Philanthropy Magnified - monthly impact report
2021 | April Issue
Community Foundation on WHCU's All Things Equal

LISTEN HERE to recent Community Foundation financial decisions to advance social justice and support our community in a time of continued need.
Grant Cycle Spotlight
2021 Library Grant Cycle Celebrates Youth with more than $208,000 to 21 Libraries Throughout Our Region

Our Library Grant Cycle making grants from the Bernard Carl and Shirley Rosen Fund and from additional Community Foundation Funds, seeks to promote genuine intellectual curiosity and a lifelong love of reading and learning by encouraging youth to develop habits of regular library use. Eligible applicants are the 33 public libraries in Cayuga, Cortland, Seneca, Tioga and Tompkins counties, the 5 counties of the Finger Lakes Library System.
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Donor Spotlight:
Joel & Cathy Zumoff

Cathy and I each set up a Fund with the Community Foundation to provide support for areas of interest in Tompkins County that we consider to be important. We decided to provide the initial endowment for these funds by transferring appreciated stock from our investment portfolio to the Foundation. In this manner we were able to both take an income tax deduction to a charitable agency and to avoid paying substantial capital gains taxes on stock we had held for twenty-five years. It was very easy to accomplish this task. All that was necessary to transfer the stock was to write a letter to our financial advisor and ask him to move the stock from our portfolio to an account provided by the Community Foundation. We have also used this mechanism in subsequent years to add additional monies to our funds. We recommend this method to anyone who has the resources to support the Community Foundation in a substantial manner.
COVID-19 Report on Local Funders Collaborative Grant

Community Foundation joined other funders to make grants to the Human Services Coalition to support workers in the mission driven sector. Additional funding partners included Health Foundation of WCNY, Legacy Foundation, Park Foundation, Triad Foundation, United Way. The total grant was for $43,000.

These grants supported technical assistance to enable local organizations to better plan on how to meet the extraordinary planning demands of the pandemic.

The grant enabled 20 agencies – many who provide safety net services such as child care, food security, housing and mental health - to retain consultants to help them address immediate and longer term challenges. Projects were diverse and distinct –from adapting current programs to respond to emerging needs, to the creation of fundraising plans, to exploring formal affiliations and mergers. Agencies adopted more resilient mindsets and acquired tools such as scenario planning – skills that will have long lasting benefits beyond pandemic times.

Community Foundation made a second grant to support learning and coaching directed to health and human services professionals struggling with compassion fatigue and stress as a result of increased demands of the COVID 19 pandemic.

The program consisted of a two-hour workshop on self-care followed by three, 1-hour group coaching sessions to provide ongoing learning and support.

Workshop
30 people registered (20 organizations)
23 people attended (16 organizations)

Coaching cohorts
Session ONE – 9 participated
Session TWO – 9 participated
The Bernard Carl and Shirley Rosen Library Fund: Changing Lives One Book At A Time

Libraries are sacred spaces. Local community leader and business owner, Patrice Lockert Anthony, owner and president of Black Label Consulting shares the following story. “My mom was a single mother to four children. She also had purpose, passion, and ambition. She went from GED to a BA in psychology, to a Ph.D. in education (and until she won a Ford Fellowship for graduate studies, she also worked full time as a keypunch operator for IBM). She studied in public libraries, completed assignments, reports, and did her research in the libraries, so that’s where we were, too. My mom had only one hard and fast rule for the staff; our curiosity wasn’t to be censored. Answers might be censored, but not the books we chose, and not our questions.” 

COVID-19 Grant Reports




CLICK HERE for a history of local COVID-19 recovery grantmaking

Our COIVD-19 Response Fund is now closed.

This is a critical time for many, including nonprofit organizations who have benefited from your giving in the past. Many had to cancel their annual fundraising events (public gatherings are a heavy source of funds). Please give to organizations you regularly support, and others that need your help at this crucial time. Thanks!
Let's Talk Summer Camps

Join us at 12 noon on May 4 with our our guest, Kate Shanks-Booth, Director, Tompkins County Youth Services, for a 30 minute conversation on summer camps and youth programs and services in our community, including lessons learned and what to anticipate for summer 2021.

Community Foundation of Tompkins County
www.cftompkins.org