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Informed by Our Past
To serve community, it is critical that Grand Rapids Community Foundation learn from our history. The lessons of our past inform our actions as we evolve and new community needs arise.
Grand Rapids Community Foundation wasfounded in 1922, and we are proud to be Michigan'soldest community foundation! Over the last 100years, people who care about Kent County’s futurehave built the Community Foundation. Their time,financial resources and thought partnership havecreated an organization with the strength and visionto make bold change possible.
Our partners—donors, nonprofits, leaders, doers andmore—have collaborated with us to bring sustainablechange as we champion social justice and work to meetour community’s evolving needs. We have focused onissues like affordable housing, the AIDS crisis, equitableaccess to education and so much more.
Here are two examples of how growth,lessons learned and partnerships haveshaped the Community Foundation andprepared us for our second century ofservice and impact.
Sowing seeds of community voice in grantmaking
As the Community Foundation’s operational capacitygrew in its first decades, the roles of staff andvolunteer partners shifted. Early on, the CommunityFoundation’s Board of Trustees controlled much ofthe decision making. By the late 1980s, full time staffwere hired and a strategic direction was set for theorganization’s continued growth.
Ann Cooper was a trustee when the board establisheda committee to increase representation amongthe community being served through CommunityFoundation grantmaking. This original committeeis the predecessor of today's unrestricted Fund forCommunity Good, which invests in partners whoshare our commitment to becoming actively anti-racist.
Reflecting on that time, Ann highlights the opportunityshe and other board members, including Shirley(Perkins) Daniels, saw to fundamentally shift theCommunity Foundation’s approach to grantmaking.
“There was not the level of participation in theCommunity Foundation’s work and decision makingthat would enrich its contributions to the communityand result in improved outcomes. The opportunitywas huge—seeking broad and deep connections withknowledgeable community members to learn what thereal needs were. I was very proud to work with Shirleyon efforts to facilitate the involvement of previouslyless-involved community members,” Ann said.
Years later, we have more opportunities for involvementin grantmaking, especially through community-ledfunds like Black Legacy Fund, Our LGBTQ Fund andSomos Comunidad Fund. The seeds sown by Ann,Shirley and others have shaped our approach andsharpened our focus on engaging community members.
Emily Loeks
- Emily Loeks
Donor partners demonstrate generations of generosity
West Michigan’s tradition of philanthropy runs deep. As giving strategies have changed over time, the Community Foundation has collaborated with donor partners to create meaningful and impactful gifts. Donor Advised funds have allowed partners to take a personal, hands-on approach by recommending grants to the causes and organizations they care about. If desired, donor partners can include the next generation in their grantmaking plan.
In 2003, Jack and Ruth Loeks made a gift that would grow and become the Loeks Family Funds, a group of Donor Advised funds. Jack and Ruth established successful businesses in West Michigan and saw philanthropy as a way to reinvest in the community. When creating the Loeks Family Funds, Ruth identified her 10 grandchildren as successor advisors. They each can recommend grant awards to nonprofit organizations locally and in the places they live. Like many families, they established a legacy of caring through their philanthropic priorities.
“In her later years, Ruth introduced each of her grandchildren to the organizations that she found to be doing fine work here. But it wasn’t intended as a direction for our own giving—it was sharing her passions and seeing what it could energize in us,” said Emily Loeks.
“The Community Foundation has been a tremendousresource to each of us, in being able to identify areasof personal passion and interest, and to be able to drawon the expertise of the staff to make use of those fundsin strategic ways. I care deeply about literacy and artsand culture and the environment and some of the faithcommunities of which I’ve been part. The CommunityFoundation has brought to my attention organizationsthat are doing exciting work and filling in gaps that Imight not have had the lens to see," she added.
The Community Foundation donor partners' passionsand generosity build a foundation of inclusion,equity, justice and love. We are filled with gratitudefor our donor partners, who for a century have madeinvestments for a better tomorrow.
