Greater Kansas City Community Foundation

I just knew drinking Diet Coke was good for you!

If Clay and I are not careful, Ann and Lindy will pop the tops off of our diet Coke cans before we have a chance to open them. That’s how committed they are to collecting pop tabs for Ronald McDonald House! They even recruited Gran and Grandad to collect on their behalf, and my parents often arrive at our house with dozens of little metal loops.

It all counts, doesn’t it? That’s what’s so compelling about Don and Adele Hall’s approach to giving. “Even getting just a little involved in an organization that does good is exciting,” Don remarked in our 30th Anniversary Report. From major financial commitments to one volunteer hour at a time, and everything in between, over 2,200 families, businesses, and individuals are making a difference in Kansas through the Community Foundation.

So before you toss the can into the recycle bin, pull off that pop tab!

Birthday treats

The kids have had a wonderful time this fall celebrating lots of birthdays. Nearly every day one of them comes home with a bag of goodies from a celebration at school. At home we even had a Bye Bye Bottles party for Eva, complete with a cake and a “Toss the Bottles in the Trash Can” game. And Ann can hardly wait for her own birthday in a couple of weeks.

It’s been party after party at the Community Foundation, too! All year long we’ve been marking the important occasion of our 30th anniversary by celebrating each donor with a personal delivery of cupcakes and a $30 Giving Card, paid for by a very generous anonymous donor. Even better, nearly 30 donors have hosted a gathering for Community Foundation friends to hear from Tom Bloch, chair of our board of directors, about his work in urban education.

And there’s more! Tom and Mary Bloch’s generous grants provided a copy of Tom’s book, Stand for the Best, to every person who attended. And, to top it all off, all proceeds from Stand for the Best will be used to promote an equal educational opportunity for all children.

Now that’s a party!

Planting seeds for a better future

Got any tips on how to encourage a well-meaning, bright little second grader how to keep her room clean? I have begun to realize that Ann did not inherit my fanatical penchant for neatness. Probably just as well, because I know I drive my entire family crazy. But I still intend to teach her to leave a place in better shape than she found it, whether it’s her room, the kitchen or her backpack.

Helen Nelson certainly left Kansas City better than she found it! I had the privilege of working with Helen in my law practice many years ago and later at the Community Foundation. Mrs. Nelson was a magnificent lady, and quite a talented rose gardener, and artist, too. She cared deeply about the future of Kansas City, and because of that, she left nearly her entire estate to the causes she cared most about, including medical research and Kansas City’s downtown library, now located in the building where she had opened a savings account as a child.

Imagine the difference we each could make if we left things better than the way we found them, whether it’s the kitchen, the garden or Kansas City.

Big shoes to fill

If you ever questioned the power of leading by example, surely all doubts were laid to rest by observing little kids at play. What fun it was over the weekend to watch Eva and Lindy pull all of my shoes off the shelves and try on each pair, walking around the closet pretending to be going "to the office." Even at ages two and four--wearing nothing but Hello Kitty pajama bottoms--they were remarkably convincing!

At the Community Foundation, every one of the more than 2,200 funds is an example of tremendous generosity. The stories of the people behind the funds are remarkable evidence that giving is alive and well in Kansas City, improving the lives of everyone who lives here. Consider the story of Beth Smith, who, with her husband, Ed, established one of the first funds under the Community Foundation's umbrella. Nearly three decades later, Beth's commitment to the future stability of the nonprofit sector is as strong as ever. Beth recently established a fund for the Women's Employment Network, an organization dedicated to supporting all women in their pursuit of careers.

So what do you think it meant tonight on the drive home when Eva gave up trying to open a Nestle Crunch bar (a birthday party favor?) and instead folded it in half, wrapper and all, flipped it open like a cell phone, and started chatting away?

Read the story of our founders in our Special Edition Annual Report.

The small things do add up!

“Enjoy the little things, because some day you’ll look back and realize that the little things were really the big things.” My good friend and colleague, George Bittner, often offers these wise words of advice as I head out the door in the evening, no doubt late to pick someone up and wondering whether five nights in a row is too many to serve cereal for dinner. George is so right, I thought this morning,especially when Lindy announced that she loved me more than spicy chips and pony tails.

George and I often wonder whether the seven founders of the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation had any idea that the little thing they started in 1978 would turn into such a big thing thirty years later. Who would have guessed that a collection of $200 and some change tossed into Charlie Kimball's hat would mark the beginning of such a generous institution? Thanks to the more than 2,200 individuals, families, and businesses who have established funds at the Community Foundation, grants out to the community since 1978 have reached a cumulative total of over $1.25 billion. Now that's big!

Read the story of our founders in our Special Edition Annual Report.

Kansas City Cares

One of the best things about being a part of the Community Foundation is the genuine commitment of the people involved. Each and every one of the more than 2,200 individuals, businesses, and families who have established funds at the Community Foundation--including each member of the staff and nearly every board member--is ready to jump in at a moment's notice to make charitable giving part of the solution.

The last few days were no exception. Jan Kauk, vice president at the Community Foundation, fielded a call from a colleague at a community foundation in southern Louisiana, directly in the path of Hurricane Gustav. Within minutes on Sunday evening, Jan had secured the assistance of fellow staff members Allyson Weber, Zach Dryman, Brenda Chumley, Susie Johnson and Jaclyn Steiner, as well as Anne St. Peter, vice chair of the Community Foundation's board of directors. By midday Monday, Jan and the team had put together a complete back office for online giving to the now-evacuated Community Foundation of Acadiana's hurricane relief fund, also accessible through its Web site at www.cfacadiana.org. And, the team activated our own Kansas City Cares Fund, which is designed especially to collect, distribute and oversee gifts for disaster relief efforts from caring donors in our region.

Not to be left out of the action, Eva pitched in by banging together alphabet blocks during my conference calls, and Ann and Lindy insisted that we go down to the office to "help." What a wonderful opportunity for three little girls to see that there is nothing more rewarding than helping others--even on Labor Day!

Goin’ to Kansas City?

The big question last week for my mother and me was how to pass the time with a four-year-old on the nine-hour drive to Louisville, Kentucky, where Lindy participated in a medical research study. (“We’re going to ’Tuckies,’” she would say.) What do you suppose we did? Car bingo? Nope. The alphabet game? Wrong again. Sing-a-longs? Not that, either. We reviewed the proofs for the Community Foundation’s 30th anniversary annual report. And what interesting reading it was! In case you missed it on Friday, click here to read Fred Logan’s column in the Business Journal for a sneak peek of the report’s content. And in mid-September, check your mailbox. We’ll send each of the 2,200 funds at the Community Foundation a bound hard copy, complete with fabulous photo spreads and 30 inspiring donor stories to celebrate the milestone. If you haven’t yet established your own personal, family, or corporate fund at the Community Foundation, click here to request that we mail an annual report directly to you. We love to share the joy of giving that has made the Community Foundation what it is today: your foundation, dedicated to increasing giving in our region, connecting you to the causes you care most about, and leading on critical issues facing our community. It is good to be home!

Be careful what you ask for

It really is all about the question, isn't it? That certainly proved to be true last week in a scene that repeats itself several times a day at our house. Lindy yanked a well-worn Barbie sticker book right out of Eva's hands. "Now Lindy," I admonished, "What do we know about sharing?" "I don't like it!" she retorted with a pout, clutching the tattered sticker book with even more determination. What a silly question to ask a four-year-old! And of course I had no luck convincing her that she shouldn't even want the book in the first place because the stickers were long gone.

At the Community Foundation, we know you care about every dollar that you invest in the community, whether it is $25, or $25,000. The question on your mind is "What difference did I make?" And, unlike the question I posed to Lindy, that's the right question! More than 600 area nonprofit organizations in our region have answers to that question, and the answers are at your fingertips in DonorEdge, accessible through our Web site at www.gkccf.org. There you will learn about the short-term and long-term successes of your favorite charities, organizations that are achieving tangible improvements in the lives of everyone in our community.

Now that's something worth sharing!

Walk the talk

If ever there were a good example of how a lot of little things can add up to a few really big things, the Community Foundation is it! In 2007 alone, Community Foundation donors collectively granted nearly $200 million from more than 2,000 funds, each fund supporting the charitable passions of the individual, family, or business who established it. Grants ranged from a few dollars to several million dollars and everything in between. All that grant making adds up to a better quality of life for everyone in our community.

As they say, a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. If all of us pitched in to make Kansas City a better place, couldn't we inspire other communities to do the same, and pretty soon, wouldn't those big challenges like education, health, poverty, and the environment seem less daunting? That's the spirit behind "global impact, local action" and "charity starts at home," buzzwords we hear quite a bit these days.

I was explaining this concept to Ann the other night on our walk to the neighborhood Price Chopper. "See, Ann? If we do our part to help the environment in Kansas City by walking instead of driving, the whole world can get better." "Okay, mom," she said, a pragmatist even at age seven. "But next time let's just walk to Target. It's closer."

Got the memo!

Okay so how many bright orange jackets are there on the planet, really, and what are the odds of two people in the same office wearing them on the same day? Add to that the likelihood of yet a third person in that same office wearing a bright orange shirt, on the same day, all unplanned?

Well, that's exactly what happened Wednesday at the Community Foundation, where the future is bright and the unexpected is expected.

The future looks bright all over Kansas City, where everywhere you look you can see evidence of your charitable dollars at work. Giving across America has never been higher, with a total of $306.39 billion dollars flowing to charitable causes in 2007, according to the just-released GivngUSA study.

Stay tuned for a 2009 release of the GivingKC study, when we'll learn how well how Kansas City measures up. Will the numbers in our region present a shining example of generosity? We think the odds are pretty good that they will do just that!