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• Congratulations, Nicole! (and we're hiring!)

  

  It is with a mixture of sadness and excitement that we write to share that our Communications Manager, Nicole Paquette, has recently accepted a position at the Communities Foundation of Texas in Dallas. Nicole will be with us through our Fall Celebration Event and until mid-October.
  
  We are excited for her as this is an amazing career opportunity where she can increase her leadership responsibilities and increase her impact on the world by using her talents at a $1 billion community foundation, one of the largest in the nation. At the same time we are sorry to say goodbye to such a talented teammate.
  
  “Nicole has a great track record of improving her community in Michigan,” said Dave Scullin, president and CEO of Communities Foundation of Texas. “And we look forward to her bringing those skills to North Texas and our team at Communities Foundation of Texas."
  
  In her five years with us, Nicole has taken our events, publications and overall marketing efforts to new heights. She has also been an important part of our community, serving as President of the Holland/Zeeland Young Professionals Board of Directors for the past year and Co-Chairing the successful 2016 Herrick District Library’s millage renewal campaign. We hope you get the opportunity to thank her for all that she has done to set CFHZ up for success for many years to come!
  
  Nicole’s new opportunity leads us to look for a new teammate. You can find a Communications Associate job posting here. If you know of anyone who loves telling stories about nonprofits and donors, and has the technical skills to manage all facets of CFHZ’s communications and marketing plan, please encourage them to apply! Applications are due September 20.
  
  View the Communications Associate job description
  
  

• Best wishes Lina!

  

  It is with a mixture of sadness and excitement that we write to share that our Communications Manager, Lina Pierson, has recently relocated out of state to pursue new opportunities. Luckily for us, Lina will continue in her role remotely through the end of February and beyond that, will still be sharing her phenomenal graphic design skills with us from afar. 
  
  We are excited for her and are confident she will do amazing work and positively impact the community around her wherever her future plans take her.  At the same time we are very sorry to say farewell to such a talented and dedicated teammate.
  
  Lina’s connection with CFHZ runs deep, from her time as a Youth Advisory Committee member to her graphic design work for us before she joined our team full time in 2017. Since then, Lina has gone above and beyond to make our publications shine, share inspiring stories of our donors and nonprofit partners, and provide outstanding experiences to guests at our ever-growing events.  She has also been active in the community beyond her role at CFHZ as a Board Member and Communications Chair for Holland/Zeeland Young Professionals, a Steering Committee member and Treasurer of Women of Color Give, and a Planning Committee member for TEDxMacatawa. We are deeply grateful for all the ways Lina has made a difference at CFHZ and in the Holland/Zeeland community!
  

• We're hiring an Administrative Assistant!

  

  
  

  
  

  Do you have an eye for detail, love working with people and want to be part of an organization making a positive difference in our community? The Community Foundation is looking for a new Administrative Assistant to do just that. 

   

  Why we are hiring an Administrative Assistant: 

  This position is open due to a current team member moving into a new position. We are now looking for a new individual to step into this important position on our team. As a small office, the Administrative Assistant plays a critical role in ensuring the office runs smoothly and that every person who calls or walks through our doors has a welcoming, positive experience. The Administrative Assistant is involved in key customer service and financial processes as well as providing support for CFHZ events. As a growing organization, we need the person who serves as Administrative Assistant to support our office and staff in providing the best possible service to our community. 

  The mission of the Community Foundation of the Holland/Zeeland Area (CFHZ) has two parts; building and managing a permanent philanthropic endowment dedicated to ensuring the Holland/Zeeland area continues to thrive, and providing services to local donors to help them achieve their charitable giving goals. Both involve a significant amount of philanthropic dollars coming in and out of the organization. The Foundation has over 600 charitable funds which collectively have more than $80 million in assets, and in 2018 these funds received more than $20 million in new gifts and distributed nearly $6 million in grants back into the community. It is an exciting time at the Community Foundation, and we need someone to help keep us organized and set up for success as we see interest in our organization and the services we have to offer continue to grow. 

  All are welcomed and encouraged to apply. The Community Foundation of the Holland/Zeeland Area (CFHZ) will provide equal employment opportunity and not unlawfully discriminate on the basis of race, creed, color, national origin, sex, age, disability, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, citizenship status, religion, height, weight, veteran status, genetic information, pregnancy, or any other status protected by law. 

  
  

  View the Administrative Assistant job description 

  
  

  
  

  
  

• We're hiring a Vice President of Development and Donor Services

  Are you passionate about working with individuals, families and companies to help make a positive difference in our community and beyond? The Community Foundation is looking for a new Vice President of Development and Donor Services to do just that. Please help us spread the word about this opportunity!
  
  Why we are hiring a Vice President of Development and Donor Services:
  We are growing, and we want to keep up the momentum. At the Community Foundation of the Holland/Zeeland Area (CFHZ), we work to ensure that all members of our community can thrive today, tomorrow and forever. We achieve this mission by playing two primary roles in our community; building and managing our community’s permanent philanthropic endowment to ensure that we always have the resources necessary to respond to needs and opportunities as they arise, and providing services to donors to help them achieve their charitable giving goals. Both involve working closely with donors, and we continue to see a significant increase in the interest level for both parts of our work. 
  
  The Foundation manages over 500 charitable funds, which collectively have more than $70 million in assets. In 2017, more than $9.5 million was added to these funds, and $5.5 million was distributed in grants back into the community. It is an exciting time at the Community Foundation, and we need someone to lead our efforts to serve our existing partners, keep up with the increased demand for our services, and help accelerate our growth going forward.

  
  

  Applications are due by Monday, April 9th! 

  VIEW THE VICE PRESIDENT OF DEVELOPMENT AND DONOR SERVICES JOB DESCRIPTION
  
  

• Join us at our Fall Celebration of Philanthropy on September 12!

  

  
  

  Each year, the Community Foundation of the Holland/Zeeland Area hosts an annual fall event to celebrate members of our community whose philanthropy is creating lasting positive change in our region. This event is an important opportunity to come together to support charitable giving and build awareness of our work to build our community’s endowment and help donors achieve their charitable goals.

  This annual event brings together more than 600 community leaders and Foundation supporters for an evening of celebrating our community's generosity while enjoying grazing-style dining from a number of the area's best restaurants, bakeries, and caterers.

   

   New Event Location 

  The 2019 event will be held at M.E. Yacht Restoration, 471 Howard Ave, Holland, Michigan 49424
  
   Special thanks to the Evenhouse Family for generously donating the venue and being willing to host us!

  Event Details 

  Join the Foundation for a Celebration of Philanthropy, Ripples of Hope, at ME Yacht Restoration. Celebrate our community’s generosity while enjoying an evening of grazing featuring many of the area’s finest restaurants and live music. 

  The social hour with appetizers and cocktails will begin at 5:30pm. Dinner will be available at 6:00pm with program to follow at 7:30pm.

  We strongly encourage guests to arrive as close to 5:30pm as possible to maximize time to connect with other attendees prior to the grazing-style dinner and the program.

  VIEW THE PRINTED INVITATION AS A PDF

  
  

  Email Lina if you'd like a printed invite or additional invites mailed to you.

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  Ticket Information 

  Event tickets are $150/person. 75% of the ticket cost is tax-deductible. Thanks to a generous sponsor, we offer a half-price discount to young professionals and first-time event attendees.

  Table sponsorship pricing begins at $2,000 for a reserved table of 8 with table tent acknowledgment, and recognition on event program and website. (90% tax-deductible).

  SEE ALL SPONSORSHIP LEVELS AND BENEFITS 

  Note: The name tag at the event entrance will serve as your ticket. There are no physical event tickets.

  PURCHASE TICKETS ONLINE

  • You may also call CFHZ at 616-994-8854 and pay via credit card over the phone, or you can give your contact info and name(s) as they should appear on name tags and mail in a check.

  Please RSVP by September 4th! RSVP to rsvp@cfhz.org

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  Bridge Builder Society members are those who have made a commitment to support the future of the Holland/Zeeland area through a deferred gift to the Community Foundation. This year, members of our Bridge Builder Society are invited to enjoy cocktails and appetizers in a private tent prior to the Celebration of Philanthropy event. The VIP reception will begin at 5:00pm at ME Yacht Restoration. 
  
  If you are a member of our Bridge Builder Society and are planning to attend the reception, please RSVP to Lina at 616-994-8854 or rsvp@cfhz.org. To learn more about our Bridge Builder Society, you can contact Colleen at chill@cfhz.org. 

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  Past Fall Celebration Details 

  • View photos from the 2018 Fall Celebration 
  • View the generous sponsors of our 2018 "A Growing Promise" Fall Celebration 

   

• Community's Endowment 2017 Impact

  The Community Foundation of the Holland/Zeeland Area is pleased to announce the awarding of 17 grants totaling $494,750 from the Community’s Endowment in 2017.  

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  Arts and Culture

  Holland Film Group – People, Place and Possibilities: A Story of Immigrants and Entrepreneurs 

  • Amount Awarded: $10,000
  • Purpose: To produce a feature-length documentary telling the story of how Holland became an economically dynamic and culturally diverse community.  The film will focus on the area's defining values with the goal of sharing them with students, residents, visitors and potential business owners and employees.
  • Why this matters? Many local residents, especially students, as well as newcomers and visitors, do not understand all that Holland is and how it came to be. A high-quality, documentary film is the perfect way to preserve, explain and tell the unique story that is Holland, Michigan for decades to come. This documentary will serve as an important resource to educators and students in their local history units and will provide Holland visitors with the opportunity to view the film at the Holland Museum and other locations in the community. 

   

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  Community and Economic Development

  City of Zeeland – Elm Street Park

  • Amount Awarded: $30,000
  • Purpose: To create a downtown Zeeland park that will provide a winter location for a formal ice rink as well as a dedicated location for event programming, picnicking and gathering space throughout the warmer seasons.
  • Why this matters? The Elm Street Park will serve as a link across generations. It will be a place where kids, parents, grandparents, friends, and neighbors can gather, relax, establish healthy recreation habits, and embrace the Zeeland community. Enhancing the center of Downtown Zeeland through the establishment of this park encourages walkable and healthy community for the many neighborhoods surrounding downtown’s central business district. 

  Lakeshore Ethnic Diversity Alliance – Allies Working for Social Justice and Environmental Progress

  • Amount Awarded: $25,000
  • Purpose: To support the planning and implementation of the Allies project that brings together community members to engage in dialogue and develop action steps meant to address the growing divide amongst community members. 
  • Why this matters? The racial and ethnic demographics of our region, our state, and our country are changing—we are becoming more diverse. However, alongside changing demographics are persistent inequities. For a community to thrive, community members must feel supported to perform their various life functions and achieve maximum potential. Empowerment is core to community organizing, where those who participate feel some level of control and awareness of their situations and the power to facilitate change. The Allies group has early momentum and has successfully facilitated an environment of constructive dialogue on topics that are often filled with tension. The Allies group will provide support and advancement surrounding eight specific issues: immigration policy, racial justice, women’s issues, LGBTQ equity, religious tolerance, environmental protection, hate crimes, and school bullying. 

  Latin Americans United for Progress – Community Feedback and Reorganization Project

  • Amount Awarded: $20,000 
  • Purpose: To engage Latino community leaders, leaders of partner organizations, and most importantly, area Latino residents to determine the most urgent needs to address to ensure that Latinos thrive in our community and to utilize the information gained to shape LAUP's future work.
  • Why this matters: The Latino population in the Holland/Zeeland area is growing and the information gathered through this process will have a lasting impact on our collective understanding of the most pressing needs and promising opportunities for our local Latino community. 

   

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  Health

  City on a Hill Ministries – Health Clinic Remodel

  • Amount Awarded: $10,000 
  • Purpose: To remodel the health clinic space to increase patient confidentiality and improve safety for providers and patients.
  • Why this matters: Increasing privacy for patients receiving care and discussing medical issues is essential for confidentiality and will lead to improved communication and more open dialogue between patients and providers that will improve patient health outcomes. 

  Holland Free Health Clinic – Digital X-Ray Technology

  • Amount Awarded: $11,750
  • Purpose: To purchase digital X-ray equipment that will allow dental professionals at HFHC to better diagnose dental diseases and improve the health and lives of patients.
  • Why this matters: More than 1 in 5 adults in Ottawa County have not been to the dentist within the past year.  Those who haven’t received dental care are disproportionately less educated and more likely to be living in poverty.  Digital X-ray equipment will help HFHC continue to provide high-quality care to patients and to interact efficiently and effectively with community partners to best serve patients for the long term.

   

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  Housing

  Lakeshore Habitat for Humanity – State Street Project

  • Amount Awarded: $30,000 
  • Purpose: To provide infrastructure support for a multi-unit affordable housing development which will be a collaborative effort between Lakeshore Habitat for Humanity and Good Samaritan Ministries. The units will provide permanent supportive rental housing for residents who meet eligibility requirements. 
  • Why this matters: Lack of affordable housing is one of the most pressing issues currently facing the Holland/Zeeland community.  The State Street Project has the potential to serve as the launchpad for growing and accelerating Habitat and GSM’s joint work to create more affordable housing in our community, which is greatly needed. 

   

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  Human Services

  Bethany Christian Services –  Building Campaign

  • Amount Awarded: $40,000
  • Purpose:  Bethany Christian Services of Holland is moving to one combined location to improve the efficiency of services and foster greater collaboration of teams to benefit the children and families served. 
  • Why this matters: BCS provides foster care, adoption, counseling and other supportive services to many children and families in our community.  The new space will be designed to meet the unique needs of these children and families and will make accessing help easier by bringing all services together in one location. 

  Eighth Day Farm – A New Growth Center 

  • Amount Awarded: $25,000
  • Purpose: To renovate the building at 709 Pine Avenue (called the Growth Center) to meet code, providing much-needed space for education, an organization office, and community gatherings. A New Growth Center will broaden and strengthen the mission of Eighth Day Farm in Holland by creating a licensed facility to pack New Fast Food bags, a venue for the urban youth growers program, instruction in food preparation and preservation, workshops and an increased capacity to offer field trips to area schools.
  • Why this matters: There exists in the Holland/Zeeland area a need for access to healthy food, education on the connection between diet and health outcomes, and the training of a new generation of food producers. This renovation will allow Eighth Day Farm to significantly expand the work they have been doing for years. 

  Holland Rescue Mission – Gateway Center Vocational Training School

  • Amount Awarded: $45,000 over 3 years
  • Purpose: To develop the internal programmatic structure for a work-based therapy program for homeless men and women to increase their ability to sustain themselves through career advancement, addiction recovery, and basic life-skills training, providing local employers with a stable workforce, while mirroring the values of our community.
  • Why this matters: The Gateway Center Vocational Training School will have a lasting impact on program participants who will be better equipped to maintain employment for the long-term and to build a healthy life for themselves outside of work.  

  Pioneer Resources – Holland Site Renovation

  • Amount Awarded: $20,000 
  • Purpose: To renovate a new Holland office location to ensure safety, accessibility and functionality for expanding programs serving seniors and individuals with disabilities.
  • Why this matters: Opening a physical office location in the Holland/Zeeland area is a significant step for Pioneer Resources as demand for its services in our community, particularly related to transportation for senior citizens and assessment and programming for children with autism, continues to grow. 

  Western Theological Seminary – Community Kitchen Renovation

  • Amount Awarded: $30,000 
  • Purpose: To update the Community Kitchen space which serves an average of more than 200 meals per day and over 75,000 meals each year to residents in need. The renovations will equip the Community Kitchen to continue providing meals in a safe and welcoming environment.
  • Why this matters: Having a place in the community where residents in need of food can receive a meal with no questions asked has a significant impact in addressing their immediate hunger as well as providing a gateway for Community Action House to connect them with other supportive services.  

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  Seniors

  Community SPOKE – Age-Friendly Holland/Zeeland Transportation Study and Plan

  • Amount Awarded: $25,000 
  • Purpose: To conduct a comprehensive study to identify the barriers that seniors in the Holland/Zeeland Area experience related to transportation and to facilitate a community-wide planning effort to identify goals and strategies to address the challenges presented by the study.
  • Why this matters: Transportation is one of the biggest barriers that seniors and many other residents face in fully participating in and contributing to our community.  Transportation is often the missing link between the opportunities, services, and supports available in our community and the people who need them.  Understanding the true nature of local residents’ transportation needs will have a lasting impact on our ability to effectively address this challenge as a community.  

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  Youth

  Boys and Girls Club of Greater Holland – Holland Heights Extension

  • Amount Awarded: $75,000 over 3 years 
  • Purpose: To offer a new program site in Holland Heights to enable all young people, especially those who need support most, to reach their full potential as productive, caring, responsible citizens.
  • Why this matters: Through a two-year planning process, the BGC staff and board identified Holland Heights as the area with the greatest need for BGC’s services and the essential elements that are likely to lead to a successful program.  The new Holland Heights site will have a lasting impact on the children and families who are able to access consistent, daily afterschool programming that provides a safe space with caring adults and nurturing activities for students. 

  Children’s Advocacy Center –  SMART Therapy

  • Amount Awarded: $75,000 over 3 years 
  • Purpose: To bring this innovative, evidence-based approach to therapy to children and youth who have been victims of sexual abuse in our community. SMART (Sensory Motor Arousal Regulation Treatment) therapy will add a new array of strategies to the standard mental health therapy repertoire that CAC provides.  In a space specifically designed for this program, children can playfully use big pillows, weighted blankets, balance beams, art materials, and other equipment that call for full engagement of the whole body and mind.  
  • Why this matters: Emotional, behavioral, and interpersonal life is exceedingly difficult for children who have experienced complex trauma.  Everyday situations at home and school can be very challenging for them to navigate.  Without effective support, these challenges can persist and negatively impact victims throughout the rest of their childhood and as adults.  SMART therapy can help these children heal and learn to cope with the effects of the trauma they’ve experienced so that they have the best possible chance for a happy, healthy future. 

  Great Start Collaborative – Help Me Grow-Ottawa

  • Amount Awarded: $10,000
  • Purpose: Help Me Grow-Ottawa helps support families with children prenatal through age five to navigate the early childhood system in the Ottawa County area. The program helps to ensure families have up to date information on childcare, preschool, and kindergarten; supports families in completing developmental screenings; answers questions related to pregnancy and links families to local playgroups and other community resources. Specifically, grant funds will help launch a large-scale marketing campaign and to create and implement the program's evaluation tool.
  • Why this matters: The Great Start Collaborative—Ottawa releases a family survey annually. Over the past several years, a recurring data point is that families are unsure of where to go within the community to get information. Help Me Grow-Ottawa is an existing website resource where all of this information is brought together. With a marketing campaign focused on becoming more widely known and used, Help Me Grow-Ottawa can become a vital tool for families in the community. 

  Hand2Hand – Lakeshore Initiative

  • Amount Awarded: $13,000
  • Purpose: To ensure that along the Lakeshore, every child who is at risk of food insecurity, early childhood through high school, has a weekend food resource so they have the opportunity to succeed academically, emotionally, and physically.
  • Why this matters: Over 5,000 students in the Holland/Zeeland area struggle with hunger at home.  Through the Lakeshore Initiative, Hand2Hand will begin providing an additional 1,500 students with weekend meal backpacks in addition to the 1,400 children already being served.  Having access to reliable food on the weekends removes a major barrier to health and learning for these children.