Hi, I'm Jeff Rea, your host for Economic Outlook.

And I want to welcome you to our show.

Thanks for joining us.

Each week as we discuss the people and the companies and the projects that are driving the region's economic growth.

Community foundations have a powerful impact on the communities they serve, thanks to the generosity of their donors, their efforts help improve communities and drive economic growth.

We're sitting down with the leaders from the Elkhart and St. Joseph County Community Foundations to find out more about their good work.

Coming up on economic outlook.

In St. Joseph County they're connecting people who care with causes that matter in Elkhart County.

They're focused on improving the quality of life by inspiring generosity.

In both cases, they're making the communities they serve better.

And we thought their stories were worth sharing.

We're taking a closer look at the work of the Community Foundation's of Elkhart and Saint Joseph Counties.

Please join me in welcoming Rose Meissner, the president of the Community Foundation of Saint Joseph County, and Candy Yoder, the chief program officer of the Community Foundation of Elkhart County.

Ladies, thank you for joining me today.

You guys are doing some really important work.

We only have a half hour or so to talk about it.

We appreciate you coming to talk a little bit about it.

Rose, let me start with you So so if somebody is not familiar with the community foundation of Saint Joseph County, what would you tell them?

Well, as you referenced, our organizing principle is connecting people who care with causes that matter.

So we try to take people who care about the community and express that through their generosity and connect it with things that make the community better, that bring about change and optimism and hope and momentum.

So in our case, our primary focus is when people give us a gift, we invest it and we use the earnings to support all manner of good purposes in our community.

And Candy to come your way sort of similar about Tell us about the Elkhart County Community Foundation.

Well, well, we're built the same way as as all community foundations in terms of folks who generally generously leave their wealth with our organization, we invest it and then use those earnings to make a difference in the community.

In some cases, the donors themselves are making those choices of where the dollars go.

In other cases, we, through a committee structure, are making grants into the community, and that's all about improving the quality of life by inspiring generosity within our community.

Great Rose come your way.

So give us some historical perspective.

Talk about just where the ideas of community foundations came from, how long they've been around, just to help help us understand the history.

Yeah.

Jeff, I think the first one was started in Cleveland around 1916, and actually it was started by a trust officer because people were setting up permanent funds for purposes that might change over time.

I think there was a fund for repairing Conestoga wagons or something to that effect.

So the idea of a community foundation is someone can set up a fund that's supposed to last forever.

But if for some reason that purpose can no longer be served or is no longer needed, the Community foundation can find another purpose as close to the donor's intention as possible.

So that's been a really powerful model.

It used to be that that kind of concept was for the Rockefellers, but with community foundations, people can start permanent funds for as little as $10,000 and create legacies that last forever very efficiently and effectively.

Candy to come your way because I think of the just the the needs of the community.

Sometimes they are there's a long list of them sometimes.

And you in your role and rose also you're working to kind of fill community needs and understand talk about how you sort through decide figure out what are the key things that you think you're going to focus on.

That's a really good question.

And actually, we have asked the community that we're on a second listening tour process right now.

We did one about ten years ago where we asked the community, what do you believe are important assets that we ought to consider?

What are issues that we should address and where should we put the community's dollars?

We really see the community foundations funds as the communities.

And so we want to know where where the community wants dollars to go.

The other thing we do is as we're working with nonprofit organizations who are receiving grants, we look to see what their donors are supporting because that again signals that this is important to the community.

And so by looking at things, the community is already supporting its signals.

This is important and it's something that we want to invest in as well.

Great Rose before we get into maybe some projects is just generally kind of the state of philanthropy.

I mean, you guys have both played in this philanthropic space for for a long time.

I don't know if it's better or worse.

If there are so many needs, it feels like, you know, so many worthy, worthwhile causes in the community for people to contribute to.

But but just talk about generally the environment, the state of it right now.

Yeah, I always feel really inspired by the consistent level of generosity that people show.

And I think generosity, not just the big gifts, but the smaller gifts.

I really believe that everything matters and that to be a healthy, thriving community, people need to understand that caring about each other is an essential part of the equation.

So tax incentives have changed a little bit and on both ends, and that people can't deduct gifts the way most people can't.

And you have to be quite rich now to have any estate planning and estate tax issues.

But what's interesting is that the giving continues.

Without those incentives, I wouldn't mind if some of those come back, but I also am delighted by how much people continued to understand giving as part of what it means to be a good citizen.

Right?

I agree with that.

My own experience, both as a nonprofit leader and now at the Community Foundation, is that folks are so generous, and especially even when times are tough.

So many folks say, I have set money aside for when times are tough.

I'm going to continue my giving.

I'm not going to stop.

I'm going to be generous in this moment of need.

We saw that during the pandemic with folks giving very generously to the needs of the community.

And even during economic downturns, people continue to be generous because they care about the community, they care about their neighbors.

And I also want to say that it's generosity of money that's important, but also it's generosity of time and of talents.

So many folks are volunteering their time on boards of directors for nonprofit organizations and also lending their skills where needed in the community.

And those gifts are very valuable also to improve a community.

Great.

And maybe I'll throw out a bit to both of you a little bit.

So when I think of that generosity, there are a lot of wonderful organizations and great nonprofits in the area.

You both, it seems like, play a little bit of a convening or connecting role with some folks.

My my guess is when you start talking early childhood, there's a lot of people playing in that space.

Talk about just sort of the relationships with the nonprofits and some of the things that you do to really sort of cultivate that work so that we're not resource rich and outcome poor, that we're, you know, driven to some outcome.

So we'll go here.

This is actually a very important role of our program.

Officers play making connections between nonprofits and also businesses who care about those issues is something that our program officers become very skilled at in and help nonprofit leaders think about the whole of their work.

You know, many times nonprofits are started by people who care deeply about a cause, and they may not be thinking about the business side of things or what it takes to build a strong organization.

And that's where a community foundation can offer support and coaching and even workshops.

We have a series of calendar events that we call the Learning Center that includes workshops and trainings, and we provide some coaching because running a nonprofit is running a business.

And to the extent we can strengthen the infrastructure of those businesses, the stronger they'll be.

And in addition to your point of bringing together folks who do similar work, you can you can realize efficiencies and move movements forward by bringing folks together.

It's something we do a lot of You know, Jeff, I'm thinking we just the Community Foundation just awarded our Leighton Award for nonprofit excellence.

We were really pleased to bestow it on the Boys and Girls Club for some incredible vision and work they're doing to help kids recover from the pandemic.

And when we started that program 20 some years ago, someone kidded me, Well, what are you going to do after that?

After the first two or three recipients, as if we were going to run out of excellent nonprofits.

I cannot believe the strength of our nonprofit community.

I could start naming the names of organizations.

I was with Aaron Nichols and one Constantino yesterday from South Bend Civic and La Casa.

There's no point to the Community Foundation without the front line work that our local charities and arts organizations are doing, And it's just an honor to carry their flag talking to donors and telling them that your money can make a difference.

Great.

We encourage our viewers to watch our last episode, which had some great nonprofit leaders, including Boys and Girls Club and La Casa on there.

So we're going to take a quick break here in the studio.

We're going to go out to the field.

We sent George Lepeniotis my co-host out to dive deeper into the topic.

George healthy, toss it to you.

Thanks, Jeff.

I'm back down in Marshall County.

This time I'm in downtown Plymouth.

And I'm joined by Linda Yoder, executive director of the Community Foundation for Marshall County.

Linda, thank you for being with us.

Thank you for coming down to see us.

Linda, I've been looking through your brochure because I must admit I was not that familiar with what a community foundation does.

So before we get into kind of some of the splashy cool projects that you guys actually have helped create and and get over the finish line, Tell me your view of what is a community foundation.

Yes, well, the real strong suit for a community foundation is endowment funding.

So if we support philanthropy in the community, primarily through endowment funding, and we've been doing that since 1990, 1991 in Marshall County.

Now this particular foundation is also tied to a United Way branch.

That's why.

Is that the right way to say that?

well, that's right.

We have a local United Way and we really share office and staff with the United Way, separate organizations, but shared office and staff.

Got it.

And that makes you more efficient and what you can do with the dollars that you bring into the community.

It really does.

It gives us an opportunity to leverage those resources whenever we can.

And we're working with a lot of the same donors.

We just have a conversation about what it is they want to accomplish and then we help them find the path to do that.

We were talking before we went on air and I really did want to bring it back up as we sit here and talk for our viewers about Marshall County and its unique place in our viewing region.

Right.

Many of our counties have different things that they bring into their county and different types of economic drivers.

Marshall County, while it does have some very unique places, really is a classic Midwestern county that struggles with some of the things that many of the sister counties do.

That's absolutely right.

I mean, we really do focus on building around our great hometowns where we have Bremen and Argos and Plymouth and Bourbon and Culver are unique in their own way.

But to your point, very much part of our rural fiber, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

And so what are those challenges that your communities here in the county are facing right now that you guys are looking to help them overcome?

Right.

Absolutely.

We've been a partner with our Marshall County Economic Development Corporation for a long time.

They've been hosting county development for the future meetings since 2014 on a quarterly basis.

And every time we get together, we talk about the challenges that are common in each one of our cities and towns and the opportunities that might be there to address those challenges.

And I have to tell you, affordable housing, affordable childcare, those have been issues that have been with us for a long time, but more noticeable now than they have than ever before.

As I told you, our show is economic outlook.

And so we talk about the region's economy and what is happening there, both good and bad.

But mainly we focus on what's good when we talk about affordable housing, affordable child care.

We're not just saying that that's a philanthropic mission.

There is, in fact, an economic purpose to these things.

absolutely.

You know, one of our latest opportunities is a grant from the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration.

This came through United Way.

But again, we're partnering with the Community Foundation.

And and this is to help with that tough business model.

Right?

We've got child care providers that have been doing this for a long time.

But to pay a living wage to their employees, keep it affordable for families, is tough.

And then you add in the big necessity of our employers to have employees that have that kind of stability, they want to be able to leave their kids in a place that feels safe and comfortable to them while they do their business.

So we know it's impacting employers in a big way right now.

We hear it all the time.

Yeah, and we do, too.

I mean, I think in the broader fabric of our economy, most absences, most instability arises from family situations.

Absolutely.

So what you're able to do is you're able to leverage these funds that you go out and raise to help businesses overcome some of these challenges.

Yeah.

So this is a unique opportunity for us.

We're piloting a tri share model.

We're just getting ready to launch it hopefully in April.

But what it does is it brings that funding to our local community.

The childcare.

Childcare is supported one third by the business, one third by the employee, one third by this grant.

So it's not a new program new to us, but it is statewide in Michigan and we're really leaning on our neighbors to the north to learn more about what they're doing.

And also there's a couple of counties in Indiana that are trying it as well.

So we're learning from each other.

But already we've had good response from employers and their employees about what this could mean to them.

That's awesome.

And it's not just limited to these issues.

I mean, the foundation is I'm I'm looking through your literature here.

It's like a hit list of of Marshall County highlights.

Like we got the REES Theater that I know you help support your organization, help raise funds for that, too, was a project we were told by the the leaders over at the REES project that it was young students that came up with the idea when they were asked, what would it take for you to stay here.

I we talked about the Aquatic Center and its new place in the community.

What are what's next on the horizon?

What are you guys working on now?

And I'm I think I know where you're going to go with this, but, you know, what's the next kind of big hill that you're hoping to tackle?

Yeah, the big hill is housing.

There are opportunities for us right now through the community foundations, and we're doing this in partnership with Elkhart and Saint Joseph County is we're going to be doing a regional housing study.

We know there's opportunity to bring funding into the area, but we want to know where our housing gaps are, where our biggest opportunities are, what does our future look like?

You know what?

How are we going to develop that plan together as a region to attract talent and retain talent to this area?

And as the price of housing and and constructing new housing has gone up, you are essentially able to come in and maybe lop off the top portion of that to help ease the burden.

Yeah, that would be the idea of it.

Absolutely.

So we know we know this isn't just an problem for our region.

We know it's a national problem, too.

But we've got a lot of really great creative people.

And a lot of times one of our roles in the community is to help convene people around those issues that are too big for any one of us to handle on our own.

So again, wonderful work with a regional partnership.

We're so excited to be a part of this initiative.

Well, thank you for being with us.

Thank you for talking about what you do and good luck with your next steps.

I know you'll be successful.

Jeff, back to you in the studio where you're going to talk more about how charitable giving helps our economy by doing things that maybe businesses or individuals just can't do on their own.

George, thank you.

Appreciate the inside look there, Candy, come back your way and maybe spend the rest of our time talking about specific projects.

We've kind of laid the groundwork for sort of high level, but you've got some priorities now as you've listened to the community and understood the community that you're working on.

Give us an example of one of the programs really important to you.

We have a project of connecting a network of trails for bikes and pedestrians in Elkhart County.

That's very exciting.

We've just completed the Pumpkin Vine Nature trail and 30 years in process in planning and work, the final half mile has been completed and no longer do you have to travel on county roads.

So that's very exciting.

But that's just the start.

We now want to add an additional 60 miles so that we can ride across the county from Lagrange County through Elkhart County into Saint Joe County and connect to those trails for our citizens across the region.

It's very exciting.

We have a master plan and so now we're identifying where are the best opportunities for us to take advantage of federal and state grants, because these miles are very expensive to build.

But together with our own matching money and state and federal dollars, we know we can get this done.

It's very exciting work, I'll need to see these concepts that somebody dreamed up 30 plus years ago, keep chipping away at it and need support of folks like you to help move it.

So thanks for sharing.

Rose.

How about you?

Some maybe some priority projects.

Give us a project that's been approved of the Community foundation that you want people to know more about.

Yeah, well, in recent the last couple of years, we've really been focusing intensively on getting more Saint Joseph County students enrolled in the 21st Century Scholars Program.

That's an opportunity to go to college for free.

And we just weren't doing a good enough job getting students involved and supporting their path into college and to career.

And we are it's such a front line endeavor for our program team and the young students from our community that are going to college are all invested in reaching out to each other.

We use we recruit the students from our community that are going to IUSB and Holy Cross and Bethel and Saint Mary's to do outreach to high schools and middle schools so that it's not some old person saying you should really go to college.

It's one person saying, My story is the same as your story.

And I never dreamed of going to college until this opportunity and I can do it.

You came to and literally hundreds and soon to be thousands of additional students will get a post-second degree as a result of this.

It's very exciting.

Outstanding.

And again, another example of something that doesn't happen without the community leadership that you and your team have provided for that and the long term benefit to our community will be terrific.

Let's let's keep on the example.

And, you know, I think as Rose is mentioned here, I'm thinking a lot about, you know, kind of education work force the path to get people on the right track.

I know you were doing a lot in the education space, early childhood.

Talk some more about just some of the other programing things that you're doing.

Yeah, we've had an early childhood initiative that we've just launched.

We're calling it Building Strong Brains because it really is about building those infant and toddler brains to be strong and resilient.

We had the benefit of a through Horizon Education Alliance's work in Elkhart County.

We developed a kindergarten readiness assessment tool that was used across all public kindergarten classrooms.

And the outcomes of that are showing us that we're not doing a good job helping parents raise their children strong.

So we have a group, a collection of organizations who are coming together saying, We're in this for the long haul.

Let's identify the strategies that will help this school find better solutions and interventions for families and young children to get them ready for kindergarten.

So we want to see, instead of 40% of our children ready across all six domains, we want to see 60% and then 80%.

We need to be better Preparing our children for success in school.

Rose lets come your way too.

And I think of this, whether it's the library or the arts, a lot of different things.

But what else would you highlight from the Community foundation in terms of some of the things you've been?

Yeah, in recent years.

I mean, it was our great pleasure to collaborate with the Saint Joseph County Public Library, and we knew they had plans to sort of refresh the main building.

And just through a conversation, a long time vision that originated with Dan Napoli and then carried out by Deb Feuta, we encourage them to think a little better and we love when our located in the downtown Central Public library.

We love being in the library.

It's a little microcosm of our whole community, beautiful places and I think we were able we it wasn't just community foundation money at all.

We had some major donors come together and make something happen that the library would never have dreamed of left to its own resources.

Candy let me come back your way.

So the the show is economic outlook.

We're really focused on jobs and economy.

And you know so many time talk about, you know, projects and stuff like that.

But the work you're both doing is so critical to growing the economy.

Help connect the dots for folks who maybe don't understand this important role that you play and in helping drive economic growth here.

You know, people today look for where they want to live before they look for the job they want to work in.

And a lot of jobs are portable now.

So we need to be really thinking about the communities we're building, how vibrant, how exciting, what are the amenities, amenities, how do people feel connected to their communities?

Those are the things that are going to drive economic success in any community.

And I think the projects that we've both described help our communities become those places, a vibrancy in places our children want to return to after college, places our families from outside want to live in because it's such an exciting and vibrant place to live.

So it used to be that we thought only about the skills we need to think about both.

We need to be investing in the vibrancy of our communities while we also invest in the skills side.

And it's been proven through research and through many communities that this is the answer to economic growth, right?

Yeah.

Jeff, you'll like this concept, but we used to think of scholarship as just helping to pay tuition bills.

We think completely differently now.

We know that every one of those students that's developing their own potential is connected to this community.

They have family here.

Even if they go away, they're more likely to come back.

So those are the young people that will depend on the help our community continue to thrive.

And where in relationship with them.

Now, we're not just paying their tuition bill, we're connecting them and helping them build friendships and networks.

That reminds me of coming back to the meaning of philanthropy.

It's the love of humankind, and that's what philanthropy is.

It's giving of our own time, talents, treasure, because we care about people.

We care about our community.

And community.

Foundations, as Rose said, are nothing without the community investing in and the nonprofits doing the work.

So it's all about we're in this together.

Yeah.

So Rose in our last 2 minutes.

So advice to folks who are watching their you take their interest maybe with a project we're talking about they want to be more active.

They're something they're passionate about.

What advice would you give to someone?

Well, call us.

Visit our website to learn more about us.

But our what we support is as broad as the interests of our donors.

So sometimes we're helping them identify good causes, but sometimes they're passionate about something and we can connect them with good charities.

Or they already love a charity and want to figure out how to help them.

I love the concept of paying it forward where people are taking all the blessings that they received and giving it to the future just to keep that ripple effect going.

And that's who we work with.

That's why I love my job.

I'm sure that's why you love your job.

Yeah.

And you know, it's interesting because I think we talked about it earlier, like, I haven't made my millions yet, so you're not talking about me.

But that's not true, right?

You sort of need everybody, whether they're supporting on a smaller level.

So in our last 30 seconds or so, talk about advice for those folks.

Yeah, every dollar matters and every minute matters.

So as I said earlier, it's about money.

Yes.

And it's about your time and your and your your talents.

So find a nonprofit, found a cause, reach out to us, either community foundation and inquire how you can get involved.

We're connected with lots in the community.

We can help connect every person.

That's and we'll thank you both for the good work that you're doing.

The communities made a real impact here, and we appreciate the chance to talk more about it today.

That's it for our show today.

On behalf of the entire team here at PBS Michiana, Thank you for watching or listening to our podcast to watch this episode again or any of our past episodes.

You can find Economic Outlook at wnit.org or find our podcast on most major podcast platforms.

Let's encourage you like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.

I'm Jeff Rea.

I'll see you next week This WNIT local production has been made possible in part by viewers like you.

Thank you.