We don’t have a crystal ball at the Community Foundation, but we can certainly anticipate some of the themes that might well consume our time, talents, energy and probably some of our dollars in the coming year. If I had to guess, here is my short list of things I think we’ll be recapping next December.
Business as usual in an unusual world. The impact of the most recent economic downturn will continue to increase needs and diminish resources to address those needs for some time. We’ll continue to maintain consistency of our core business (promoting community philanthropy and strategic grantmaking) while we keep our eyes open for opportunities and challenges.
Putting some real effort behind collaboration. We’re just now beginning to see earnest interest in meaningful collaboration in our public sector. I believe we will see more in the coming months and years, particularly if we can orchestrate some early successes. Collaboration may be costly to plan and implement but is can save tremendous tax dollars if done well. If we’re to build initiatives worthy of public support and then help build public sanction for “doing things different”, community guidance, engagement and monitoring is critical. Foundations will have to be part of the process.
I’m hopeful our work with the public sector will be matched by opportunities in the nonprofit sector as well, specifically in education, healthcare and the capacity and leadership of our nonprofit organizations.
Reinventing community leadership. We aren’t in Kansas anymore. For years we’ve mouthed the words and said things are changing, but our community, region and nation are deep into that change. Many of our old rules have been replaced by new rules and in some cases rules haven’t even been defined. Our exploration of our role in community leadership couldn’t have been better timed, as I believe we are in a community leadership crisis or opportunity and the community foundation is in a pivotal position to help our community and region help decide how we will make decisions and solve problems.
