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Announcing our 'Empowering Resilient Communities to Thrive' Grant Cycle | |
We are thrilled to announce our 2025 grant cycle, Empowering Resilient Communities to Thrive. This theme reflects our commitment to uplifting and supporting initiatives that foster recovery, growth, and strength within our communities. This will be the only general grant cycle for 2025.
Empowering—Our grant cycle is about providing you with the tools, resources, and support you need to build capacity and create meaningful change. It signals action and agency rather than passive assistance.
Resilient Communities—Resilience speaks to the strength and adaptability of our community, especially those facing systemic challenges. By focusing on resilience, this grant cycle acknowledges your existing struggles and your ability to overcome them with the right support. Learn more HERE.
DID YOU MISS OUR GRANT CYCLE INFORMATION SESSION/Q&A? YOU CAN VIEW IT HERE.
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JENNIFER TAVARES
Jennifer Tavares is the Director of Community Relations for Cornell University, focusing on local government and community relations, as well as key nonprofit partnerships. Prior to joining the Cornell team in October 2024, she served for a decade as the President & CEO of the Tompkins County Chamber of Commerce and Visit Ithaca, directed economic development efforts in Chenango County, NY, and led the chamber of commerce in Potsdam, NY. Jennifer also has experience in manufacturing, small business, fundraising, marketing, and communications. Jennifer has served on the boards of the Industrial Development Agency, the Downtown Ithaca Local Development Corporation, Workforce Development Board, Air Service Board, United Way, and Challenge Industries; she currently serves on the board of Ithaca Area Economic Development, the Community Foundation of Tompkins County, and the State Theatre of Ithaca.
Jennifer and her husband have two sons studying engineering in college, and live in Lansing, NY. She is a potter, gardener, and enjoys traveling & live music.
CLICK HERE for Board Biographies.
| 25th Anniversary Look Back: GIAC and Southside Designated Funds Celebrate 12 Years | Quoted from our April 2013 Newsletter | |
"Major new gifts to the Community Foundation created two new endowed funds for food programs at two treasured community centers in the City of Ithaca. One endowment fund is for GIAC, the other for the Southside Community Center. The donors who created these funds hope that others will be moved by their vision of providing regular nutritious hot lunches to young people who benefit from these two centers' well established and critically needed food programs.
Endowed funds created for a specific agency and with a designated purpose provide regular annual grants forever supporting effective programs."
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DEI Corner
April is Celebrate Diversity Month
April marks Celebrate Diversity Month, a time to intentionally recognize and honor the unique backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences that make up our communities and workplaces.
Diversity is more than a value—it’s a strength. When we embrace people from different racial and ethnic backgrounds, gender identities, cultures, religions, abilities, and lived experiences, we unlock creativity, deepen collaboration, and foster innovation. Equity and inclusion ensure that everyone has a seat at the table and the opportunity to thrive.
This month, we invite you to take a moment to reflect on what diversity means to you and how you show up for inclusion in your everyday life—whether it’s being curious about a colleague’s perspective, amplifying voices that are often overlooked, or advocating for policies that ensure equity for all.
How to Celebrate Diversity Month:
Learn: Explore books, films, podcasts, or events that highlight underrepresented voices. Listen: Make space for others to share their experiences, and listen without judgment. Act: Challenge bias when you see it, and advocate for inclusive practices in your team or community. Connect: Celebrate cultural traditions and milestones that may be unfamiliar to you.
| | Community Foundation at Friendship Donations Network | |
Friendship Donations Network (FDN) brings people together to care for each other and to care for our environment by rescuing nutritious food from stores and farms which would otherwise be thrown away. They serve food outlets which help more than 2,000 people a week and divert over 1,500 lbs. of good food from local landfills every day. And if the rescued food cannot be used right away, it is often used by farmers to care for their animals.
Food insecurity remains a pressing challenge in Tompkins County, where far too many individuals and families struggle to access reliable, healthy meals. Friendship Donations Network works tirelessly to bridge this gap by partnering with local food donors, including farms, grocery stores, and bakeries, to ensure surplus food doesn’t go to waste but instead nourishes our neighbors. FDN is part the Just Be Cause Center, a non-profit development center, that creates a space where these groups can conduct business in a professional and modern setting and support each other. It was launched in honor of Judy Dietz as a resource for not-for-profit organizations in the Tompkins County area and beyond. Inspired by Judy’s philanthropic work, the Center is dedicated to helping organizations increase their productivity and enhance their efficiency.
Continuing reading HERE
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Women's Fund Spring Education Event:
How the Hell Do I Get Through This?
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Let’s be honest, life feels overwhelming right now. When stress and uncertainty become constants, how do we keep ourselves healthy, centered, and resilient?
Join us for this year's Women's Fund spring education event, an engaging, down-to-earth conversation on how prioritizing rest and self-care isn’t selfish—it’s essential. Facilitated by leadership coach Kim Wunner, this Zoom chat will provide practical guidance and authentic insights for navigating challenging times.
What you’ll experience:
• Guided Meditation: Kim will start us off with an accessible mindfulness practice to ground our conversation.
• Expert Panel: Short, impactful conversations with three Ithaca-area experts on how rest and self-care can transform our ability to cope and thrive.
• Interactive Audience Q&A: Your chance to ask questions and explore personal and professional approaches to rest and resilience. Read more and register HERE.
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Strengthening Our
Mission-Driven Sector
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Holding designated funds for local nonprofit organizations offers several key benefits that strengthen our local mission-driven sector:
Sustainable Support: These funds create a reliable, long-term source of income for local nonprofits, helping them weather financial ups and downs and focus on their core missions.
Donor Impact: Donors can grow their contributions over time, ensuring continued support for specific organizations they care about most.
Organizational Flexibility: Nonprofits decide when and how to access their funds, allowing them to respond to opportunities or challenges as they arise.
Community Stability: With over $6.5 million held across 49 designated funds, the Community Foundation provides a solid foundation for the long-term health and stability of our local nonprofit ecosystem.
Shared Stewardship: By managing these funds, the Foundation offers professional investment oversight and administrative support—freeing up nonprofits to focus on the work that matters.
Together, these funds help build a resilient, well-supported, and thriving network of mission-driven organizations in Tompkins County. Learn more about these funds: Click Here
| Giving to Others Gives us Lots of Reasons to Smile | |
The Community Foundation is honored to support your philanthropic journey, whether you've already established a fund or are considering future giving. Our goal is to make charitable giving easy, meaningful, and rewarding.
Globally, generosity is thriving—over 4.3 billion people gave time, help, or money recently, and research shows that giving boosts happiness. People feel best when giving feels good, offers choices, and shows results.
That’s exactly what we aim to do. We make giving simple, offer flexible tools to meet your goals, and provide meaningful ways to see your impact. Whether you're giving locally or globally, we’re here to help you make a difference—and feel great doing it.
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