Greater Kansas City Community Foundation

Now that's innovative!

Here's your quiz for the day. Which of the following represents innovation in action?

(a) The work of Sean Stannard-Stockton and Tactical Philanthropy Advisors
(b) The core values of the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation and its mission to offer donors a better way to give
(c) Eva and Lindy's hand-decorated cookies at the Halloween party
(d) All of the above

If you answered (d), you are correct! The team at the Community Foundation is excited about the launch of Tactical Philanthropy Advisors, whose mission is to bring innovation, effectiveness and joy to philanthropy. And the best news of all is that the services of Tactical Philanthropy go hand in hand with donor advised funds and the on-the-ground knowledge about local nonprofits offered by community foundations. Especially the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation, featured in this month's innovative thinkers issue of 435 South magazine.

And as for the cookies, it is my biased opinion that the creative use of two flavors of frosting, coupled with sprinkles and a little bit of Elmer's glue, is pretty darn innovative!

The pictures don't lie

If you have a personal, corporate, or family fund at the Community Foundation, perhaps you've had the opportunity to meet with our team to review an analysis of your charitable giving. It is pretty interesting to see your grant making history laid out in full-color charts and graphs. Click here to view a generic example of a Charitable Investment Review. You can also request that our team prepare an analysis for your own fund. 

Whether your fund is modest or mighty, the Community Foundation knows that every dollar counts. If you are parting with your hard-earned cash to invest in the quality of life of others, you want to be sure you're making a difference, right?

Most often, donors tell us that the analysis confirms the impact they intend to make. Sometimes, though, the picture isn't as pretty as they'd like and the donors decide to adjust their grant making. Better to know the truth, I always say! Kind of like the other day when Lindy approached me with a serious look on her face. "We need to have a discussion," she said. "I colored on my dress. It's really bad."

P.S. Does this look like the face of a little girl capable of ruining an entire article of clothing??

These are a few of my favorite things

Who could ask for a better weekend? Arriving at work on Friday dressed exactly like Jaclyn Steiner, waking up on Saturday to two little girls playing zoo animals in the bed, whipping up a batch of the kids' favorite chicken enchiladas, and getting a nod in Joel Epstein's blog post at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joel-epstein/hey-who-doesnt-want-to-be_b_314677.html.
 
Kansas City, be proud! Not only are we a generous bunch, with our rate of giving by high income households at nearly twice the national average, but we also developed philanthropy's first comprehensive donor education platform. DonorEdge and its online nonprofit profiles pair up kick-the-tires knowledge about organizations--which only community foundations truly can provide--with best-of-class tools for donors to organize their charitable giving. There's no doubt that everything really is up to date in Kansas City!

Top that!

One of the best things about having a fund at the Community Foundation is the opportunity to meet amazing people who are making a difference in our community and our nation. Scott Johnson, founder of the Myelin Repair Foundation, certainly is one of those people. Scott generously shared his story Friday evening over dinner with a handful of donors. We were all struck by Scott's message that, regardless of your favorite cause and regardless of whether your annual charitable giving totals a few hundred dollars or several hundred thousand dollars, a wise philanthropic investment can produce a huge improvement in quality of life.

Scott's remarks drew rave reviews, but perhaps the biggest beneficiaries of Scott's visit were the three little Barker girls, who got to spend the evening with Gran and Granddad. And that's a very tough perk to beat!

Take the cake...please!

After my last post, a few of my colleagues made the mistake of asking me about Eva’s birthday cake. I have never met a cake I didn’t like. Here it is, in all its glory! There were six flavors—vanilla, white, lemon, banana, dark chocolate, and milk chocolate, and four frostings—chocolate, almond, vanilla, and peanut butter. It’s what I’ve had for dinner every night for two weeks. The kids ask why I get to eat cake for dinner when they have to eat chicken and grapes. I tell them that one of the greatest privileges of being 40 is that if you want cake for dinner, you may have cake for dinner.

Speaking of cake, if you establish a fund at the Community Foundation, every year our team delivers, to your door, fresh baked cupcakes. 24/7 online access? Dedicated customer service? Fee as low as $21 a month? No minimum fund size? All of that is great, but the cupcakes might just be the best perk of all!

Good things come in threes

When Eva turned three last week, I was reminded just what a great number three really is. Three times is a charm, three is company, Goldilocks wouldn't have been the same without the three bears, and, of course, anyone can enjoy at least one of the three easy ways to start getting involved with the Community Foundation. At the Community Foundation, you can purchase a Giving Card for as little as $25, receive a tax deduction, and pass the card on to a friend or family member to celebrate a birthday, holiday, or any special occasion. Or, you can rally your friends and family around a favorite cause by starting a giving circle(PDF download). You can even establish your own personal, family, or business foundation fund for a tax-deductible cost as low as $21 a month.

Anyone want to guess what's in the bag? If you said "a fluffy tulle skirt, a flowery headband, and a magic wand," you were right. A triad of birthday gifts perfectly suited for a three-year-old who is convinced she's a princess, even on days when it's NOT her birthday!

Another better way to give

Where can you find the perfect gift for the person who has everything? Right at your fingertips at www.gkccf.org. Click the “Giving Cards” heading, select a design, and load the card with $25, $50 or even $100, tax deductible to you. We’ll send you the Giving Card for you to wrap up with a box of candy or flowers or even just a smile. The lucky recipient can give the face amount of the card to a charity of choice, anywhere in the United States.

Someone needs to tell five-year-old Lindy about the Giving Cards. As we were browsing the aisles of Lowe’s over the weekend, picking out paint colors, Lindy spotted the appliance section. She pointed to a snazzy looking washing machine and said “I want one of those for my birthday.”

Running to stand still

Did anyone happen to see a harried-looking mother chasing a two-year-old through Oak Park Mall yesterday around 4:45 p.m.? That was me. Evidently Eva had enough of the Build-A-Bear festivities celebrating little Ella’s birthday and decided to go window shopping. I finally caught her making a beeline for Dillard’s.

Fortunately, if you have a fund at the Community Foundation, you don’t have to chase down dozens of pieces of paper when tax time rolls around. Organize all of your donations through a personal, family, or corporate fund, and you’ll have all of your charitable giving records in one place, easily accessible online at any time. This means that you can focus on giving, not receipt keeping. Your Community Foundation: a better way to give.

Haircuts . . . but no tax cuts?

Your team at the Community Foundation is keeping a sharp eye on the discussions in Washington about capping the itemized deduction for charitable contributions at the 28% tax bracket. Like you, we take very seriously any potential legislation that could cut charitable giving, and you can bet that we'll keep you posted! Click here for a link to what the experts are saying about this important issue.

(Eva was as thrilled about her first haircut as we are about the prospects of trimming charitable tax deductions!)

This will make you smile!

A couple of weeks ago, the team at the Community Foundation hosted the first of what is sure to be many more Camp Charity days for our donors and their children. It was fun to see the smiling young faces of giving back in Kansas City, future philanthropists who will make our region a better place. And today we have another reason to smile because the Community Foundation released the Giving in Kansas City study citing benchmark data that confirms that we are every bit as generous as we think:

• Individuals in Kansas City with an income of $100,000 or more gave almost twice the national average in 2007.
• The average gift in the Kansas City area was $3,375 in 2007, which is 50 percent more than the national average of $2,247 that year.
• The growth rate of individual giving notably increased by 128 percent between 1997 and 2007. In comparison, the national rate of increase was 30 percent during those same years.
• Gifts from individuals made up about three-quarters (72.4 percent) of giving in 2007
  Foundation assets per capita in Kansas City are extraordinarily high at $3,239 per person in comparison to the national average of $2,053 per person

Read The Kansas City Star’s story on the topic, and download your own copy of Giving in Kansas City from the Resources section of the Community Foundation’s Web site. You’ll be smiling, too!