketing intern here at the Community Foundation.

In the middle of Appleton’s Arbutus Park,  dark cloth obscured a pair of panels, positioned to create two sides of a triangle. With the covers removed, the crowd of 60 or so seemed compelled to push forward and touch what they saw — a ceramic butterfly mosaic representing the rebirth of a park, and a […]

Juan “Mito” Kudaka believes history repeats itself, because he’s lived it. At age 17, his grandfather left Japan and relocated in Peru. Even though he was unable to speak Spanish, he succeeded enough to send his three children through college. Mito benefitted from that belief in education and was better prepared when he arrived in […]