Northern Lights - Issue 7 - January 2022
PHILANTHROPY: DEDICATED TO COMMUNITY PROSPERITY
After nearly two years of urgent crisis response to the needs of northwest Michigan communities and businesses, philanthropic leaders are setting fresh priorities for 2022.
There are familiar issues – needs like workforce, housing and child care that were amplified by the pandemic – and there are new paths, like investing for targeted impact. And beneath it all, a dynamic that could serve the region well: A backdrop of collaborations forged or strengthened by the challenges of COVID-19.
By AMY LANE
DTE Foundation
“We have collaborated and leaned on one another and done amazing work together in a really powerful way, to serve state and community in a very impactful way, like never before,” said Lynette Dowler, president of the DTE Foundation. “When relationships get strengthened and deepened, it only serves to re-create momentum in the future.”
The foundation is one of many to support Venture North Funding & Development and the region, sharing keen interest in the well- being of citizens, organizations, businesses and communities.
Education – from K-12 up to, and including, colleges and trades – is “a huge priority” for the DTE Foundation, Dowler said. There’s a need to catch students back up from what they’ve lost during the pandemic, she said, and that in turn leads into career development and workforce development.
Dowler said the foundation “will likely be very focused in high school and young adults’ career readiness,” job training and building out workforce, not only to provide businesses the talent they currently need but also to be ready for investments and growth stemming from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, one of the largest economic relief measures in U.S. history.
Another focus: Helping businesses start up and, those already operating, succeed. To that end, longstanding financial support for Venture North – that has thus totaled nearly $500,000 since 2007 - is continuing; in September, the foundation granted $120,000 for two years. The grant, one of seven made to organizations around the state to spur economic development and job creation, goes toward Venture North’s operations and programs.
“They have the ability and flexibility to utilize those dollars as they see fit to best serve the small businesses,” Dowler said. “They’re experts at small business development, and that is a space that we count on them for that expertise.
Dowler adds that the region’s needs transcend many levels and so do the foundation’s priorities, going to those as basic as healthy food and physical and mental wellness. The foundation’s six areas of giving – arts and culture, community transformation, economic progress, education and employment, environment, and human needs – are not mutually exclusive. “It’s really the circle of life for sustainability in our economy,” she said.
Consumers Energy Foundation
So, too, at the Consumers Energy Foundation, where secretary/treasurer Carolyn Bloodworth said the foundation has a “triple-bottom-line approach that focuses on people, the planet and our state’s prosperity. And they are all interwoven.”
Within that, workforce needs are on the foundation’s radar, as is overall support for businesses. “We are dedicated to making certain that Michigan can prosper, and to do that, we absolutely need to support business, because they are such an integral factor to the success of any community,” Bloodworth said.
The pandemic made more visible the needs of small businesses and those owned by women and minorities – populations targeted by Venture North – “and they continue to need our help and attention,” Bloodworth said.
The Consumers foundation gave $450,000 to Venture North’s Regional Resiliency Program (RRP) to help small businesses survive the pandemic, including $200,000 that seeded the RRP. The program ultimately grew to more than $1.1 million in donations from organizations and individuals and it awarded more than 300 business grants in Venture North’s 10-county region.
“I think that while the program has ended, the awareness and recognition of how philanthropy has made such an impact, can help shape what we may do going forward.”
Bloodworth said she doesn’t expect any major changes in foundation priorities for 2022 but the pandemic sharpened the foundation’s lens for what work is needed, including maintaining support for business and particularly small and women- and minority-owned businesses.
She also pointed to education and housing as critical issues for the region, the latter a focus at local organizations as well.
Cadillac Area Community Foundation
“It (housing) is something we are looking at to take a deeper dive into it, see how we can help,” said Doreen Lanc, executive director of the Cadillac Area Community Foundation.
A 2019 study on housing demand through 2025 in communities throughout northwest Michigan found that in Wexford County the market could support 1,860 additional housing units. But a recent Cadillac-area housing inventory determined that while there are several ongoing projects, they will add only about 419 units over the next three years – less than a quarter of the projected needs.
Lanc said the foundation is bringing in speakers to talk to the foundation board and community members about how they addressed housing needs in their communities.
She said the foundation attends hosts of local meetings – in areas like social and human services, homelessness prevention, economic and workforce development and workforce housing – to listen and learn about “what the challenges are in our community, and what the opportunities are. We’re trying to find solutions. We don’t want to put a Band Aid on it, we’re trying to find long-term solutions to stabilize it.”
Lanc also said the foundation has become a hub that connects people with resources in Wexford and Missaukee counties and assists them in vital areas, like helping youth obtain driver’s licenses to get to employment.
The foundation houses numerous funds to meet local needs but Lanc said that while community foundations play a crucial role in identifying and solving community problems, many people may not understand what the foundation does or that they can support it with small donations that add up to much in community assistance. She hopes to change that awareness in 2022.
“We need to increase our exposure. Every person should know what the foundation does, and what is available at the foundation,” Lanc said.
Leelanau Township Community Foundation
In the region served by the Leelanau Township Community Foundation, housing and lack of child care are two big issues “that affect not only businesses but all of our community, all of our residents,” said executive director Joan Moore.
They will likely be among items discussed at a board retreat in January, she said. Issues like the lack of workforce, child care and attainable housing all tie together, Moore said, and while not new, their inherent challenges and problems were brought more to light by the pandemic.
The foundation recently awarded a $30,000 grant to Traverse City-based nonprofit Housing North to help fund a dedicated position for a person to work on Leelanau County housing. Housing North supports communities, developers, employers and other stakeholders as they work to create more attainable housing in northwest Michigan, and the grant “puts a boots-on-the- ground person here that can dedicate their time to working on this issue, by bringing stakeholders together, talking to governmental entities and so forth,” Moore said.
She said businesses need to be part of the solution in figuring out next steps and helping to solve issues like lack of housing and child care, and one of the roles the foundation can play is to convene groups and stakeholders “to include…all parts of the community in the discussion.”
Venture North Funding and Development
Leelanau Township, Cadillac and other community foundations and organizations provided funding and were vital partners to Venture North’s RRP initiative, developing relationships and trust in a first-of-its kind program that touched all 10 counties and relied on local people for grant recommendations. And the RRP outreach and community partners have helped build Venture North’s brand and “increase awareness that we exist and we’re here to help,” said Venture North President Laura Galbraith.
In 2022, that help will grow. Venture North is doubling the amount of technical assistance it can provide to businesses, from a collective 1,000 hours in 2021 to 2,000 hours in 2022, and is also increasing its loan deployment, aiming for $1.25 million in 2022 lending compared with about $700,000 in 2021.
It’s a significant increase in capacity, thanks to the DTE Foundation grant, an operating grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and a grant from the federal Community Development Financial Institutions Fund.
Former Northwest region Michigan Small Business Development Center director Annie Olds joined Venture North in September as a business development manager to work with business and community interests along the 131 corridor, and Venture North is continuing to build its contractor team to reach other communities. It is also looking to expand its board and committee membership to include people from Manistee County and the Wexford-Missaukee and Antrim-Kalkaska county areas, Galbraith said.
She said Venture North’s focus will continue in low-income communities and on small businesses, including start-ups, women- and minority-owned businesses. “We have seen that there are very resilient businesses that are in growth mode that need capital such as ours,” Galbraith said. She added that start-up business activity was strong in 2021, making up five of the 11 businesses Venture North financed. It’s a trend she expects to continue.
Galbraith said lending activity has spread among Venture North’s counties, strengthening its profile as a regional organization.
Tim Ervin, a consultant assisting Venture North, said that “in northwest Michigan and across the nation, philanthropy has found that Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) like Venture North help attain charitable intent through programs with tangible benefits to small businesses often left on the sideline.
Ervin helps Venture North’s efforts to present opportunities for consideration by philanthropic interests.
In 2022, many in northwest Michigan are watching to see what transpires with possible areas of funding through the federal American Rescue Plan, which has dedicated billions to Michigan and other states. The act, among other things, provides money to state, local and tribal governments to provide support for recovery, including through assistance to households, small businesses and nonprofits, aid to impacted industries and support for essential workers.
Rotary Charities of Traverse City
“As support becomes available to businesses, communities, and nonprofits through ARPA, it is important that these entities have the support they need to be able to access the funds and leverage other resources,” said Sakura Takano, CEO of Rotary Charities of Traverse City. Rotary Charities supports nonprofits, Native nations, local units of government and school districts that provide services in Antrim, Benzie, Grand Traverse, Kalkaska and Leelanau counties.
While the Rescue Plan’s local picture has yet to be fully fleshed out, it will be important to maximize “opportunity for stimulus in our area” and get as much as possible to places of need, Takano said. She said she’s seen “a new sense of partnership and collaboration” in the philanthropic community, and that bodes well for work.
During the pandemic Rotary support included providing $110,000 to the Grand Traverse Regional Community Foundation’s Urgent Needs Fund, no-fee consulting for nonprofits and flexible nonprofit grant terms.
Still, nonprofits are “pandemic-fatigued,” Takano said. She said “coming out of that sense of fatigue is going to be tricky” and determining nonprofits’ needs is a priority.
Rotary plans in February to issue a nonprofit survey to identify trends and needs – its first survey since a COVID-specific one at the beginning of the pandemic.
Takano, a Venture North board member, also said she expects themes that Rotary “spent a lot of 2021 thinking and supporting around – housing and child care – are going to continue to be strong themes. There’s a lot of momentum in those sectors.”
Rotary has partnered with CDFIs like Venture North to do impact investing – lending $500,000, matched by $500,000 from Chicago-based financial holding company Northern Trust Corp. – that Venture North put to work to provide business loans. And now others are looking at targeted investing, as well.
The Manistee Industrial Development Corp.
The Manistee Industrial Development Corp., a nonprofit traditionally focused on job creation and retention, is “seriously looking at getting involved with impact investing” to make money available for social, economic and community needs, said Steve Brower, secretary/treasurer of the IDC.
Brower said the IDC board is exploring the idea and has not approved a plan or structure, but is interested in looking at a new way to target Manistee County needs and have a sizable impact, potentially working with other donors. As for specific projects that the IDC might address in 2022, that is yet to be determined, Brower said.
But he said the organization, which has an investment fund it has tapped to make mostly grants and a recent loan, wants to find “a couple good projects to support.” Brower is a retired vice president and commercial loan officer for West Shore Bank and an independent contractor with Venture North, working with businesses.
The Grand Traverse Regional Community Foundation
Impact investing is also in the sights of the Grand Traverse Regional Community Foundation, serving Antrim, Benzie, Grand Traverse, Kalkaska and Leelanau counties. President and CEO Dave Mengebier said the foundation is looking to carve out a portion of its investment portfolio and invest in local projects – like housing, child care or other areas – combining resources with CDFIs such as Venture North or others.
The region’s challenges are a work in progress for the Community Development Coalition of Northwest Michigan, a collaborative of more than 30 organizations convened by the foundation. Mengebier said the coalition’s 2021 focus included housing, early childhood education and access to child care, and behavioral health and child safety – areas that he said are likely be central again in 2022.
In tackling such issues, it will be with an eye toward diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), Mengebier said. And the foundation has that focus as well, launching a DEI fund in 2021 and making initial grants, with more to come in 2022.
As the foundation hits a milestone -- more than $100 million in assets at the end of 2021 – it is looking to bring more resources to bear for community impact. After closing out its Urgent Needs Fund that awarded more than $977,000 in grants to nonprofits and other organizations over 2020 and 2021, the foundation is continuing to build and steward resources, with one focus being its community funds. Unlike funds for a specific organization or cause, the community funds target a county or region and their grants are board-directed.
“Over 90 percent of all our assets are designated for a specific cause or organization,” Mengebier said. “We don’t have a lot of flexibility to respond to these emergent needs. Raising these community funds is one of our major strategic objectives as an organization over the next few years…increasing focus on community impact, how can we really make a difference.”
Amy Lane is a veteran Michigan business reporter whose background includes work with Crain Communications Inc., Crain’s Detroit Business and serving as Capitol correspondent for nearly 25 years. Now a freelance reporter and journalist, Lane’s work has appeared in many publications including Traverse City Business News.
