Latest / We Are For Good Podcast - The Podcast for Nonprofits / 435. Reimagining Community Foundations Through Transparency, Accessibility, and the Joy of Giving -Amy Freitag

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435. Reimagining Community Foundations Through Transparency, Accessibility, and the Joy of Giving -Amy Freitag · We Are For Good Podcast - The Podcast for Nonprofits

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Hey, I'm John.
• 0:02
  Speaker 2: And I'm Becky.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: And this is the We Are For Good podcast.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: Nonprofits are faced with more challenges to accomplish their missions and the growing pressure to do more, raise more and be more for the causes that improve our world.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: We're here to learn with you from some of the best in the industry, bringing the most innovative ideas, inspirational stories, all to create an impact uprising.
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: So welcome to the Good Community.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: We're nonprofit professionals, philanthropists, world changers and rabid fans who are striving to bring a little more goodness into the world.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: So let's get started, becky, oh my gosh, our hearts are full.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: We haven't even started.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: We haven't even started and there's something magical that happens when you meet someone for the first time and in the first 30 seconds you've imprinted on them and you're like, how have we never met?
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: because their energy, their heart, their passion and their desire to just work differently just overcomes you.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: And that is just what happened with us, with Amy Freitag, who is on the podcast today.
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: She's the president of the New York Community Trust And y'all.
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: We have been talking about the funder's mindset And I just have to tell you, since we started that Friday series of how do we reimagine the funder-grantee relationship, we've had all these little hands pop up and people are saying, oh, we're doing that in our community, let's talk about it.
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: And Amy is one of those.
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: And I got to be real with you, john, because we got a pitch from Amy's team And the intro was last summer.
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: Amy became only the fourth leader in the nearly 100-year history of the New York Community Trust, which is one of America's oldest and most venerable community foundations, and the trust has a rich history and has had a reputation as a decidedly old-school New York institution.
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: But Amy, who has a background in topics like environmental advocacy, the arts, lgbtq issues and historic preservation.
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: She showed up and she is working to shake things up And she is just sort of ushering in this amazing advent of the new generation of community foundation leaders.
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: So we are demystifying community foundations today with Amy who, prior to this position, was the executive director of the JM Kaplan Fund, which is a 75-year-old family foundation in New York City.
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: She has served as the ED of the New York Restoration Project, you know, which led a private effort to plant one million new trees in New York City, and I just think your warmth, your passion, your energy, amy, is something that we want to soak up and we want to know how you're reimagining your work, because Amy's mantra is really about showcasing the joy in giving, and she's working to do it by making this traditional organization much more accessible and transparent and by changing the way it interacts with the community.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: Buckle up, community.
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: We're about to figure out how to reimagine these relationships.
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: Welcome, amy, to the We Are For Good podcast.
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: We are so delighted that you are here.
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: Oh, my God.
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: Well, i'm having such a star-struck moment, i have to say, because I am such a big fan of the podcast, and you too, and so the opportunity to be in this room with you is like beyond joyful.
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: So, thank you, thank you for giving me the opportunity to talk about something I am so passionate about, which is community foundation.
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: So thank you, thank you, Thank you.
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: Well, you had our hearts the moment you said you're ready to, like, shake things up A little bit and to think differently and to bring people into the opportunity in new ways.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: But before we dive into that, we need to know about little Amy, where she grew up, how she fell into this work.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: How do you get from Akron, ohio, to New York City?
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: Give us the background.
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: Oh well, look, I grew up with a family that love community And, you know, even as kids we were rolling up our sleeves and volunteering.
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: I was at the Akron Children's Zoo walking around like teaching people about boa, constrictors and stuff in my summer fair time.
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: So we grew up volunteering and being into community And I will say, you know, like many people probably most Americans I grew up in a town that had a fabulous community foundation, the Akron Community Foundation, this silent but steadfast partner that was doing stuff in education and arts.
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: It's sort of the part of the tapestry of that town where I grew up.
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: And then, as I sort of progressed through my career in nonprofits and in government, you know, I came to understand the community foundations could play a myriad different roles, And especially when I was at the Kaplan Fund, because we were lifting up something we called the JMK Innovation Prize And it was an idea of reaching across the country and finding early stage innovators close to the ground.
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: People are trying to solve problems, maybe in places that don't have a lot of philanthropy, And how does a little New York foundation do that?
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: Well, it turns out there are 900 community foundations across the country And each one of those are experts in their community.
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: So if you could tap into that network.
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: We found unbelievable talent at the grassroots science and community foundations And then sort of fast forward now to today, where this kind of crazy quilt of my past of working the arts and the environment turned out to be really tailor made to a community foundation, because we work across every bit of the subject matter.
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: We're working from the southern part of the Hudson Valley all the way out to the east end of Long Island eight counties, 12 million people, And we are.
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: We are looking across that whole landscape and trying to do the most good.
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: So it's like such a journey.
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: I am so excited about it And I feel so honored to be here.
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: I still pinch myself that I get to do this.
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: I mean, Amy, you're enthusiasm and we always say our enthusiasm is real And we're feeling that getting to talk to you today.
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: But I feel it in the way you talk about your work And I'll be honest, like I don't have a good grasp of a community foundation.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: That's really just like on fire, like what does that look like?
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: And I want you to help us demystify and talk about the powerful role that it can play, because you know you've been listening to podcasts very much at all.
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: You hear us say community is everything.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: So the thought that we're building a foundation that really is going to support community.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: I see the power of that, So I want you to help us flip the perspective.
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: what can be unleashed?
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: So you know, I think that in many ways philanthropy and that's why I love about your show is that you're kind of demystifying philanthropy as a whole.
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: But even people in philanthropy and nonprofits are kind of scratching their heads about what is that community foundation?
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: And you know why is that right?
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: Why are public charities different?
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: Well it's, you know, we have these two parts of our mission right.
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: On the one hand, we're taking in and we're stewarding funds And then, on the other hand, we're making grants And so, unlike you know, private foundations that generally have one big source of wealth, whether it's from a corporation like the Ford Motor Company or the wealth of Andrew Mellon, it's all sort of one big pot.
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: And so we often, i think, get measured by this huge pile of assets that we have And like, why aren't you just giving all that money away, amy?
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: Like what's going on with that?
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: I don't think people necessarily realize that our foundation is built by New Yorkers for New Yorkers, and it's literally hundreds, thousands of individual gifts and funds that are set aside for the betterment of our area, and every one of those funds have the passion of the donor in them And some of them are hey, you can do whatever you want for New York, but some are literally.
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: We do have a fund for aging ballerinas that are injured.
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: I like to think of it as like a crazy quilt of generosity.
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: It's all of these individual funds, and the magic of the Community Foundation is weaving together those legacies of gifts to meet the needs of the city right now or our region, and that's this kind of special way the community foundations work.
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: But it's very intricate and it's, i think, is a highly more complex task than most people realize.
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: But when they hear that it's all these individual stories, like you guys are such champions of stories, think of community foundations as reservoirs of stories of generosity, generations and generations, And I think part of the idea is to make that bring a window to the public to see what community foundations are holding, because it's just a lot of love.
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: Is what we're holding actually for 100 years?
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: So Community Foundation execs, i mean any human running an organization.
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: Please take a cue from Amy and just I love the way that you are so democratic and the way that you want to honor these legacy givers and whatever capacity they have, step forward and said this is important to me.
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: But I also honor and love how you honor the grantees and where they're going, because when that alignment happens I mean we've been on the forefront of philanthropy and I've worked with community foundations in my days as the recovering major gift officer And I remember when that alignment would happen and what it does for the whole is a magical thing, because I do think something that we get to enjoy as fundraisers is watching what happens when someone makes a gift and when they see what happens to it, when they see their dreams come to pass in this impactful way.
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: But community foundations have this double impact because they're it's impacting the foundation, it's impacting the family or the human that was at the end of it, and so to me I just think it's a beautiful expression of philanthropy because it's bigger, it's more collective, we're all invested in it And we're just really curious about, like, the moment now, amy, like talk to us about how nonprofits can partner with community foundations.
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: I'm sure there's people listening right now that have said or thinking I've never even approached my community foundation for a gift.
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: What opportunity is there today?
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: Like, where would you advise someone to start?
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: Well, you know, i just think the most important thing, since we are this sort of matchmakers between generous local donors and high impact nonprofits on the ground, we got to get to know each other right.
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: We have to connect, thank you.
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: And there is.
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: You know what I love about our foundation?
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: and first of all, if you, we work really hard on our website to make a lot of material visible to our, to our grant making partners, so that they don't wait.
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: Like, what we don't love is someone wasting a lot of time and making a lot of effort and then finding out, oh you know what, we weren't ever going to be eligible.
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: So we try to knock down all of those mysteries right out of the gate.
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: So come to us, look at the.
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: And one of the things we love about our foundation is we like to think that the first grant and we love being the first grant right, we love lifting up an early stage organization, but that's lowering the barriers to other funders.
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: We may not be the biggest funder in the history of an organization, We're often the first And by doing making that grant.
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: And really, our program officers aren't just grant makers, they are like partners with our early stage organizations, like hey, let's look at your financial statement.
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: Hey, let's talk about your board.
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: We need a few more people on there that aren't like your mom and dad, like we need to, you know, to really help them grow that organization so that we lower the barriers to other funders coming in.
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: And then we try to really celebrate those folks and make sure that our because you know we give out a certain amount of grants.
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: Last year we gave out about 50 million dollars in grants from our own competitive program but we work with.
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: We did $150 million of grants with our donor advise community.
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: So when you come into our grant making program we can then sort of showcase you to the whole, the whole metropolitan area, and say this is a, this is an important early stage organization.
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: Jump in.
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: So my first and most important guidance is is reach out to your local community foundation.
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: Get to know them, let them understand the impact that you're having so that they can attach the donors and the resources that can help lift up your enterprise.
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: Can we just say thank you for believing in the little guy that way 100%.
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: I think I just wanted to tattle on myself and have a confessional so that everyone out there will feel seen.
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: Because we worked in Oklahoma City.
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: You know we worked.
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: We have an incredible community foundation here And I and even with you know, nearly 20 years of experience I believed in my scarcity mindset as I was watching all my other peers, that the way to interact with the community foundation was to not bother them, was to email them, because that's what every other gift officer was doing is.
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: We email them, we get on their website, we maximize everything that we say.
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: We try not to bother them too much And I promise you it wasn't.
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: Until Dulari Gandhi came onto our podcast from the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation and said No, like, call me, we want to meet, we want to have multiple conversations because I'm your ally in this, i want to fight for this And if I have limited information, then I can't fight for you.
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: And it blew my whole mindset wide open And so I want to give everyone who may be sitting in that Oh, it's us and them no, no, like, we are on the same team.
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: And Amy and many people from foundations who have been on this podcast are saying Please call us, please have a rich conversation with us about where the alignment would be.
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: Let us be your champions, and so if you're the one feeling like this is new to you, i just want to tell you you're not alone.
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: I was there as well, and you know what I think is extraordinary about this moment.
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: If you look at that universe of 900 community foundations right, that's the whole spectrum, that's like the one person in an office, and Northern wherever, and then there's the New York Community Trust, and, and, and you know we are.
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: We are diverse in our nature as well, but in that landscape of, let's say, the top 40 community foundations, would you believe, i'm just one of like 50% or more that have turned over in this role in the last 36 months.
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: So there is like the great resignation happened.
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: A lot of places in America and grant makers who work so hard through COVID were clearly spent And and I think it just caused a natural sort of generational shift.
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: But I think you're going to see a whole bunch of folks coming into these roles that have been on the other side of the table for a long time.
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: I was a grant seeker way longer than I've been a great maker.
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so so I think it changes the sense of sort of empathy and appreciation.
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: In fact, we actually, as our grant making team at the trust, actually have a little bias for people that spent most of their time out working in the fields rather than just being it's spending a whole career in philanthropy, and I think that that makes us more empathetic and better as as partners in many ways.
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: Well, amy, i mean I saw your face during the bio whenever Becky said you know you're the fourth leader in this hundred year history and I think there's a weight to that.
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: You know it's it and you've called it a quilt.
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: I'm almost picturing like someone giving you this like heirloom quilt.
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: I was interested to you to take to the next, to the next kind of era I mean talk about the evolution and what's it like stepping in at this foundation that has such a beautiful history?
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: but you know you're taking it to the next hundred years and beyond.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: what's it look like?
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: Well, look, i think it's an honor to I love my predecessors this extraordinary woman who was in the role for 32 years, and can you imagine what it was like to be a woman stepping in to the New York Community Trust in the late 80s, early 90s Like that was just tough, right and and she took an organization that was actually hemorrhaging money and actually quadrupled the assets over her tenure.
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: So talk about a tough act to follow right.
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: That's incredible And what she set out to do we did very well, which is, i think we have, one of the largest.
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: I think Cleveland and New York have the largest competitive grant making program.
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: Meaning, outside of the donor advice fund, where the donors really do get to call the shots, we have these very big and deep endowments that somebody like David Warfield.
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: Do you have any idea who David Warfield is?
• 16:43
  Speaker 3: Well, a hundred years ago he was the Leonardo DiCaprio of America.
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: Oh my gosh.
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: He was the wealthiest performer in the world.
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: He was a famous actor and he was killing it.
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: He was on the stage, he was New York, he was everywhere, and then at the end of his life he went blind.
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: Really sad, horrible story, right, and he loved art and collecting, so it was a real tragedy, but he left his legacy with the New York community trust in the 1950s, and that legacy means that which is restrictive for people with vision loss.
• 17:19
  Speaker 3: And so do you know what this?
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: this last month, we made grants to health clinics in the South Bronx and very rarely parts of the city that don't have rich resources around eye care and vision loss, and we may grants and have made grants every year in his name, and we will be making those in perpetuity.
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: So here David Warfield is, reaching into the South Bronx in 2023 and changing people's lives.
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: That's this massive ship, and there are a thousand David Warfields, right, different funds that do magnificent things like that.
• 17:54
  Speaker 3: It's made the New York community trust when we weep together those funds, the largest funder of disability issues in the region, and so you are shepherding this legacy.
• 18:05
  Speaker 3: So, john, there's like a sense of honor and duty in maintaining that, but then wanting to kind of infuse it with the energy of a startup within a 100 year old frame, right?
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: So, thinking new about systems, thinking new about how we tell stories, thinking new about how we make ourselves transparent and accessible We now do digital town halls.
• 18:25
  Speaker 3: We now do all kinds of things to try to lessen those, knock down those barriers and make us more accessible.
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: So we're leaning into our vision, our mission, our values.
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: We're gonna play that out through rebranding a new website.
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: We've got a lot going on My colleagues they haven't thrown me off the ship yet but they're real busy back there on 909th Third Avenue.
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: But we are just working very hard to seize the moment where I think the next generation of donors love seeing the impact, love being close to the work, love being sort of very hands-on and seeing the impact of their work.
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: And we have to make a community foundation for the next century that meets that opportunity.
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: And if we don't, you guys we're in some deep, deep water because, honestly, you will not be surprised that to hear that the people like David Warfield or people that gave us money even 20 years ago, they weren't like losing sleep over climate change, yet It was very early days.
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: So if we're gonna attack these issues decarceration are a high need for immigrant populations we have got to engage a next generation of donors and they have to look just as beautiful and diverse as our beautiful and diverse community does.
• 19:36
  Speaker 3: So we have to engage a lot more people.
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: We have to build out this ecosystem of philanthropy, and we have to come to this with a mindset of abundance.
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: There is opportunity to engage so many more people in philanthropy.
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: That's what community foundations can do.
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: It's been nice having you on the We Are For Good podcast Like how can we come?
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: out of that That feels like the biggest mic drop moment And if I can just reflect and respond to that, first of all, you are very obviously to us continuing to carry the torch of badass women who are evolving this vision and making it a still a modern, change-making mission.
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: And in the beauty of a David Warfield who 70 years later, after posthumously, can have an impact like that in the South Bronx or wherever it is, is just indicative of how powerful community foundations can be when they have these mindsets.
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: And I wanna lift some of what you said, because I think we've had so many conversations around the funder's mindset and how do we evolve as a sector?
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: And it feels like we're standing in that moment where philanthropy in our sector is going to evolve more quickly and more radically than any other time in our history right now.
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: And you are choosing to lean into it full tilt.
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: And I heard mindsets, i heard infrastructure, i heard marketing, i heard accessibility, i heard story, i heard basically everything I think we talk about on this podcast that we weave through our values, and you are boldly and unapologetically saying we've gotta meet the growing needs of a beautiful, diverse population in a world that is changing all the time.
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: To me, that is visionary leadership, and the other thing that you have that's underpinning all of this is how joyful and how positive and how hopeful you are.
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: And you talk about this joy of giving, amy, and I want you to like double click on it for us, because we talk about that a lot, because this should feel good.
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: Talk about how you're infusing that joy into what you're doing to make what has historically been a very traditional organization into this modern, accessible and transparent foundation that is truly meeting the needs of your community right now.
• 22:10
  Speaker 3: So we've talked a little bit about we're about to have this 100th birthday And that's just like the best time to sort of reintroduce yourself to a community right.
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: And if I do nothing else during my tenure, i never wanna hear the phrase the best kept secret right.
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: Thank you.
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: I feel like this is one of my soap boxes in life, so true.
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: It can't be the best kept secret.
• 22:34
  Speaker 3: And so refreshing our brand in a way that we look less like a bank and more like a trusted friend, like making us feel like just not a place for wealthy, super Uber, wealthy people, right Like I had the best conversation with a donor a couple of weeks ago and she said and she's been a donor with ours for 20 years And she said you know, amy, when I started, my gifts didn't have commas, i was just giving you a couple of hundred dollars.
• 23:00
  Speaker 4: My gifts didn't have commas.
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: I didn't have commas.
• 23:02
  Speaker 3: Now her gifts have commas.
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: But she said but you respected me and you listened to me and you supported me as a donor and I will be forever grateful for that.
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: right, i had questions about how you're investing money.
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: I had questions And someone like our CIO got on the phone with her and answered those questions Like we should be your friendly resource.
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: It shouldn't be like, oh yeah, if I don't have a billion dollars, i don't really have a place.
• 23:30
  Speaker 3: right, that's not us.
• 23:31
  Speaker 3: You know, it's a tragic story sometimes, right, the family whose son was tragically killed and they left a scholarship for his school, and we have steward that young man's name for generations in his family's memory.
• 23:45
  Speaker 3: So it's just a to me if we are not looking at the full spectrum of people that love the joy, that can feel the joy of giving, then we are not living to our mission at the trust for sure.
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: I mean, amy, you are everything that we talk about, which is what's, i think, why you're getting our huge smiles, because you're rebuilding the bike while you're riding it, you're honoring the legacy while you're evolving at the same time, and you're doing it with joy and sinnery, inclusion, and it's just.
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's such a heart-wired conversation today of like this is how we can do, this is how we do better.
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: And so what are you paying attention to, what are you listening to?
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: What are you thinking through as you try to evolve?
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: Because you know we're trying to break down these walls and I think in the old days I don't know because I've never worked at a community foundation structure, but typically those type of foundations talk just to other foundations, they're not looking outside of the walls.
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: Who are you modeling from these days?
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: Who are you drawing this from?
• 24:42
  Speaker 3: Okay, so I'm gonna tell you I have like an institution crush on the Cleveland Foundation.
• 24:47
  Speaker 3: That's great.
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: All right, i'm gonna honor you, i'm gonna say that Yes.
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: They too have just gone through a really interesting transition of leadership.
• 24:57
  Speaker 3: But the fellow that has been there for the last 18 years, an amazing guy named Ron Richard.
• 25:02
  Speaker 3: So I'm home in Ohio and I'm like I'm gonna go up and see the Cleveland Foundation, i'm gonna go meet those guys, right.
• 25:08
  Speaker 3: And I go up there and he said, well, you're gonna meet me at a construction site.
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: I'm like, well, okay, that's good.
• 25:14
  Speaker 3: Well, 40 years ago, the Cleveland Foundation, just a little advertisement.
• 25:18
  Speaker 3: They sort of resurrected downtown Cleveland by bringing back Playhouse Square and investing heavy into the arts and fabulous job.
• 25:25
  Speaker 3: Ron comes in 20 years later and says, okay, what's the next thing?
• 25:29
  Speaker 3: And he looked across the landscape of Cleveland and found the Huff neighborhood, which is, I don't know if tragically sometimes it's related to the Huff riots of Cleveland classically red line neighborhood, classically sort of broken down by systemic racism empty, lots, a couple of buildings, just no vibrancy.
• 25:48
  Speaker 3: But a history of importance in our country and in our city, in that city.
• 25:54
  Speaker 3: So they bought up patiently over a decade, something like 250 acres of vacant land and put it in a community land trust.
• 26:03
  Speaker 3: They built a grocery store.
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: They moved in their headquarters with a beautiful LEED certified building designed by an architect of color, with a jazz club in it.
• 26:13
  Speaker 3: They found the only black brewery in Ohio and Toledo and brought it to Cleveland and they're setting up shop in their home headquarters And you can just pull your car into the parking lot, walk in off the street and you're at the Cleveland Foundation.
• 26:26
  Speaker 3: It is so open and accessible and it's putting a flag in the ground in a place that needs them That to me, i'm gonna tell you that's what I'm paying attention to.
• 26:35
  Speaker 3: I feel like there is a beauty in the sort of representation of all the power of what a community foundation can do.
• 26:41
  Speaker 3: They're also building an accelerator for local nonprofits across the street And to me they have been transformative And I feel like we can have that power in the eight counties that we serve.
• 26:53
  Speaker 3: I'm so, so inspired.
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: Just the eight tiny counties, but I'd love that example.
• 26:58
  Speaker 4: I'd love to say counties.
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: What a beautiful example And we had a cool episode we'll link up in the show notes about that happening in our community at a smaller scale with John Dodson and the East Point Development And it's just.
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: It's so beautiful when you center community in your work and it just looks differently when that leads the way And so you're doing that at all scales, so just-.
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: And when you share what you know and you can check your ego at the door and say I don't know how to do this.
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: I need to talk to somebody who's closer to the problem or closer to the community, and I think that's honestly, if I'm doing a 10,000 foot view at We Are For Good.
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: One of the biggest takeaways I'll take from this journey is that we know that the people closest to the problem are the ones closest to the solution, and so I actually really am kind of geeking out about this accelerator piece with the nonprofit, because that's really smart for Cleveland to do, because you're really just equipping and empowering a lot of nonprofits who already know the problems in their community and they can get in there with their connectivity and their expertise to solve them.
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: So we're gonna be keeping our eye on the Cleveland Foundation as well.
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: Community Foundation.
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: You know, as a marketer, amy, i gotta double click on this 100 year anniversary, because I think this is such a smart play for trying to get your message out just hitching your wagon to something that's already a big event and leveraging it to really tell your story in a unique way.
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: So talk to our listeners a little bit about how milestones like your 100 year anniversary, can be used to build relationships with partners and donors and to kind of set the stage for the future.
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: But also, how do they bring the community in as well to be a part of this movement?
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: What are you learning as you're preparing for this 100 year anniversary?
• 28:48
  Speaker 3: Well, you know it's funny, Cleveland's a hundred and nine years old.
• 28:50
  Speaker 3: We're all we're all clones off of the Cleveland Foundation, interestingly enough.
• 28:54
  Speaker 3: So there've been many community foundation have gone through this and we really my colleagues, are so smart.
• 28:58
  Speaker 3: I work with the most wonderful people in the world at the New York Community Trust and They put a lot of thought and a lot of care into thinking about how our peers have celebrated that.
• 29:08
  Speaker 3: But we also wanted to be classically New York.
• 29:11
  Speaker 3: Right, we're we.
• 29:12
  Speaker 3: Of course, you know New York is love New York.
• 29:14
  Speaker 3: So so, first thing, i gotta say we're not the only ones turning a hundred.
• 29:18
  Speaker 3: We're like in super good company.
• 29:20
  Speaker 3: So many of our favorite grantees over the years get this, like the 92nd Street.
• 29:25
  Speaker 3: Why, new York Public Radio is turning a hundred, the Macy's Day for.
• 29:33
  Speaker 3: So we, we reach out to those guys to figure out how we can be mutually reinforcing about this sort.
• 29:38
  Speaker 3: What does it say about New York then and now?
• 29:41
  Speaker 3: and what's the opportunity to work collaboratively?
• 29:44
  Speaker 3: and then to your point about building new partnerships.
• 29:47
  Speaker 3: You know we have this opportunity to sort of, you know, reintroduce ourselves to New York and to meet folks.
• 29:52
  Speaker 3: Maybe we had not known as well as we wish we had.
• 29:55
  Speaker 3: And let me lift up my new favorite partners over at the Amsterdam news, which is the oldest black owned newspaper in the US, and This amazing institution still run by a family, the daughter of the founders of the of the long history of the Amsterdam news.
• 30:13
  Speaker 3: Like, and we hadn't, i I'm gonna be embarrassed, i'm gonna be vulnerable with you.
• 30:17
  Speaker 3: All right, i went out to a meeting of community foundations in Texas earlier this year And here was this woman, eleanor Tatum from the Amsterdam news, sitting on the stage talking about being this incredible Black owned, long-standing New York City newspaper.
• 30:32
  Speaker 3: And I'm texting back going do we know these guys?
• 30:35
  Speaker 3: and they're like we don't.
• 30:36
  Speaker 3: I'm like how can we not know them?
• 30:38
  Speaker 3: and now we do.
• 30:40
  Speaker 3: And they're coming into our office next week and doing sort of a Lunch and learn about the history of the Amsterdam news and they're gonna be a partner with us as we tell our story about the 100th anniversary.
• 30:50
  Speaker 3: So it's just such a beautiful opportunity to just sort of like reconnect with the city and find new ways to talk to a broader and more Diverse New York, which I this think is, is is is The best way that we can celebrate this anniversary.
• 31:07
  Speaker 3: So I'm excited about that.
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: You are.
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: You're so joyful about it.
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: And I'm so happy for the Amsterdam news like that and then that should be evidence to you out there.
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: Non-profit, like Amy's joy and getting to know about a mission She didn't know about, that could be you.
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: Your community foundation could be waiting for your story.
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: We just need to be bold enough to step up and share it and cast that vision.
• 31:33
  Speaker 3: So let me just say one other thing.
• 31:34
  Speaker 3: I feel like the anniversary also reminds us that you know, with new technology and new ways of digital sharing, that that network of 900 is maybe an undertapped resource of community foundations.
• 31:47
  Speaker 3: And what if that whole group got together right?
• 31:50
  Speaker 3: So we are working in partnership with our friends at Marin County Community Foundation.
• 31:56
  Speaker 3: Pittsburgh, denver, cleveland, miami a whole group are coming together to say what if?
• 32:03
  Speaker 3: what if we could do something about climate as a community of community Foundations and over the last 30 days.
• 32:10
  Speaker 3: We're standing up a collaborative among community foundations to be a better partner to federal government, to bring all of those federal Infrastructure dollars all the way down to the grassroots, to the ground, where people are feeling the floods, we're smelling the smoke, we're feeling the heat of Climate change.
• 32:30
  Speaker 3: How do we get that money to the ground, to the people that actually really needed?
• 32:33
  Speaker 3: And so we think we have a special role to play, not just with the federal government But with private philanthropy, to be their partners, to quickly act, because we don't have a lot of time.
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: Amy, i mean the, what I keep hearing and how you say it, and what you just beautifully Said is a value that we lifted, that we wanted every nonprofit to pour into this year, which is locking arms for impact.
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: And it's just for you to answer We're turning a hundred.
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: But let me talk about the other organizations.
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: Turning a hundred shows you everything about the power of Abundance, of how much further we can go and lockstep together, and now you're doing this with other community foundations.
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: It's just beautiful and what a what a great model.
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: So anyone listening, call Amy, if you're a community foundation, like I want to be part of this, like I'm gonna put one, that CTA, out there, because what you're gonna do is gonna shift the sector in a in such a meaningful way.
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: So thank you for that.
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: You know we got a transition to story and you have teased us with some of these moments already of philanthropy Just stopping you in your tracks.
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna think of that comma, you know clip for a long time, but I want you to take us back to a moment in philanthropy that's really stuck with you over the years.
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: What's a moment you would take us back to in your journey?
• 33:39
  Speaker 3: This is a hard one, right, because I feel like There have been moments where you see almost the clouds parting.
• 33:46
  Speaker 3: you're like that's it, that's it, that's what we're here for, right?
• 33:50
  Speaker 3: and And I just have to tell you a story about an amazing person that I feel like Makes me so proud to be in philanthropy and makes me want to be so much in this community of philanthropy.
• 34:02
  Speaker 3: So when we were working on this innovation prize that I mentioned back at my former foundation, i met this incredible woman named Dominique Morgan.
• 34:11
  Speaker 3: Have you ever heard of Dominique Morgan?
• 34:13
  Speaker 3: No, i want to Dominique has been on a journey from incarcerated man in solitary confinement to having led an organization called black and pink, which was based in Omaha right, lifting up trans folks that are trying to get into back to life and and And recover from a trauma in a way that I don't think many of us could even imagine.
• 34:41
  Speaker 3: And Not only has Dominique gone on this journey, but now Dominique is a member of the fellow philanthropic community.
• 34:48
  Speaker 3: Dominique has has is now Doing this incredible work with Borealis Foundation, working on trans generation grant making, and has so much to teach us about philanthropy.
• 35:02
  Speaker 3: Dominique gives a talk that talks about when she was in her early stages of lifting up some of her, her Fillet, her work before she joined philanthropy, and she used to say you know what?
• 35:13
  Speaker 3: I don't come recommended.
• 35:15
  Speaker 3: I don't come recommended, i'm just starting out, i'm just doing the best I can and I'm lifting up a community that I'm so passionate about.
• 35:24
  Speaker 3: And I feel like everyone in philanthropy could learn from Dominique Morgan.
• 35:28
  Speaker 3: So follow her on Instagram because she's also a performer and kills.
• 35:33
  Speaker 3: It Was a grand marshal of our gay pride parade last year in New York, oh my gosh.
• 35:38
  Speaker 3: And she's just.
• 35:39
  Speaker 3: She's just, she's just life and she's just hope and she's and she's unapologetic and strong and and instructive and also a learner.
• 35:50
  Speaker 3: So I just I, that's somebody I feel like through the journey of philanthropy has really has really sort of galvanized everything that we hope and believe in and what we do.
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: I mean, we're puddles on the floor clearly, and now I'm having FOMO because I want to know Dominique Morgan, i want to be her friend and I wish everyone could see your face as you are talking about her.
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: You are lit up from every way and you are not the executive director who stands up there and says I have all the answers.
• 36:26
  Speaker 2: I know exactly what I'm doing.
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: You're saying I am still being shaped in lots of ways and I am still open minded and open handed to know I don't know everything.
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: That is the mindset and that helps me understand why your community foundation is thriving, why people keep coming back and wanting to grant with you, why missions are coming, because there is there's got to be an unbelievable amount of trust and that level of love and reciprocity and listening.
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: And so thank you, amy.
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: I want to.
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: You've given a shout out to your team and I want to make sure we don't miss them in this, because we know there's an army behind you that is powering these movements.
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: So thank you for that.
• 37:14
  Speaker 2: Dominique, you keep shining and being your amazing self and, amy, you've listened to podcast enough to know when we start to wind down.
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: We got to pitch you that one good thing, and so we're on pins and needles.
• 37:26
  Speaker 2: I cannot wait to hear what you say.
• 37:28
  Speaker 2: What would be the one good thing that you would leave with our community today?
• 37:32
  Speaker 3: Oh, as a fan of the podcast there have been so many of these I'm like Amy, you got to come up with something good, but it's going to be the worst pressure.
• 37:40
  Speaker 3: It's going to be simple.
• 37:41
  Speaker 3: It's just, i feel like in a moment of remoteness.
• 37:43
  Speaker 3: It's about honestly seeing and connecting with people, and you guys do that through this podcast in a way that I think is really beautiful.
• 37:54
  Speaker 3: But I do think that we've gone into this coming out of COVID.
• 37:57
  Speaker 3: We are just needing to connect with people and hear and feel them in real ways, and that's why you're instructing us to be good storytellers, because it's the most human way that we connect.
• 38:09
  Speaker 3: But it is what builds trust and that is what the New York community trust has, and in such depth.
• 38:15
  Speaker 3: It's just decades of trust and belief and commitment in a better New York, and I feel like if we do nothing else, then connect one by one, by one and fill up that trust piggy bank.
• 38:29
  Speaker 3: That's really what's going to help all of us do our work better.
• 38:32
  Speaker 3: So I wish it was something sort of more poetic, but it's really the trust than building it one person at a time.
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: I mean thanks for bringing us home with such centering words that we can all apply in this moment, just being present and soaking up.
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: You know the interactions that we get to have with each other.
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: So, amy, people I know because I want to drive to New York right now with my whole family in the car and come hang with you people are going to want to connect with you and with the incredible team that you've created.
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: What's the best way to connect with you online?
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: how can you find and follow your work and just connect to install all the things?
• 39:03
  Speaker 3: So follow us on social media, follow us on our website, email me.
• 39:07
  Speaker 3: I love to talk to people and I'm happy to talk to all kinds of folks that are interested in the work that we're doing, and we want to feel like we are part of this.
• 39:19
  Speaker 3: We are, for good goodness, uprising that you guys are always trying lifting up every day, and so please reach out.
• 39:27
  Speaker 3: We want to be a part of the conversation, for sure.
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: I feel people just locking arms.
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: The movement's getting bigger, the impact uprising is mounting, and I just look at someone like you, amy, and I'm just like I'm so glad we're all here, i'm so glad that each of our gifts that we're bringing into this mosaic, this quilt that John talks about, is helping cover everyone.
• 39:50
  Speaker 2: You know, that's the goal is how do we cover everyone?
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: so we just want to thank you so wholeheartedly for sharing, and I even just want to say stay, come back and let us know what's happening with this climate cohort.
• 40:03
  Speaker 2: You know, in a couple years we want to watch that as a pilot and we want to see what you discover, because it could be really groundbreaking.
• 40:10
  Speaker 2: So, amy Freitag, here's our friendship bracelet.
• 40:14
  Speaker 2: Thank you for being our friend forever and for powering your part of the world in such a powerful way.
• 40:21
  Speaker 3: Thank you, guys, for having me.
• 40:22
  Speaker 3: It's been such a joy to be with you.
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: Such an honor, thank you.
• 40:25
  Speaker 3: Thank you.
• 40:27
  Speaker 4: Hey friends, thanks so much for being here.
• 40:29
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• 40:30
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• 40:35
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• 40:38
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• 40:50
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• 40:53
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• 41:01
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• 41:02
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