Community foundations make critical connections

From Nov. 12-18, the Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation will join more than 700 community foundations across America in celebrating Community Foundation Week. For the past 26 years, the effort has raised awareness about the increasingly important role of these philanthropic organizations in fostering local collaboration and innovation to address social and economic challenges.

Community Foundation Week, created in 1989 by former President George H.W. Bush, recognizes the work of community foundations and their collaborative approach to working with the public, private, and non-profit sectors to address community problems and opportunities. As the board chairman of the Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation, I know firsthand the important impact our Community Foundation has throughout Linn County.

Our mission is to help donors give in meaningful ways, to strengthen non-profits, and to provide leadership on community issues that involve charitable giving. We bring people together to improve the quality of life of our neighbors. Last year alone, we awarded $7.3 million in grants to nearly 370 non-profits and public organizations.

Philanthropy helps to fuel the efforts of non-profit organizations that work together to meet our community's unique challenges and opportunities. The Community Foundation serves as a convener - connecting donors to the good work of non-profit organizations. The Community Foundation is proud to to support non-profits through grantmaking and to work collaboratively with them on community leadership initiatives. We could not do the work we do without a strong non-profit sector, and we are consistently impressed by their successes and efforts in our community.

Linn County is fortunate to be home to so many charitable organizations. There are thousands of stories of impact within the non-profit sector, and our community benefits greatly from their work. The impact of non-profits spans from meal programs to health care access, from economic development to cleaner environments, from affordable housing to transportation, and from civic engagement to arts and culture. Virtually every aspect of our lives is touched in some way by these organizations that do good work in our community.

For this reason, we celebrate these organizations this time every year during Community Foundation Week at our Celebration of Community event. We honor the work that takes place every day in the non-profit community and share some of those stories. This year, our event will take place on Nov. 17 at Theatre Cedar Rapids, and I invite everyone to share in our celebration.

Community Foundation Week is the perfect time to acknowledge the generous spirit of our neighbors, and to celebrate the important successes of the area nonprofits that work to make our communities a more vibrant place to live.

' Chris Skogman is board chairman of the Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation. Comments: (319) 366-6427