January 2019

Putting our Strategic Plan to Work

In the fall of 2017, the Foundation Board of Trustees, myself, and Lyn Jenks, Consultant from the Council of Michigan Foundations began to outline our strategic direction for the Foundation.  Our first task was to look at our mission statement, which we revised to read:

“The Cadillac Area Community Foundation enhances the quality of life for all people in our community through philanthropy – connecting donor gifts with the needs in our community.”

As we continually looked back to the mission statement, we moved on to determine where we should focus our resources and how we can best serve the Community, define Board roles, set goals for each area of fund development,  look at creative ways to make CACF the “hub” for all things philanthropic, and review policies, financials, and human resources best practices.

In 2018 our internal audit was completed, all of our policies, procedures, and standards were reviewed. In addition to the review, we added a Youth Protection Policy to protect our advisors, youth, and Foundation.  Maintaining IRS Standards and the high-level stewardship and fiduciary responsibilities are vital to the role of the Foundation.

Next on the list was to promote grant availability by connecting with our non-profit organizations.  As Executive Director of the Foundation, I participate in over eleven monthly meetings that address issues we face as a community such as physical health, homelessness, adult literacy, veteran’s needs, economic development, youth issues, and community safety.  Unfortunately, these organizations face unmet challenges every single day.  Our presence gives us the opportunity to encourage the organization to apply for grants, or for the Foundation to be proactive to a current issue.

Also in 2018 our market growth of 14.5%, gave us the opportunity to increase our spending policy on funds from 4% to 5% for 2019.    This increase meant that funds had an additional 1% for grantmaking in 2019, but, this financial growth is only one piece.

In 2019 we will work on several tactics to make the Cadillac Area Community Foundation the philanthropic hub in our community.  We will focus on working with non-profits and helping them to identify and secure the human and financial resources needed to advance their mission.

We will continue our efforts towards “quality of life for all people” while evolving our policies, practices, use of technology, and business model to be the best stewards.

Lastly, we are committed to serving our donors wishes and the community needs through charitable funds and strategic grantmaking initiatives.

Thank you for your support.

Beyond Grateful,

Doreen