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Topics covered in this webinar included:
CFHZ was founded in 1951 because our founders believed there would always be challenges and opportunities in our community, and that it would be wise, and important, to build a permanent flexible endowment to ensure we had the resources to respond. It is thanks to our founders, and the trust of thousands of individuals, families and companies who have partnered with CFHZ and contributed to our Community’s Endowment over the past 70 years, that CFHZ had the infrastructure, leadership, resources, and relationships to respond swiftly and meaningfully to the challenges of 2020.
In our community update, we discussed what we are hearing from our nonprofit partners in the community, how local philanthropy found its niche to complement state and federal resources, and how funders, nonprofit and government agencies collaborated to develop strategy to achieve the greatest impact.
Human Services
Seniors
Please click here to watch our investment update!
The Community Foundation of the Holland/Zeeland Area is the steward of more than $80 million in philanthropic assets. We are host to more than 650 philanthropic funds including our Community’s Endowment and donor service funds. During this time of financial uncertainty and deep crises, the stewardship of our community’s philanthropic capital entrusted to us is paramount. In a recent webinar, Jim Wiersma, chair of the CFHZ Investment Committee discussed CFHZ’s investment policy and governance process. CFHZ’s investment consultant, NEPC, provided a brief market update and detailed profile and performance update of our main investment portfolio which houses our Community’s Endowment assets and the majority of our donor service funds.
Our thanks to the following contributors:
James Wiersma President Family Investment and Resource Management LLC CFHZ Trustee and Chair of Investment Committee Catherine Konicki, CFA, CAIA Partner NEPC Michael Valchine, CAIA, CIPM Principal, Senior Consultant NEPC
The Community Foundation of the Holland/Zeeland Area is pleased to announce the awarding of 17 grants totaling $568,604 from the Community’s Endowment in 2019.
Outdoor Discovery Center - ecoSystem Education Network
Macatawa Area Coordinating Council - Creating a Green Infrastructure Vision for the Macatawa Watershed
Ladder Homes - Housing Capacity Expansion
Goodwill Industries of West Michigan - Holland/Zeeland Career Training Center
Beacon of Hope - Building Campaign
The Community Foundation of the Holland/Zeeland Area’s (CFHZ’s) Line of Credit (LOC) Guarantee Program allows nonprofit organizations that are tax exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, are serving a charitable purpose in the greater Holland/Zeeland area, and had a 2019 operating budget in excess of $500,000 to apply to have a CFHZ guaranteed line of credit established through West Michigan Community Bank.
CFHZ’s Line of Credit Guarantee Program has a total cap of $2 million, so we anticipate being able to partner with 10-15 nonprofits through this program. Please note – as with CFHZ’s competitive grantmaking program, religious organizations that advocate specific religious doctrines through their programs, or do not serve the broader community, are not eligible.
Those nonprofit organizations accepted into this program by CFHZ will then be connected to West Michigan Community Bank (WMCB) to establish their line of credit account. Since CFHZ is guaranteeing this line of credit, the nonprofit will not have to put forward any collateral, nor will the nonprofit go through a traditional underwriting process.
In addition to guaranteeing the LOC, CFHZ will provide reimbursement to the nonprofit for all interest that the nonprofit has paid on the LOC during the first 2 years, up to 4% per year. During the third year that the LOC is open (third year is open for repayment only), CFHZ will not be reimbursing interest costs paid by the nonprofit. Here are some additional details on how the interest reimbursement will work:
CFHZ has been listening to our partners as they describe the significant cash flow challenges being experienced so suddenly due to loss of revenue and increased demand for services during this pandemic crisis. We have heard that significant decisions need to be made quickly, and without a lot of clarity as to what the next 3-12 months are going to look like.
In response, we are launching this new program as a way to further leverage our Community’s Endowment assets to support some of our mid-to-large nonprofit partners and preserve critical community capacity in this time of extraordinary need.
Here is what we hope the program will accomplish:
We understand that this is likely not going to prevent nonprofits from having to make tough choices down the road, as this isn’t grant money, but it will hopefully provide nonprofits the gift of time to make those choices and the option of choosing to spread the difficult decisions out over a multi-year period.
We also acknowledge that by only allowing nonprofit organizations with budgets over $500,000 to apply for this program that this tool is for a limited portion of our nonprofit sector. We recognize that many of our smaller nonprofit organizations are doing very important and critical work as well and want to be clear that this particular program is only one tool in our toolbox.
In addition to this LOC guarantee program, we are utilizing the Emergency Human Needs Fund to deploy capital over a six-week period to organizations providing emergency basic needs services, and we will be re-working our competitive grantmaking strategy for the remainder of 2020. We anticipate our new competitive grantmaking framework and process to be announced in June when we have a better sense of how the federal stimulus funds have supported our community members in need and our nonprofit partners.
Please note – participating in this Line of Credit Guarantee program does not preclude an organization from receiving a grant from CFHZ. This is an entirely different process and tool.
Applications will be reviewed by a joint taskforce of CFHZ Distribution Committee and Program Related Investment (PRI) Committee members with support from CFHZ staff. The review committee will be choosing organizations based on the following priorities:
Step 1: Submit your CFHZ line of credit guarantee program application via the following link by April 24, 2020:
You can use this PDF as a worksheet to view all questions in preparation for submitting the application form online.
The PDF worksheet shows you the “word count” limits for each question, but you do not need to use all the words, and lists are fine. In addition to the PDF worksheet that shows the “open ended” questions in the application, you will also be asked to submit attachments as follows:
LOC GUARANTEE PROGRAM APPLICATION
Step 2: CFHZ will reach out to the contact listed for your organization as close to May 4 as possible with our final decision as to whether your nonprofit has been accepted into the program. We may reach out to you ahead of this date if additional information is needed alongside your application.
Step 3: If your nonprofit is approved to be included in this program, CFHZ will provide your organization it’s Line of Credit dollar approval limit, and will connect you to West Michigan Community Bank in order to establish your line of credit account via a separate application (which will NOT involve collateral or underwriting).
Step 4: At that point, any ongoing communication and reporting requirements will be between the nonprofit organization and their assigned contact at West Michigan Community Bank, with CFHZ being involved only in reimbursing interest every 12 months for the first two years.
Unlike our competitive grant program, you do not need to contact CFHZ prior to completing this Line of Credit Guarantee application. However, if you do have additional questions about the program or application, please contact Mike Goorhouse at mgoorhouse@cfhz.org or 616-994-8855.
We are pleased to announce the first two rounds of grants from the Community Stabilization Fund in 2021. The decision was made to continue the Community Stabilization Fund for at least the first six months of this year in response to feedback from nonprofit partners, community leaders, and individuals being directly impacted. The CFHZ Board of Trustees approved an additional $225,000 from our Community’s Endowment resources to be allocated through the Community Stabilization Fund. In addition, generous donors have continued to make contributions to the fund, allowing us to grow our impact. Grants made from the Community Stabilization Fund continue to focus on the three areas of impact from 2020: financial stability, health, and education, and a fourth area of impact added in 2021: public health.
$50,000 to continue the Eviction Diversion Program
Funds from the Community Stabilization Fund will assist GSM in adding staffing capacity and appropriate workspace to ensure they can provide holistic support during intake and aftercare for new clients in the Eviction Diversion Program. Last year, GSM leveraged $150,000 from the Stabilization Fund to unlock $1.5M in federal dollars for an Eviction Diversion Program which allowed them to empower 487 families to remain in their homes. In 2021, they have an opportunity to receive an additional $9M to continue this work and keep over 2,000 families in their homes.
$15,000 to increase the amount of food secured through ‘food rescue’
Funds from the Community Stabilization Fund will help CAH procure the required equipment to increase their food rescue efforts by an estimated 17,500 pounds of food every month. Having healthy, high quality food available to members of our community is a need CAH has prioritized, especially as demand for food assistance has increased exponentially since last year. Food “rescued” from local grocery stores (items tagged by the store to be disposed of that are not expired/damaged) is a highly efficient way to include produce and other perishables in to-go meals and boxed food assistance.
$10,000 for outreach and application assistance for the Employee Assistance Program
The EAP provided financial assistance to people whose employment was negatively impacted by the closure of restaurants for indoor dining, gyms, theaters, and other businesses that occurred in the last several months of 2020. With a short window of time for eligible individuals to apply for this support, this grant provided resources to launch local communications and publicity efforts including a local website, translate materials about the program into Spanish and other languages as needed, and provide in- person support in completing the application from trained staff at our local libraries for those who did not have access to internet or a computer elsewhere.
$40,000 to ODC Network to launch Project 180 in partnership with the OAISD and our local school districts (Holland, West Ottawa and Zeeland)
Funds from the Community Stabilization Fund will assist in the launch of Project 180, a new nature-based summer education program that will directly target access and opportunity for families that have been disproportionally affected by the major changes to schooling because of COVID-19. The target populations for this program often face several barriers to participation in summer learning opportunities including costs, transportation and relationships with host entities. ODC recognizes these barriers and is committed to working closely with districts to provide transportation for programming offered. Project 180 will serve Pre-K through 5th grade students, their caregivers, and school partners in Ottawa and Allegan Counties primarily located in the Holland/Zeeland area, applying a multi-pronged approach to engaging families.
$19,080 for increasing Power Hour Capacity and student transportation
Funds from the Community Stabilization Fund will increase capacity for Power Hour, a program that provides daily homework help for children from 1st to 12th grade. It will also help BGC to continue providing the transportation that is critical for students in need of this support to access the program.
$17,800 to launch the Summer Bridge program and provide in-house Mental Health and Substance Abuse Counseling
Funds from the Community Stabilization Fund will help launch the Summer Bridge program, a new 6-week course for rising 9th graders whose grades, behavior, attendance, and/or social/emotional skills leave them vulnerable to 9th grade class failure. This program walks alongside students in a deeper way, meeting their needs with additional support and attention. Funds will also help provide in-house Mental Health and Substance Use Counseling to ensure earlier, more consistent, and more accessible mental health services. The program’s “Life Coach” already has established relationships with students served, will begin working on a regular basis with Escape this spring through the summer, offering continued supports while creating space for Escape to envision the best ways to integrate mental health care into all aspects of Escape programming.
($7,500 each)
Immigrant Relief Fund and Grand Rapids Asian Pacific Festival
($5,000 each)
Ensuring equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines
Funds from the Community Stabilization Fund will support strategic efforts to reach residents of the Holland/Zeeland area who were disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 and experience barriers to access vaccines, thus most at risk of having a disproportionately low vaccination rate—specifically Seniors and Black, Indigenous, and community members of color. Multiple conversations with community partners leading these efforts have highlighted several barriers to accessing the vaccine: technology, language, and trust in the location of vaccine distribution. Partners receiving funding have been actively engaged in outreach and education, often going above and beyond their scope of work to reach out to community members, answer questions, get them scheduled for an appointment, and call with reminders and additional appointment details.
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