We all serve a common purpose, to better the community in which we live. We strive toward this goal in different ways but it is our love for where we live which connects us all in this pursuit.
Bill Roby
As we go about our daily lives and our weekly routines it is easy to forget that there are so many within our community whose routine includes wondering where they will sleep that night or where their next meal will come from; those who live in fear of abuse at the hands of family members; or those who struggle everyday to overcome challenges they were born with. When we choose to lean in as a community we can help these people to feel safe, to feel human, and to feel seen. Ours is a generous community willing to give in so many different ways, and when we look at the impact evident from your combined philanthropic efforts, we can see the seeds of hope being planted for the future.
What makes our community special is that we have so many who are willing to lean in through participation, collaboration, and donation even in the face of issues that seem at times unsolvable. Without that dedication from all of you, those issues would truly be unsolvable. You add a value that can t be quantified and it is that value which provides hope to those who need it most.
Starting in 2018, the El Dorado Hills Giving Circle joined Women s Fund El Dorado and Tahoe Women s Community Fund as the third Collective Giving fund managed by the El Dorado Community Foundation.
Collective Giving is a powerful way for a group of individuals to make a large impact with relatively small individual donations.
In 2018, the Myers Trust began its annual grants to the South Lake Tahoe branch of the El Dorado County Library allowing the Library to be open on Mondays.
The Library now has staff to support being open six days a week. The gift of the Myers Trust is a perfect example of what a focused endowment can do for a community. Jean & Steve Myers will forever have our thanks.
Late in 2018, the Camp Fire ravaged the town of Paradise and surrounding areas becoming one of the most devastating fires in California s history.
True to their generous nature, El Dorado County residents, in conjunction with the El Dorado Community Foundation, and the Placerville Rotary raised over $200,000 to help the most vulnerable of those affected by the fire.
Early April of 2018 saw the Foundation stepping into ’s annual role as mentor to local nonprofits seeking to improve their organizations through the El Dorado Community Foundation s Nonprofit Workshop series called Elevation.
At our 2018 Elevation Workshop we helped provide insight into properly preparing financials and how to put together successful grant applications. This staff led workshop was followed by a presentation by Impact Foundry’s Kim Tucker on the Five Elements of a Healthy Business Model and how they pertain to helping up and-coming nonprofits make the leap to success.
Looking ahead to 2019, Elevation will be covering information about how the Foundation operates as well as a view of the future of giving. The aim will be to help nonprofits in attendance prepare for changes in the landscape of philanthropy.
Every year the El Dorado Community Foundation puts on a free event, the Professional Advisors Forum, to provide continuing education for financial advisors, estate attorneys, and CPAs through presentations.
In 2018 the event included a presentation on changes to tax laws and estate planning under the Tax Cuts & Jobs Act and a presentation on technology and multigenerational changes, the depth and rate of those changes as well as helping to understand what is driving those changes and how best to cope with them from the perspective of client advising.
In 2019 we will again be inviting professional advisors from around the region to attend this educational event. Changes under the Tax Cuts & Jobs act will again be one of the topics covered as there is now a year of knowledge to draw from in how best to advise clients under the new tax laws.
Throughout 2018 we engaged in a series of community conversations surrounding the topic of elevating the Lake Tahoe area and the impact that can be made with just one degree of change.
Speakers for the series included Wendy David, Darcie Goodman Collins, Heidi Hill Drum, Chris McNamara, Devin Middlebrook, Jamie Orr, David Orr, and Bill Roby. The topics ranged from simple to complex touching on tourism, the local economy, housing, entrepreneurship, environmental concerns, as well as turning the Tahoe Basin into the outdoor capital of the world.
In 2019, the series will wrap up with a reconvening of the speakers in order to bring closure to One Degree of Change. Looking into the future beyond the wrap up, many of the mechanisms of change explored during the series will be put to the test in an effort to bring about a stronger and more resilient Tahoe Basin.
In 2018 our total grant making increased nearly 10% above that of 2017 for a total of $1,967,325 granted. What truly makes this number amazing is that it is over five times as much as was granted by the Foundation ten years prior and about two and a half times higher than what was granted only five years ago. This kind of growth has massively increased the impact we as a Foundation have been able to generate in our community. However, that impact wouldn t be possible without the support of our donors. They are the true heroes of this story and we could not be where we are without them.
In 2019 we hope to not only break the two million dollar granting threshold, we hope to shatter it. With your continued support we will certainly see that hope become reality.
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