Last week I had the distinct pleasure of serving as faculty for 39 people who are relatively new to the community foundation field. I’ve been teaching the 3-day Community Foundation Fundamentals for the Council on Foundations for about six years now and this class was particularly special as it included colleagues from Ohio and our neighboring States of Michigan, Indiana, Illinois. The Midwest Community Foundation Ventures (I serve as Vice-Chair of the Board for this collaboration), sponsored the training and the Cleveland Foundation graciously provided free meeting space.
I teach the course for a number of reasons. This fast paced, interactive class gives me energy and charges my motivational batteries. It is next to impossible to spend that amount of time with enthusiastic minds and not become inspired. And I invariably learn something new in the process.
I also believe that we in the field have a responsibility to raise the bar for our own organizations and the community foundation field in general. Sharing of best practices, promoting National Standards for US Community Foundations and assisting with professional development through courses like Fundamentals does make a difference.
But perhaps the main reason I teach is to help continue a long and honored culture of sharing and collaboration that is inherent between community foundations. The history of field is a story of this grand idea (called a Community Foundation) passed from Cleveland in 1914 throughout the United States, Canada and then the rest of the world. The Community Foundation of Lorain County has experienced such remarkable growth because of the ideas, policies, programs and efficiencies we’ve borrowed from colleagues. It would be difficult to go anywhere in the world and find a Community Foundation that has grown in a vacuum. But like many native american cultures – if the stories aren’t told and future generations aren’t taught the language, it risks fading away.
I wasn’t disappointed in Cleveland last week. Thirty-nine people came into the course wanting to learn more about their jobs and hopefully left with a little better understanding the 100-year evolution of a remarkable community building tool. And more importantly, by understanding our past and present and culture, they now will begin to refine this model to better serve the needs and dreams of our communities in the future.
