General Purposes

About this grant

Midwest Community Foundations’ Ventures exists to build stronger communities through collaborative activities by community foundations, primarily in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. Initiatives focus on advancing innovation and growth through researching opportunities, facilitating networking and mutual learning, providing technical assistance, promoting National Standards for U.S. Community Foundations, capturing efficiencies, and serving as a pilot region for efforts with potential broader application. Recent achievements include increasing the number and quality of submissions for national standards compliance and launching IRA charitable rollover and Roth IRA conversion marketing portfolios. In 2010-2012, work will include the provision of training on financial administration, sustainability, and succession planning; the preparation of toolkits on business model innovation and match-day events; and a retreat for chief executives. The organization will also conduct preliminary research on a potential multiyear initiative to build community foundation capacity to lead economic revitalization in eight small- and medium-sized automotive communities.