Cherishing the Essence of Door County

10 Years of Transformative Philanthropy

As I reflect on my journey over the past decade with the Door County Community Foundation, I am filled with a profound sense of gratitude and reverence. These 10 years have remarkably demonstrated the power of collective philanthropy and the enduring generosity that defines our cherished Door County community.

When I joined the Foundation in March 2014, I embarked on a mission to inspire people to give back and sustain the community we love. Little did I know that this journey would be a transformative experience, not only for the county but for my own personal growth and understanding of what it means to be a part of something greater than oneself.

Over the years, I’ve had the privilege of witnessing the incredible impact of thoughtful philanthropy in our community firsthand. Initiatives like the Door County Scholarship Network have streamlined scholarship access for our brilliant students, while the Door County Civility Project has fostered civility in our daily lives. The Mental Health Support Fund promotes awareness and education, and the Women’s Fund of Door County has grown into the peninsula’s largest charitable fund focused on women and girls’ needs. My connections with the passionate individuals who endowed the Women’s Fund will forever be treasured.

Some efforts have worked to address core community needs – like the COIN micro-loan program, which stimulates economic activity and job creation, and the Workforce Housing Lending Corporation. Others, such as Celebrate Water Door County, rallied residents around protecting our precious natural resources; Growing Older in Door County brought our community together, fostering the need to create a supportive environment for our aging population.

In times of crisis, the Door County Emergency Response Fund stood as a beacon of hope, raising an astounding $1.2 million to support organizations providing relief during the pandemic and resulting recession. The Food Pantry Coalition, born out of this challenging period, has become a shining example of cooperation and resource-sharing, ensuring that no one in our community goes hungry.

During my time with the Foundation, we’ve had the opportunity to contribute to numerous diverse local causes through campaign support, such as environmental conservation, the arts, historical preservation and childcare. We’ve supported vital initiatives like Willie’s Cornerstone Foundation for those facing life-threatening illnesses and the Crime Prevention Foundation for projects such as the local K-9 units and School Resource Officers.

All of this work has been truly incredible. The mission of the Door County Community Foundation is, “Inspiring people to give back to sustain and advance the community we love.” However, what’s genuinely beautiful is that over the past decade, it has been the people themselves who have inspired me beyond measure.

Hearing firsthand the deeply personal stories of our donors, understanding the profound values that guide their philanthropic spirit, and learning about the lasting impact they hope to create – this is what has truly cemented my love for the Door County community. These interactions have been nothing short of humbling, reminding me of the extraordinary generosity and compassion that resides within the hearts of those who call this peninsula home.

Their stories have genuinely resonated with me, revealing the unwavering dedication to preserving the beauty, character and vitality of our beloved community. Each donor’s unique journey has been a testament to the transformative power of giving, and their commitment to making a positive difference has been a constant source of inspiration. Through my work at the Foundation, I have forged some of the most cherished relationships of my life.

It is through these deeply personal connections that I have come to appreciate the true essence of Door County – a community bound together by a shared sense of purpose, a desire to uplift one another and an unwavering commitment to the creation of a brighter future for generations to come.

To the people of Door County, thank you – for your generosity, your compassion and your unwavering commitment to making our community a better place. Your spirit of giving has been the foundation upon which our achievements have been built, and it is your continued support that will propel us forward into the next decade and beyond.

The remarkable feats we’ve accomplished together are just the beginning. As we embark on this new chapter, the same determination and resilience that defined our past successes will launch us forward. Let us continue to inspire, to give back, and to sustain the community we all love so dearly.

This article, written by Door County Community Foundation Philanthropic Services Officer Kacie Mueller, originally appeared in the Peninsula Pulse.

Women, Girls, and Charitable Giving

Fifteen years ago, I found myself sitting at Door County Coffee with Jane Stevenson, Sue Todey, and the late BJ Cassidy discussing the status of women and girls in Door County. In the succeeding months, Sherry Mutchler, Barb Perloff, and Orlaine Gabert would join us as we collectively poured over statistics, looked at benchmarking data, and met with countless local charities to better understand these issues. These talented and committed people were the original leaders of the Women’s Fund of Door County.

The primary driver behind the creation of the Women’s Fund was the recognition that too few of our community’s donors either understood and prioritized challenges that are unique to women and girls, or had a disproportionate impact on them. Of course, 15 years ago Door County’s situation wasn’t unique; this was a universal challenge in our nation.

Remarkably, only in the last decade or so has the charitable sector begun to rigorously research philanthropic investments in women and girls. In 2019, the Women’s Philanthropy Institute at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy launched the Women & Girls Index. It was then, and still is today, the only comprehensive database on charitable work specifically targeting women and girls. Their latest report was issued a few months ago and the results are decidedly mixed.

“Issues affecting women and girls (e.g. the gender-pay gap, sexual harassment and assault) have received increased attention in recent years, but charitable giving to organizations addressing these issues lags behind,” noted the Women & Girls Index 2023 report.  

The good news is that funding for charitable work benefitting women and girls increased 9.2% in the latest year to a total of $8.8 billion nationwide. While we should rightfully celebrate any increase, we need to put that growth in perspective. During the same year, charitable donations to all causes increased by 11.3%. Consequently, as a portion of the overall giving pie, the percentage of philanthropic dollars targeting women and girls actually fell from 1.84% to 1.81%. Further, because giving to causes focused on women and girls is such a tiny percentage overall, it only takes a handful of extremely wealthy donors to skew the statistics and make the situation seem better than it truly is.  For example, the report notes that MacKenzie Scott, the co-founder of Amazon, single-handedly accounted for 2% of all giving to women and girls.

Clearly, we still have some work to do as a society.  

Thankfully, the research also shows us that talking about this disparity in giving is, in and of itself, part of the solution. The 2023 Bank of America Study of Philanthropy asked wealthy donors what motivated people to support women’s and girls’ causes. Of respondents, 8.2% said “hearing that women’s and girls’ causes receive less than 2% of all charitable giving” is what caused them to make a contribution. Simply talking about the lack of attention women’s and girls’ issues receive is an important step to addressing the problem. It also highlights the continuing importance of groups like the Women’s Fund of Door County.  

“Women’s and girls’ causes overlap with every other charitable subsector,” noted the report. “This means donors can adjust their existing charitable giving to address women’s and girls’ causes. Prospective donors are likely aware of gender equity issues but may not have translated this awareness into actual giving to women’s and girls’ organizations. Donors should consider how their values align with their current giving, and whether [women’s and girls’] organizations should play a more prominent role in their giving portfolio. While the state of funding for women and girls is dismal, this also means that individual donors can make a big difference.”

One of the great things about America is that we have the freedom to choose for ourselves what we care about and how we spend our money. If you are concerned about the state of women and girls in our community, use that as one of the lenses through which you determine your giving priorities.

Our charitable actions, especially when rooted in our fundamental values, have the potential to inspire and influence others. They can initiate discussions, encourage reflection, and even motivate others to engage in giving themselves. When we lead by example, aligning our philanthropy with our values, we create a community of givers, amplifying the impact of our generosity.

Decide what you value most about life in Door County. Then let that be your guide. Give to the charities that address the causes about which you care most. Give Door County.

This article, written by Door County Community Foundation President & CEO Bret Bicoy, originally appeared in the Peninsula Pulse.

Collaborating to Keep Homes Affordable

In the charitable world, we love to talk about the value of collaboration, but the reality is that great collaborative partnerships are uncommon.  An effective collaboration brings together organizations that have different, but complementary capabilities so that working collaboratively makes both more impactful. A truly innovative and effective collaboration is quite rare, yet Door County Habitat for Humanity and the Door County Housing Partnership are doing just that.

For a generation, Habitat for Humanity affiliates across the nation have mobilized communities, lowering the cost of construction so working families can realize the American dream and become homeowners. Lori Allen, Executive Director of the Habitat’s Door County affiliate, says that with volunteers and 250 sweat-equity hours per adult who will live in the home, the houses they build are worth about $100,000 more than what it costs to actually construct it. That makes them affordable for families making 60% to 80% of the area median income.

This traditional Habitat model has been enormously successful in placing homes within financial reach of working families for a generation. However, one of the traditional model’s challenges is that the affordability of the home only lasts a single generation.  

“[When a family] decides it’s time to move on and they sell the home to the next buyer, if the market has gone up considerably, it’s likely that the purchase price will no longer be affordable for the next working family,” says Jim Honig, President of the Housing Partnership. “When that happens, all the investment that the community has made in providing an affordable home to a local family evaporates the first time the home is sold.”

Habitat for Humanity International has worked hard to address this limitation. 

“When heavily subsidized homes are allowed to leak away, along with the public dollars and private donations invested in them, the generosity of government and charity is squandered,” noted Habitat International’s 2017 Shelter Report. “These losses are unacceptable, but they are not inevitable. Assisted homes can be made to last. Subsidies can be preserved. All it takes is a prudent dose of creativity and a farsighted willingness to rethink the way that homeownership is normally done.”

It’s that kind of imaginative thinking that led Door County Habitat and the Door County Housing Partnership to collaborate in 2021. They implemented a new shared-equity homeownership model in which each partner brings its unique experience and expertise to the collaboration.

Door County Habitat first identifies a qualified working family, then engages contractors, tradespeople and local volunteers to build the home and sell it to that family at an affordable, below-market price. However, in a shared-equity homeownership model, the family only owns the house. The land underneath the new home becomes the property of the Door County Housing Trust which then leases it to the family with several restrictive covenants in place.

“This gives us the means to ensure the home will not be sold on the market but will always be sold at an affordable purchase price to an income qualified family,” Honig said. “In exchange for purchasing the home at below market value, the purchasing family agrees to a fixed equity when they sell the home. So, the fixed equity allows them a small measure of the wealth accumulation that often comes with owning a home, [but] it also ensures that the next family that purchases the home will also be able to make the purchase at a price that is below market value. These important agreements ensure that the home will remain affordable and available [for the next] income qualified family that lives and works in the community.”

The model also has the benefit of further reducing the purchase price because the family isn’t buying the underlying land. The family then enjoys a lower property tax bill as well.

The house is still likely to be sold at a profit someday, but those profits are now split with the Door County Housing Trust so that it keeps the house within the financial reach of the next working family earning between 60% and 80% of area median income. It’s an enormously effective way to ensure that the subsidy our community provides to construct a house will benefit multiple generations of Door County residents, keeping it affordable for the entire life of the home.

The shared-equity homeownership model has been used with two homes thus far and plans are underway for a third. Let’s hope this innovative collaboration becomes the norm for Door County, keeping homes affordable for generations to come.

This article, written by Door County Community Foundation President and CEO Bret Bicoy, originally appeared in the Peninsula Pulse.

Missed Opportunity for Many Nonprofits

The success of a charity often hinges on its ability to diversify its fundraising strategies. Among traditional development methods lies a less traveled but immensely potent path: soliciting gifts of stock. A new study of nonprofit tax returns demonstrates both the potential of this approach and the sad reality that fewer charities are treating it as the strategic imperative it should be.

All nonprofits (other than churches) are required to fill out an annual IRS Form 990 and disclose gifts of publicly traded securities on Schedule M. The online will-writing company, FreeWill, reviewed the Schedule M data from 13,000 nonprofits and published their findings in the “2023 FreeWill Stock Report.”

Before delving into the research, it’s important to begin with a cautionary note. Crafting your will online might not be an appropriate strategy for many families. Your last will and testament conveys your final words to the world. It’s a document that only surfaces after you’ve departed so you won’t be able to rectify any inaccuracies or oversights.  Further, many estates often benefit from the creation of a trust.  Consulting with an attorney or estate-planning professional for tax and legal advice specific to your situation is a wise decision for most folks.  Nevertheless, examining the data collected by FreeWill offers some valuable insights.

The rationale for establishing a program to solicit stock gifts is compelling. A contribution of a publicly traded security can be significantly more beneficial for both the donor and the nonprofit as compared to a cash gift. While the donor receives the normal charitable deduction for the full market value of the stock, they also have the additional benefit of completely avoiding the capital gains tax that might have otherwise been collected by Uncle Sam. It’s essentially a dual deduction! Consequently, some of a charity’s largest donations come in the form of highly appreciated shares of publicly traded companies.  Creating a robust program to solicit these kinds of contributions opens a nonprofit organization to an entirely new class of gifts coming from donors that tend to be more affluent than the average family.

Perhaps the most surprising conclusion in the report is that the performance of the stock market apparently doesn’t correlate with the value of stock gifts as much as most nonprofit professionals like me originally thought.  

“Contrary to our expectations, the analysis did not reveal a direct correlation between yearly growth in the stock market and overall giving,” noted the report. “Despite variations in the stock market, stock giving trends didn’t necessarily follow suit, suggesting that other factors might be influencing donors’ decisions.”

This is both counterintuitive to a layperson and inconsistent with what most nonprofit professionals believe. Yet the data is the data. In 2019 when the S&P 500 returned a whopping 31%, gifts of stock were actually down 9%. Similarly, 2020 saw an 18% gain in the S&P 500 while stock contributions fell another 14%. Then in 2021, when the S&P 500 increased by 28.7%, stock donations increased by a whopping 43%.  Perhaps those fluctuations in stock gifts had something to do with the COVI-19 crisis, yet at least one full year’s data predates that. Maybe the increase in the standard deduction is influencing it, but that was enacted in 2017, before the years studied. The simple truth is that while the data cannot identify any direct correlation between the investment performance of the stock market and the value of stock gifts to charity, we really don’t yet understand why that’s the case.

I suspect that once someone does a longitudinal analysis, we may see that stacking multiple good (or bad) years in the market in a row will tend to influence gifts of stock simply because the benefit of avoiding capital gains tax only works if you’ve had a significant capital gain.  Regardless, the good news for nonprofit organizations is that the success of a program to solicit stock gifts isn’t dependent on a single year’s performance of the S&P 500.

Yet the report also documented one significant problem. While the total value of stock gifts increased during the study period, the number of charities reporting a gift of publicly traded securities on their tax returns actually declined.  

“The filings from 2018 through 2020 show a decline in the number of nonprofits receiving stock gifts, highlighting the need for organizations to actively incorporate strategies for soliciting stock gifts into their fundraising efforts,” the report noted. 

If your charity doesn’t already have a program to solicit gifts of stock, you really need to create one soon.

This article, written by Door County Community Foundation President and CEO Bret Bicoy, originally appeared in the Peninsula Pulse.

Fundraising in Advance of a Health Crisis

When word got out that Willie Leist was confronting a life-threatening medical condition, it didn’t take long for those who love her to get organized and launch an online crowdfunding campaign to help with her expenses. As someone with countless friends and family, Leist’s team exceeded their fundraising goal by over 20%.

Unfortunately, Leist’s experience is very much the exception rather than the rule. In 2021, a study in the journal Social Science and Medicine found that crowdfunding campaigns to help individual people in crisis failed to reach their goal nearly 90% of the time. Even more striking, 42% of such fundraising efforts did not receive even a single donation.

Leist is blessed to be surrounded by an abundance of friends and family.  Sadly, there are people who live and work in the shadows of society whose personal crises go unnoticed by the larger community. It’s not that we don’t feel the human need to help others. Rather, it’s just that most people who wash dishes or clean hotel rooms for a living don’t typically cross paths with those who have the financial means to make a meaningful contribution.  

This has been on the minds of Dave Smith and Paul Salm a lot lately.  Both Smith and Salm were supportive of the effort to help Leist, but they couldn’t help but wonder about the other “Willies” in our community who are struggling, but don’t have a broad network of social connections from which they could seek help.  

“In the face of a potentially crushing medical diagnosis, Willie’s friends and family chose to rally and support each other in their successful fundraising efforts,” Salm said.  “Not everyone is blessed with that loving network.”  

Smith and Salm set out to do something about it. Inspired by the way the community rallied around Leist, they created Willie’s Cornerstone Foundation as a component fund of the Door County Community Foundation. The money they’re raising isn’t for Leist. Rather, it’s a pool of money inspired by her and will be used to help the next “Willie” who is facing a life-threatening medical condition.  

“We envision a restaurant server, shop owner, bartender, or tradesperson, who becomes ill,” says Smith. “Many of these people have limited financial resources to fall back on when a life-threatening crisis hits. We want this foundation to form a safety net to ease the burden of these monthly bills so they and their family can focus on treatment and recovery.”

Salm views this as an “advance” in fundraising. Rather than raising money to help a specific individual after they are in crisis, Willie’s Cornerstone Foundation was created to raise a pool of money before the next crisis and remain on standby, ready to help when needed.

“Generous donors and future fundraising events will provide the financial cornerstone for local residents facing a potentially crushing medical diagnosis,” Salm said. “That is because we will be having those chili cook-offs, bake sales, and meat raffles before we need them.  [We’re creating] overwhelming generosity prior to overwhelming need.”

Smith makes clear that Willie’s Cornerstone Foundation is not duplicating existing services because they are helping a population not addressed by current programs. Door CANcer does a wonderful job providing aid to those dealing with cancer. The GO BO Foundation helps children with a life-threatening condition other than cancer (so as not to duplicate Door CANcer’s role). Consequently, Willie’s Cornerstone Foundation will assist adults facing a life-threatening medical condition other than cancer, and who are not already covered by Medicare. It won’t help everyone, but Willie’s Cornerstone Foundation will be another important resource for Door County residents who are confronting an unexpected medical crisis.

“We all know someone who is dealing with heart disease, liver disease, COPD or aftereffects of a stroke,” Smith said. “We want to help. These people will have more difficulty earning what they need to pay their mounting medical bills on top of monthly expenses and will be worrying about losing housing or having utilities cut off. This foundation will help with the bills for housing and utilities among others and, hopefully, provide some peace of mind.”

Smith and Salm have already spent this fall approaching many of Door County’s generous philanthropists to support this important effort. They are now inviting the community as a whole to give as well. They anticipate being ready to accept the first requests for assistance from adults facing a life-threatening medical condition in early 2024.  

To learn more, make a donation, or apply for assistance, visit www.WilliesCornerstone.org.

This article, written by Community Foundation President and CEO Bret Bicoy, originally appeared in the Peninsula Pulse.

2023 Educational Mini-Grant Awards Announced by the Door County Community Foundation

The Door County Community Foundation is excited to announce that the Educational Mini Grant program has awarded 13 grants totaling $5,000 to schools throughout Door County for the 2023-2024 school year. 

The Educational Mini Grants provided by the Max and Gayle Laird Education Fund, a component Fund of the Door County Community Foundation, assist school personnel seeking ways to improve and enhance the educational experience of Door County students. Projects are intended to engage students in activities that are innovative, creative, supplemental to the regular school curriculum, and that are not currently funded through school budgets. The mini grants can fund up to $500 per project.

The four Door County school districts receiving grants for the current school year include Gibraltar, Sevastopol, Sturgeon Bay, and St. John Bosco Catholic School. Awards were given to the following projects:

• Elementary students will participate in kinesthetic movement, create art, and play music with nearly 20 different community artists through an Artist Showcase.
• English Language Learners in middle and upper elementary grades will have a new library of beginning reader books that look like the more advanced books read by their peers with Decodable Readers for English Learners.
• Third grade students will attend a Door Community Auditorium Performance of “The Fourth Wall” to expose students to live theater, chamber music, dance, and acrobatics.
• Fourth grade students will collaborate with their community to create an End of Year Service Project.
• Many students find it difficult to sit still in a regular chair and focus all day; Flexible Seating Options will provide multiple seating options to help students stay seated longer and concentrate on the tasks at hand.
• Games Galore will connect English Language Learners and primarily English-speaking students through board games to help students build relationships, use problem-solving skills, think outside the box to achieve a goal, and balance multiple objectives at once.
• A Hydroponics Indoor Garden will provide elementary students with an opportunity to participate in all aspects of growing food which will then be used by the school lunch program, families in need, and Feed & Clothe My People.
• Marty the Robot is a programmable robot that will be used by 6th graders learning block code, elementary students learning about technology, and an afterschool robot club open to middle and high school students.
• The Outdoor Education Experience will bring an expert from the Ridges Sanctuary to teach students about nature, environmental stewardship, and science in Sevastopol’s Eco-lab.
• School Clubs for Sunrise Students connect students to one another and faculty members in small group settings doing activities that they love.
• A newly formed middle and high school Esports team will be able to include more students and compete against others in the Wisconsin High School Esports Association with support for their School Esports.
• STEM/STEAM Bins for Technology will provide hands-on, realistic opportunities for students in 4k-4th grade to learn more about Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math.
• When students need clothing and toiletries, they will be able to discreetly receive these items at the Sunrise Comfort Closet.

Max and Gayle Laird, both former educators, generously established the Max and Gayle Laird Education Fund to support school programming throughout Door County. In perpetuity, the Laird family will help fund creative and collaborative programming provided by teachers, lunchroom staff, educational aids, club leaders, and other school personnel to enhance educational opportunities for area students.

To learn more about applying for an Educational Mini Grant or establishing a Fund at the Door County Community Foundation, please contact the Philanthropic Services Team at (920) 746-1786 or donorservices@givedoorcounty.org.

The Door County Community Foundation, Inc. is a collection of separate charitable funds set up by individuals, families, non-profit organizations, private foundations, and businesses that are managed, invested, and disbursed for the current and future good of Door County. The Community Foundation was launched in 1999, currently administers more than $50 million in assets, and distributes more than $5 million to charities in Door County every year. For more information about the Door County Community Foundation, visit us online at www.GiveDoorCounty.org.

Latin and the Transformative Power of Volunteerism

Respect. Civility. Good manners. Valerie Haas expected that her students embody these values. It’s been more than 40 years since I first walked on the campus of ‘Iolani School and met Ms. Haas, but I’m still too intimidated to refer to her as anything other than Ms. Haas.

She taught Latin, a subject which is the very epitome of a classical education. Ms. Haas demanded excellence. She did not request it. She did not nurture it. She simply expected it. Yet Ms. Haas also believed that to achieve excellence, people must approach every conversation with respect, civility and good manners. More often than not, students lived up to her expectations.

In my last column, “Keeping Our Disputes From Becoming Disdain,” I wrote about America’s alarming habit of personally attacking those with whom we disagree rather than engaging in a respectful debate over the ideas themselves. The Latin phrase for this is argumentum ad hominem, which basically translates to “argument against the man.” It’s from where we derive the modern concept of an “ad hominem argument.”  I’m sure that Ms. Haas is looking down and is quite pleased this former ‘Iolani student can explain that.

When you make an ad hominem argument, you are not debating an idea.  Instead, you are attacking the character, motives and personal attributes of the other person. It’s a way to avoid honest debate by creating a diversion with irrelevant and often hurtful personal attacks.

Too many of us have the troubling habit of lashing out personally at those with whom we disagree rather than debating their ideas. Yet America’s future depends on our ability to have respectful debates because democracy believes that a conflict of ideas ultimately leads to the best outcome. It’s what Ms. Haas taught. To achieve excellence, we must ground our debate in respect, civility and good manners.  Unfortunately, that’s becoming increasingly rare.

In the paper “Interventions to Reduce Partisan Animosity” by doctoral students Rachel Hartman, Will Blakely, et al, they note a majority of Americans have few, if any, close friends who are members of the opposite party. They also explain that “the absence of cross-party friendships is correlated with hatred for the outgroup.”

The good news is there is a pathway forward. The researchers write that “providing individuals with opportunities to interact with members of opposing groups may remedy negative animus. Indeed, there is a rich body of literature in social psychology detailing the positive effects that contact has for intergroup relations across barriers related to race, ethnicity, religion, and sexual orientation.”

Put simply, when we have good interactions with people we disagree with, we are less likely to demonize them because of those disagreements.  

While the national tendency to disdain those on the other side of the political aisle exists everywhere, it is not nearly as pronounced in Door County as it is in other places. I believe that a primary driver of our ability to still have civil discussions with each other in Door County is our unusually large number of non-profits and the volunteerism they engender.  

Door County has roughly three times the number of tax-exempt organizations as a typical community of its size. It’s also the only place I’ve ever lived where so many folks (particularly those who are retired) introduce themselves by talking about the charities with which they are involved.

Whether you’re helping the Door County Land Trust remove invasive plants, swinging a hammer to build a Habitat for Humanity home, or serving on the Board of Directors of the United Way, neither politics nor ideology has anything to do with why you are there. You volunteered because you are motivated by your fundamental values like compassion, generosity and love for our community. Though the person next to you might have very different political views, after working shoulder-to-shoulder it’s hard not to conclude that they share many of the same fundamental values with you.

Volunteering challenges stereotypes and prejudices. When people from different political backgrounds work together on a shared project, they often find that their preconceived notions about each other are inaccurate. Working side-by-side with those who are different builds trust and fosters a sense of unity that is essential if we are to find common ground on contentious issues. Volunteering can be a stepping-stone to more open and respectful political conversations.

Volunteering does not resolve deeply rooted political divisions.  However, it is a powerful tool helping to keep our legitimate policy disputes in Door County from devolving into a personal disdain for one another.

This article, written by Door County Community Foundation President and CEO Bret Bicoy, originally appeared in the Peninsula Pulse.

Keeping Our Disputes From Becoming Disdain

Some 35 years ago I was a college intern in the U.S. Senate Radio TV Correspondents Gallery. In those pre-digital days, my job was to take notes on what Senators said on the floor and post them so reporters could decide if something newsworthy had occurred that warranted further scrutiny.  

On one occasion I recall a particularly heated debate between the liberal giant Sen. Howard Metzenbaum of Ohio and the conservative icon Sen. Jesse Helms of North Carolina. Both men had earned the nickname of “Senator No” in their respective parties because of their willingness to delay any bill that did not meet their ideological standard.  

While I cannot recall what the argument was about, I do remember watching these two political titans absolutely eviscerating each other’s positions. As the Senate went into a break, Sen. Metzenbaum crossed the aisle and whispered something in Sen. Helm’s ear, causing him to roar with laughter. Then I watched these two ideological rivals walk off the Senate floor literally with their arms around each other’s backs, chatting and smiling all the way.

Democracy in the United States is rooted in conflict. It begins during the election when candidates argue over whose ideas are best. Those who are ultimately elected may propose legislation, but they typically must fight with other politicians who have different ideas and represent different communities. Our system is based on the belief that this competition of ideas will lead to the best outcome for the most people.

Unfortunately, the healthy dispute over ideas is degrading into a disdain for those on the other side of the political aisle. In a dispute over ideas, we engage in a rational and substantive discussion about policy issues, ideologies, or political philosophies. People present arguments, evidence and counter-arguments to support their positions. The focus is on the merits of the ideas themselves, and each side genuinely believes that their policy is better for society.  

Disdain, on the other hand, involves a strong feeling of contempt or scorn directed at others solely because of their political affiliation or beliefs. It devolves from a healthy debate over ideas into an expression of hostility for those who hold differing views. Disdain often involves negative stereotypes, personal attacks and dehumanization of political opponents.

Senators Metzenbaum and Helms were engaging in a dispute over their respective ideas. Yet at the very moment when their conflict was at its pinnacle, when they were debating in front of the cameras so anyone in the world could see, they still managed to find some levity and walk off the floor together as colleagues. Theirs was a political dispute. They had no personal disdain for each other.  

In the not-so-distant past, there were countless ideological opponents who maintained cherished friendships. Utah Senator Orrin Hatch told NPR after the death of Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy, “We fought each other like tooth and tongue but afterwards, we’d put our arms around each other and laugh about it.” Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia were known to be the closest of friends. President George W. Bush often publicly refers to President Bill Clinton as his “brother from a different mother.” While these men and women fought vigorously over ideas, they also had a fundamental belief that the other’s values were anchored in a shared love of country.  

This kind of respect rooted in a shared love of place still exists in Door County. We may passionately disagree on politics, but most of us know the other person loves our peninsula and its surrounding islands as much as we do. Unfortunately, this spirit is not preordained. Its continuance is not inevitable. This spirit must be zealously guarded and nurtured or the disdain that characterizes our national politics can easily take root here.  

From local letters to the editor to posts on Door County-centric social media groups, we must keep our disputes over ideas from devolving into a personal disdain for those with whom we disagree. For if we are unable to disagree respectfully with each other, we won’t be able to work together. If we cannot work together, we’ll never be able to come together to solve the challenges that face Door County.

While our local non-profit organizations rightfully avoid participating in partisan debates, they are playing an essential role in ensuring that the people of Door County can continue to look beyond political differences and work together for the betterment of our community. I’ll explore how they’re doing that in my next column.

This article, written by Community Foundation President and CEO Bret Bicoy, originally appeared in the Peninsula Pulse.

A New Tool to Build Affordable Housing

Every fully employed person in Door County should be able to afford a safe, quality place to live. This simple idea is the driving force behind the launch of Door County’s Workforce Housing Lending Corporation.

For more than two years, the Door County Community Foundation has convened groups of business leaders, housing developers, government officials and local citizens to develop a new approach to affordable workforce housing. Rather than establish another government program, our goal was to use targeted incentives to create a market-based solution to this problem.

In most communities, it’s not possible for a private developer to build a multifamily unit, rent it out at a rate commensurate with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) definition of affordability, and still make a profit. As a result, affordable-housing developments typically involve a “funding cake” in which there are several layers of financing and incentives.

The first layer might be some traditional bank financing, but other layers likely include financial assistance from HUD, low-interest financing from the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority (WHEDA), or refundable tax credits from the state. By combining several layers of financing and incentives, private developers can create a funding cake that lowers their construction costs and thereby enables them to rent units at an affordable price.

Unfortunately, private developers have a strong financial incentive to build their affordable properties in Madison, Milwaukee or other urban areas where HUD regulations allow them to charge higher “affordable” rents than they can charge in rural Door County. If the goal is to make a profit, it’s typically the better business decision to avoid building an affordable rental project in Door County.

Consequently, the few affordable units that are constructed in Door County involve a private developer who has a personal commitment to our community. Although we’re lucky that so many people love Door County, this is not a sustainable strategy for creating workforce housing. Instead, we need a tool that provides a financial incentive for private developers to build in Door County.

That’s at the heart of this entire project: We are adding a new layer to the funding cake that is available only to developers who build their affordable units in Door County.

Central to our plan is Door County’s Workforce Housing Lending Corporation, a newly created 501(c)(3) corporation that is governed by the Community Foundation in partnership with the nonprofit NeighborWorks Green Bay. Because this is not a government program, we have the flexibility to offer low interest rates, years of early forbearance while a developer meets other obligations, and payment terms that can be tied to cash flows.

The units we partially finance may constitute the entirety of an affordable development or may involve a negotiated number of affordable units set aside as a part of a larger project. Furthermore, restrictive covenants ensure that the units we finance cannot be converted to short-term vacation-rental properties.

Each individual loan that the Workforce Housing Lending Corporation makes will be a relatively small percentage of the total financing for any particular housing development – remember, we’re just a single layer in the overall funding cake – but our loans will offer an incentive to developers to build their affordable units in Door County.

WHEDA approved an investment of $1.5 million in our effort to be earned on a matching basis. Hence, the first $1.5 million in contributions to the Workforce Housing Lending Corporation will be matched dollar for dollar, thereby doubling the impact of each gift.

The Door County Board of Supervisors has already allocated $500,000 to this effort, and private donors have contributed nearly that amount as well. Our ultimate goal is to raise another $2 million beyond the WHEDA match so that we can achieve a total loan pool of $5 million. Through the use of our leveraged loan structure, as well as “recycling” the money several times over as loans are paid off and the capital is redeployed, we seek to assist in constructing hundreds of affordable workforce rental units in the years to come.

Although our initial focus is on fostering this construction, our future plans potentially include a down-payment assistance program to promote homeownership, a housing-rehab loan program to help restore dilapidated housing stock, and employer-assisted homeownership programs.

If you’re affiliated with a for-profit housing developer, nonprofit housing organization or local business that recognizes the need to provide affordable rental units for our community, visit BuildDoorCounty.org to learn more. Door County’s Workforce Housing Lending Corporation is open for business.

A New Tool to Build Affordable Housing

Every fully employed person in Door County should be able to afford a safe, quality place to live. This simple idea is the driving force behind the launch of Door County’s Workforce Housing Lending Corporation.

For more than two years, the Door County Community Foundation has convened groups of business leaders, housing developers, government officials and local citizens to develop a new approach to affordable workforce housing. Rather than establish another government program, our goal was to use targeted incentives to create a market-based solution to this problem.

In most communities, it’s not possible for a private developer to build a multifamily unit, rent it out at a rate commensurate with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) definition of affordability, and still make a profit. As a result, affordable-housing developments typically involve a “funding cake” in which there are several layers of financing and incentives.

The first layer might be some traditional bank financing, but other layers likely include financial assistance from HUD, low-interest financing from the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority (WHEDA), or refundable tax credits from the state. By combining several layers of financing and incentives, private developers can create a funding cake that lowers their construction costs and thereby enables them to rent units at an affordable price.

Unfortunately, private developers have a strong financial incentive to build their affordable properties in Madison, Milwaukee or other urban areas where HUD regulations allow them to charge higher “affordable” rents than they can charge in rural Door County. If the goal is to make a profit, it’s typically the better business decision to avoid building an affordable rental project in Door County.

Consequently, the few affordable units that are constructed in Door County involve a private developer who has a personal commitment to our community. Although we’re lucky that so many people love Door County, this is not a sustainable strategy for creating workforce housing. Instead, we need a tool that provides a financial incentive for private developers to build in Door County.

That’s at the heart of this entire project: We are adding a new layer to the funding cake that is available only to developers who build their affordable units in Door County.

Central to our plan is Door County’s Workforce Housing Lending Corporation, a newly created 501(c)(3) corporation that is governed by the Community Foundation in partnership with the nonprofit NeighborWorks Green Bay. Because this is not a government program, we have the flexibility to offer low interest rates, years of early forbearance while a developer meets other obligations, and payment terms that can be tied to cash flows.

The units we partially finance may constitute the entirety of an affordable development or may involve a negotiated number of affordable units set aside as a part of a larger project. Furthermore, restrictive covenants ensure that the units we finance cannot be converted to short-term vacation-rental properties.

Each individual loan that the Workforce Housing Lending Corporation makes will be a relatively small percentage of the total financing for any particular housing development – remember, we’re just a single layer in the overall funding cake – but our loans will offer an incentive to developers to build their affordable units in Door County.

WHEDA approved an investment of $1.5 million in our effort to be earned on a matching basis. Hence, the first $1.5 million in contributions to the Workforce Housing Lending Corporation will be matched dollar for dollar, thereby doubling the impact of each gift.

The Door County Board of Supervisors has already allocated $500,000 to this effort, and private donors have contributed nearly that amount as well. Our ultimate goal is to raise another $2 million beyond the WHEDA match so that we can achieve a total loan pool of $5 million. Through the use of our leveraged loan structure, as well as “recycling” the money several times over as loans are paid off and the capital is redeployed, we seek to assist in constructing hundreds of affordable workforce rental units in the years to come.

Although our initial focus is on fostering this construction, our future plans potentially include a down-payment assistance program to promote homeownership, a housing-rehab loan program to help restore dilapidated housing stock, and employer-assisted homeownership programs.

If you’re affiliated with a for-profit housing developer, nonprofit housing organization or local business that recognizes the need to provide affordable rental units for our community, visit BuildDoorCounty.org to learn more. Door County’s Workforce Housing Lending Corporation is open for business.

This article, written by Door County Community Foundation President and CEO Bret Bicoy, originally appeared in the Peninsula Pulse.