Understanding Nonprofit Titles

In about 80% of nonprofit organizations, the highest-ranking paid staff person is the executive director. For most others, it’s the CEO or the president & CEO. In the charitable world, we often use these titles interchangeably, with little thought to the distinctions among them.  

However, every year or two, some local charitable board begins contemplating a title change for its top staff person and asks me to comment on the differences. Although I’m no attorney, I’ve spent nearly 30 years working for foundations, dealing with many nonprofit leaders. Writing this column about the differences seemed like a useful reference for our community.

In many ways, the titles executive director, CEO, and president & CEO are interchangeable. To paraphrase Harry Truman, the buck really does stop with the person who holds this top job, regardless of the individual’s title. The distinctions among them, however, begin to emerge when you determine whether this highest-ranking staff person is also a principal officer of the corporation.  

Per Wisconsin state statutes, “Principal Officers: Unless otherwise provided in the articles of incorporation or bylaws, a corporation shall have a president, a secretary, a treasurer and such other officers as are appointed by the board.” Therein is the first significant difference among the executive director, the CEO, and the president & CEO: All three are the highest-ranking executive, but only the president & CEO is defined in Wisconsin state statutes as a principal officer of the nonprofit corporation. Although the CEO is not defined in this statute, CEO means chief executive officer. One can assume that if an organization has a CEO, its board has likely imbued that position with the powers of a principal officer.

Conversely, the executive director is often not a principal officer of the corporation. Instead, it’s the head of the board that holds the title of president. In nonprofits with a CEO/president & CEO, the leader of the board is usually the board chair.

As a principal officer of the corporation, the CEO/president & CEO is typically empowered to execute documents and act on behalf of the corporation. The executive director does not normally have that authority unless it is explicitly granted to that individual in the corporation’s organizing documents or is so authorized by a resolution of the board.  

When I joined the Door County Community Foundation in 2008, my predecessor held the title of executive director. At the time, we were just a few years removed from the scandals of Enron and WorldCom, during which the leaders of those companies falsified financial statements to cover up their fraud.

The primary reason that the Door County Community Foundation’s board named me president & CEO was because we handle a lot of money, and the board members wanted me to accept the responsibility of certifying the accuracy of our financial statements under the pains and penalties of perjury. That’s why my signature is on the federal and Wisconsin tax returns of the Door County Community Foundation. 

If our financial statements have been manipulated to cover up malfeasance, I cannot claim ignorance because I’m the person who certified that our financial statements are true, correct and complete. In organizations with an executive director, it’s usually the leader of the board who signs the tax returns as its president.  

Therein is perhaps the biggest differentiator between the uses of these titles: sheer size. The national search firm Scion Staffing notes that the title CEO/president & CEO is most common in charities with annual budgets of $5 million or more. In an organization such as the Door County Medical Center, with 595 full-time-equivalent employees, you’ll find it led by a president & CEO such as the talented Brian Stephens.  Similarly, a charity with more than $17 million in contributions and complex financial statements such as the Door County Community Foundation is also led by a president & CEO.

Scion Staffing articulates another key difference: “Whether an organization requires a CEO or an executive director to lead their organization often depends on the culture of the nonprofit board, and if they themselves are setting the full mission, vision, values and strategy for the organization. The more strategic and visionary the needs of the role are, the more likely the role will be named as a nonprofit CEO.”

I know a couple of executive directors who really are CEOs. Over the last 30 years, I’ve also encountered a handful of CEOs who really should be executive directors. Regardless, my dream is that someday the Door County Community Foundation’s board of directors will finally give me the title I truly desire: “Big Kahuna.”  

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

When Free Markets Fail

People are often surprised when they hear me say that a market-based solution to a problem is usually the best one, and I suppose I can understand their surprise.

From the first recycling drive that I helped to organize in the third grade to my current role at the Door County Community Foundation, I’ve spent nearly all my life volunteering and working for charitable organizations. Heck, one of the strategic goals of the Community Foundation is to be our community’s most articulate advocate for charitable giving, and I even write this column about philanthropy for the Peninsula Pulse.

Thus, it’s easy to understand why most folks assume that I think private philanthropy should be the first – and usually is the best – response to a societal problem. In fact, what I actually believe is almost exactly the opposite: that our initial response to any of society’s challenges should be to first see whether the free market can come up with a solution.

Here’s an example. Before modern building techniques and flame-retardant materials became commonplace, many people died while they were asleep in their homes when a fire broke out and smoke overwhelmed them. An engineer in the 1960s set out to design the first practical home smoke detector, and in doing so, gave our world one of the great safety innovations of the last century. This entrepreneur saved countless lives – and probably became very wealthy in the process.

An effective, market-based solution offers the promise of a financial benefit to the one who can solve the problem, thereby incentivizing private individuals and companies to search for answers. Smoke detectors are so enormously effective at saving lives that people were willing to pay for them. Then, as more detectors were sold – thus lowering the price of individual units – they became affordable for more people.

Yet perhaps the greatest aspect of successful market-based solutions to societal problems is that they are inherently sustainable. If people are making a profit by producing smoke detectors, they have a strong financial incentive to keep doing so. Smoke detectors have become so impactful and so inexpensive that they are now ubiquitous. Although nothing lasts forever, an effective free-market solution can create an unmatched level of sustainability.

Unfortunately, there are plenty of areas in our economy where the free market fails. For instance, there is simply no profit to be made in helping a woman escape an abusive husband. Nor is there any revenue to be earned from an out-of-work father who cannot afford to buy groceries for his family. That’s why we need human-service charities such as domestic violence shelters and food pantries. If there were money to be made from serving people who are experiencing situations like these, some smart entrepreneur would have figured it out by now. The vast majority of human-service organizations require outside subsidies to be sustainable, and the form of that subsidy is very often a charitable gift.

However, it’s not just in human-service organizations where the market fails. There are many charities that have earned income, but that revenue is insufficient to meet their expenses. For instance, the Travel Channel regularly publishes a list of the 15 best performing arts centers around the country outside of Broadway, and the websites of these centers have two things in common: There’s a button where you can buy tickets, and usually right nearby is another button asking for a donation. They all need private philanthropic support to be able to put on the performances that we enjoy.

Similarly, although health care in America has become big business, there are places such as Door County where the economies of scale that lead to profitability simply do not exist. That’s why nearly six in 10 hospitals in the United States are still nonprofit. 

These organizations are nonprofit precisely because there is no profit to be made. Often they have no earned income, or the revenue they do earn is insufficient to cover the true cost of offering their services. That makes them inherently unsustainable without the support of the community. In some cases, that subsidy comes from the government in the form of a service contract. In other situations, sustainability is achieved only when people like you and me choose to make a financial contribution to their work.

The search for effective, market-based solutions should always be our first priority because they are the only truly sustainable programs. However, when the market fails to provide an answer because there is no profit to be made, that’s where we need private philanthropy. For many charities, your generosity is their sustainability.

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

We Cannot Allow Lines to Become Walls

In his recent Peninsula Pulse article “Where Is the Line? Defining Northern Door,” my friend Myles Dannhausen Jr. asked a wide range of people to draw the line that separates the greater Sturgeon Bay area of central Door County from what we refer to as “Northern Door.” Different people he spoke with defined that line from as far south as the ship canal in Sturgeon Bay to as far north as Baileys Harbor.

My reaction to Dannhausen’s question was quite visceral and very different from most of the others. My answer was, “Who cares?”

I have long worried that we as a society are increasingly looking to create identities for ourselves that divide and separate us from one another rather than searching for ways to unite and come together.

When I shared this with Dannhausen, his response began with the eminently practical.

“For the paper, it matters from a factual standpoint,” he replied. “If we’re going to use the phrase, we (at least internally) have to know what we’re referring to.” That makes perfect sense and is a testament to the journalistic integrity of my friends at the Peninsula Pulse.

Dannhausen then went further, saying that “ultimately, I think it’s OK to recognize the differences – maybe even vital to do so.”

There is great truth in those words as well. We all have a basic human desire to belong to something bigger than ourselves, to know that we are a part of like-minded people. What we belong to helps us to define and shape who we are. For most of us, the first groups that form our identity (outside of our family) are where we come from and our ethnic heritage.

I have been in Door County for 15 years and fully intend to spend the rest of my life here, but I will always be a Hawaii boy at heart. I was born in Aiea, spent summers with my extended family on Molokai and graduated from Iolani School. Where I was born and raised remains central to my identity because the Aloha spirit will always live within me.

This instinct to draw lines and define our identity is even more pronounced if you belong to a group that is disenfranchised from the larger society around you. My father was a Filipino man who experienced enormous prejudice during his life even though he was a highly decorated veteran and genuine hero of World War II and Korea. During the 1950s, Dad was one of the founders of the Filipino Chamber of Commerce so that businesspeople who were being discriminated against could stand together and push back against the prejudice.

Dividing ourselves into groups based on some part of our identity is not only natural, but it can also be necessary if those who have been relegated to the margins of society are to have an opportunity to thrive. Yet when taken too far, our natural inclination to draw lines can also become a destructive force.

Celebrating my identity as a Hawaii boy is entirely different than separating myself from those who are not. When I celebrate that part of my identity, I am connecting to my past and sharing the joy of an important part of me. However, when I use my identity to separate and cut myself off from those who do not belong to my group, I am both creating fertile ground for prejudice to take root and simultaneously losing the opportunity to meet someone different from me who might one day become my friend.

Similarly, disenfranchised groups collectively advocating for equal rights is entirely different from discriminating against those who are not part of the group. My father rightfully brought Filipino businesspeople together in hopes of building a society in which their children wouldn’t need to endure the same discrimination they did. However, were they to have persecuted those who weren’t Filipino, they would have been guilty of the same kind of pernicious prejudice that had been imposed upon them.

Fundamentally, there’s nothing wrong with defining the border of Northern Door. The desire to belong to a group both shapes our identity and is one of the building blocks that make us human. Yet even if you live in Northern Door, always remember that you equally belong to the community of Door County as a whole. You also live in Wisconsin and therefore belong to the collective people who constitute our United States of America.

We must always be vigilant so that the lines that define us never become insurmountable walls that divide us.

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

The Unexpected Things We Love

The room smelled of disinfectant and the floor was cold, but the exceedingly kind staff had placed a blanket on the floor. I sat down and began to cry, leaned against the wall, then invited Buddy to join me on the quilt. He was nervous and uncomfortable, but mine was the face he trusted most in this world, so he lumbered over and lay down between my legs. His health had degraded so quickly that my wife, Cari, couldn’t find a substitute teacher to cover her classroom for the afternoon. So this final goodbye was just between my Buddy and me.

When you live with a golden retriever, it is a fundamental truth that you’ll always have a little dog hair on you. Yet today both my pullover and pants were completely covered with Buddy’s hair. Before arriving at the veterinarian’s office, I had spent the entire afternoon lying next to him on our kitchen floor, running my hand over his head and body in an effort to bring him comfort. Every few minutes Buddy would raise his head and turn to look at me, silently asking that I rub his chin and neck.  Then his strength would leave him, and he’d turn away, lowering his head back to the kitchen floor.

It was only 10 days prior that we had received the news that Buddy’s cancer was terminal. At 11 years of age, Buddy was already old for a golden retriever, but he was always a puppy to me. He had been prescribed some medication that we hoped might give us a few months, but the initial burst of optimism quickly faded as his lymph nodes continued to swell until they felt like hard-boiled eggs.  

Buddy came into my life while traveling on business for the Door County Community Foundation. On that first Monday night away, I lay in bed talking with Cari on the phone. She shared with me her desire to get a puppy – a desire I most assuredly did not share. We have six children, and the last thing I wanted to add to our crowded house was a dog. On Tuesday night we spoke, and she had found a breeder in Milwaukee with a litter that was almost ready to go to their new homes.  Once again, I expressed my distaste for the idea. Throughout Wednesday I received text messages from Cari with pictures of this puppy. 

On Thursday I asked about this new obsession. Cari confided in me that her sisters were finally beginning to have children of their own and she was feeling the longing for another baby. Suddenly, adding a puppy to our home seemed like a really good idea to me.  

The irony is that although Cari did far more to care for Buddy, for some reason he decided that I was his human. Every morning when I came down the steps, Buddy excitedly waited there to greet me. He could identify the engine sound of my car, so when I pulled in the garage, he barked enthusiastically at the prospect of seeing me. I know that my wife loves me and that my children appreciate me, but there was simply no one in the world who was as consistently happy to be with me as my Buddy.

It’s amazing how something you didn’t seek out, or even want in your life, can become so overwhelmingly loved by you. Be it a person, a pet or a place, I am always in awe of our potential to love.

If years ago I were to have written up a description of the traits I want in a friend, I’m not sure many of my current friends would meet the minimum qualifications. Yet when I go too long without seeing them, my heart begins to ache. 

I was born and raised in Hawai’i, a place that is referred to as paradise. It’s a sentiment I fully understand because I am, and always will be, a Hawai’i boy at heart. Yet the last time I sat on the sands of Waikiki, I told Cari I couldn’t wait to get home to our life in Door County. Sometimes the most unexpected things sneak into your heart and become the ones you love the most.

After saying my final goodbye, I brought Buddy home. Cari and I buried him next to our firepit, where he will always sit by my side. What a wonderful gift it is to be able to love.

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

It’s Not About the Tax Deduction

During a recent drive to visit one of our children, my wife and I found ourselves scanning the radio to find something interesting to pass the time. Although I’m not normally a fan of talk radio, we stumbled upon a program that piqued my interest. The host and his guest were discussing the state of charitable giving in their community. 

Unfortunately, it didn’t take too long before a caller began an uninformed diatribe that has long frustrated philanthropic professionals like me. The caller was insisting that wealthy families give to charity only because they want the tax deduction. The caller seemed to believe that a charitable tax deduction is some sort of secret loophole that allows wealthy donors to avoid paying taxes and to actually generate a profit from their gift. Unfortunately, this is not the first time I’ve heard this specious argument.

I’ve worked in the world of philanthropy for three decades now. In all that time, I have yet to find a tax deduction, charitable trust or other secret formula through which a donor wouldn’t be better off financially if they just kept the money rather than giving it away. 

The most you can hope to accomplish with charitable deductions and other tax-planning tools is to lower the cost of the gift. For example, a high-income donor who gives $100,000 to charity might avoid paying $35,000 in taxes. Yet at the end of the day, even after subtracting the tax savings from the money given away, the donor has still experienced a net financial loss of $65,000. If the donor truly wanted to maximize the amount of money she or he has, the easiest and most obvious solution is to not give the money away in the first place.

There’s a simple truth that every charitable professional knows: When it comes to major giving, it’s not about the tax deduction. It never is.

BNY Mellon Wealth Management recently released its inaugural Charitable Giving Study after interviewing individuals whose wealth ranged from $5 million to more than $25 million. The most commonly cited motivators that drove charitable giving among these exceptionally wealthy families were:

1. Personal satisfaction: I feel good about sharing my wealth; giving makes me happy.

2. Special cause: I have a personal or emotional connection to a cause or organization.

3. Impact: I want to see how my giving supports sustainable change for causes that matter to me.

4. Give back: I see it as my duty to give back because I feel that I’ve “made it.”

Tax planning is near the bottom of the list of the top-10 motivations for the giving habits of these high-net-worth individuals. 

The findings of this report aren’t unique. Time and again, across numerous studies over the years, the research on charitable giving concludes that the tax benefits of a gift are not a primary motivation behind major contributions. These enormous charitable gifts are realized only after a donor has made a visceral connection with an organization or the cause it serves. The fundamental driving force behind major gifts is that they make the donor feel good.

As most nonprofit professionals will tell you, only after donors decide to make a major contribution will tax planning become a significant consideration. First they have to decide that they want to make the gift. It’s at that point that the issue becomes how to make it.

The study also found that 91% of these high-net-worth individuals incorporate a charitable-giving strategy as a part of their overall wealth strategy. That typically involves the counsel of an investment adviser, attorney or accountant when structuring their charitable giving.

Frankly, that’s a good thing for philanthropy. The guidance offered by tax and estate-planning professionals can significantly reduce a donor’s tax liability, thereby making it “cheaper” for them to give money away. The resulting tax savings often allow donors to make a larger contribution than they had initially envisioned.

Sadly, so many of us have grown disillusioned by the world that we now ascribe ulterior motives to even the most noble of deeds. We see people of great wealth giving away enormous amounts of money and assume that these wonderfully generous acts must somehow benefit them more than it benefits the community. That’s never true in a financial sense.

I suppose these major donors do enjoy the personal satisfaction that comes from knowing that their wealth is making a difference in the world. But there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.

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

Making $12 Billion Worth More Than $12 Billion

Even if you don’t follow the trends in the philanthropic world as obsessively as I do, there’s a good chance you’ve heard about MacKenzie Scott, who has been giving to charity from her Amazon.com wealth at a record pace.

Three years ago, she signed the Giving Pledge and became part of a society of billionaires – brought together by Warren Buffett and Bill Gates – who have promised to dedicate the majority of their wealth to charitable causes. Although most of these pledges will be honored as part of an estate plan, Scott is not waiting until she dies to give her money away.

Since she signed the Giving Pledge, she has donated at least $12 billion to charity. As a basis for comparison, last year her donations exceeded the total grants awarded by the Gates Foundation – the largest philanthropic institution in the United States.

By any measure, $12 billion is an enormous number, yet the manner in which Scott gives her money away arguably makes that $12 billion worth even more to the charities that receive it.

When publicly announcing her first round of grants in July 2020, Scott wrote, “I gave each [charity] a contribution and encouraged them to spend it on whatever they believe best serves their efforts. Unless organization leadership requested otherwise, all commitments were paid up front and left unrestricted to provide them with maximum flexibility.”

Without question, an unrestricted gift is by far the most valuable gift a charity can receive. Every organization appreciates a contribution designated for renovating its building, buying a new piece of equipment or supporting a specific program, but there is no more precious charitable resource than a dollar that a top-quality management team can deploy to whatever aspect of its organization’s work it concludes will make the most impact at that time.

This kind of giving requires a remarkable level of humility on the part of the donor. Unlike the way it’s done with many grant programs, Scott and her team identify organizations they deem to be impactful, then choose to respect that these charities are led by people who are the real experts at what they do.

As she noted in that July 2020 announcement, “All of these leaders and organizations have a track record of effective management and significant impact in their fields.”

Rather than dictate to these leaders what they should do and how they should do it, Scott recognizes that successful nonprofit professionals are just that: the professionals who are best qualified to lead a nonprofit organization to success. When donors make an unrestricted gift to a charity with a documented history of impact, they are not only empowering quality leaders, but they are also following a path that’s most likely to realize their philanthropic goals as donors.

I have worked for community foundations for 25 years, so established deadlines, application processes and restricted grants have long been a part of my professional life. Formal grant processes do play an important role in philanthropy because they offer a way for newer charities to make their case and allow for untested, but innovative ideas to connect with funding.

Yet the most impactful projects of which I have been a part were rooted in humility – in recognizing that I will never know as much as the nonprofit leaders who have dedicated their lives to their cause. Donors and those of us at foundations make our greatest impact when we bring together a coalition of charitable professionals and respect that they, collectively, are far more likely to find solutions than we are.

In another announcement in December 2021, Scott wrote that she “trust[s] the track records of impact and on-the-ground insights of hundreds of carefully selected teams working from within communities, offering them all the money up front and then stepping out of their way, encouraging them to spend it however they choose. I understand that this approach, and probably any approach, will mean having given to organizations that might make choices I wouldn’t make myself, but that’s the point. I believe the gifts will do more good if others are free from my ideas about what they should do. And this trust … is the aspect of gifts that many have said they value most.”

The respect that MacKenzie Scott gives to nonprofit professionals and the humility with which she approaches her philanthropy will result in a far greater impact than if she tried to dictate to those organizations that benefit from her generosity.

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

What Door County Can Teach the Country

The late Howard Baker Jr. was a giant of Republican politics. He served for nearly 20 years as a U.S. senator from Tennessee, achieving the role of Senate Majority Leader and ultimately serving as the right hand of President Ronald Reagan as White House Chief of Staff. In Baker’s obituary in 2014, the Washington Post described him as playing a “central role across two decades of Republican politics.” 

As certain as Baker was of the righteousness of his conservative ideals, he humbly rooted himself in the words of his father: “You should always go through life working on the assumption that the other guy might be right.”

In their book, How Democracies Die, political scientists Steve Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt write, “When societies divide into partisan camps with profoundly different worldviews, and when those differences are viewed as existential and irreconcilable, political rivalry can devolve into partisan hatred. Parties come to view each other not as legitimate rivals, but as dangerous enemies. Losing ceases to be an accepted part of the political process and instead becomes a catastrophe.” 

Our ability as Americans to work together for the betterment of all our citizens, even those with whom we disagree, is in jeopardy. 

Last month I wrote a column, “The Problematic Shift from the We to the I,” highlighting research showing that our country has been losing a central tenet of what made this nation great. Namely, that our founders’ first commitment as citizens was not to a king, a church or a politician, but to each other. In his book The Upswing, Robert Putnam discusses Alexis de Tocqueville’s observations from 1831 about what made America unique among the nations of the world at that time.

“[Tocqueville] noted a fierce commitment to personal liberty among the descendants of rugged pioneers who had fought so hard for it. But he also observed the coming together of people for mutual purposes, in both the public and private spheres, and found that a multiplicity of associations formed a kind of check on unbridled individualism.” 

Putnam notes that “[American] citizens were profoundly protective of their independence, but through associating widely and deeply, they were able to overcome selfish desires, engage in collective problem solving and work together to build a vibrant and – by comparison to Europe at that time – surprisingly egalitarian society by pursuing what [Tocqueville] called ‘self-interest, rightly understood.’”

The ability for ordinary citizens to so effectively exercise their personal liberty in the context of a common good was, at the time, a uniquely American trait. Arguably, it was the essential piece of what many would eventually refer to as “American Exceptionalism.” Our challenge, as Putnam explains it, is that over the last half century, we have shifted from “the we to the I,” in which our shared commitment to each other has been eclipsed by a growing focus on our own self-interest.

Neither a government program nor a charismatic political leader will reverse this trend, yet Putnam’s book is titled The Upswing precisely because he believes the lessons of our past provide hope for our future. Our pathway to national rejuvenation begins with individual people, exercising their personal liberty to associate with others in service of a common future. American Exceptionalism was made possible because ordinary people didn’t obsess about how they disagreed. Instead, they focused on what they had in common, then worked together to make those things better.

So many politicians and pundits focus on how we differ that we’ve forgotten the values that almost all Americans share. We love our families. We want what’s best for our children, our neighbors and our community. In our little county, virtually all of us have one more critically important thing in common: We love living in Door County. 

There are seeds sprouting all around the peninsula. Think of how the citizens of Door County responded to the COVID-19 crisis. The Door County Emergency Response Fund received more contributions, on a per capita basis, than any other community in Wisconsin. That’s evidence of the passionate commitment that both year-round and seasonal residents have to the place they love. Yet ultimately, the fund is just a fundraising tool. Consider how many of us during the past two years volunteered shoulder to shoulder to help our fellow residents.

For years, Door County has had eight food pantries, seven of which were faith-based organizations, each rooted in a separate denomination whose differences compelled it to operate independently of the others. Yet during the past two years, the volunteers of these pantries from Washington Island to Southern Door have united to form the Door County Food Pantry Coalition (feeddoorcounty.org). Today they coordinate their efforts, buy food in bulk, share a storage facility and truck resources among pantries as needs warrant.

Then there are the response efforts of the Door County Fire Chiefs Coalition. Since the start of COVID-19, perhaps a thousand people have stepped forward to help. At the start of the pandemic, enormous numbers of volunteers distributed 900 prepared meals every day to people out of work. Even more folks pulled together to distribute 1,000 food boxes at a time on so many occasions during the first 18 months of the pandemic. 

Although not directly related to COVID-19, during the past two years, a coalition of Door County businesspeople, nonprofit professionals, housing developers and ordinary citizens have been volunteering their time to explore strategies to build more affordable housing. Later this year, that group will announce the details of its plans for a new nonprofit corporation that will foster the construction of hundreds of affordable rental units in Door County. 

Working side by side with each other isn’t unprecedented around our peninsula, but during the past two years, our issues and experiences have become universal. Therein is perhaps our greatest opportunity in a generation: We’ve once again come together in service of each other. Now we must keep the work going.

It’s naïve to think that the whole nation will change because of what we’re doing in Door County. Yet during the pandemic, similar collective efforts were occurring in communities across our nation. Regular citizens, working together, have unknowingly begun reaffirming the American commitment not to a king, a church or a politician, but to each other. 

Tocqueville didn’t see American greatness in national efforts, but in community-level action that collectively moves the nation. Few of us will ever be able to change the world, yet almost any of us can change Door County when we work together. So join with your neighbor to do something. Get involved. Help make Door County better. That is how we rebuild our nation.

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

An Extraordinary Response to an Unusual Request

In December, I did something I rarely do. Rather than talk about charity generally, I asked you to join me in making a gift to a specific charity: United Way of Door County. As I noted in my column titled “An Unusual Request in an Extraordinary Year,” United Way Executive Director Amy Kohnle shared with me that the early contributions to United Way’s annual campaign were lagging. Even more troubling, similar reports were coming from United Ways across the state.

My concern was that Door County had already been remarkably generous to the Door County Community Foundation’s Emergency Response Fund, which we activated in March in partnership with United Way as a response to the COVID-19 health and economic crisis. At the time when I wrote December’s column, more than $1 million had been contributed to the Emergency Response Fund and our other relief efforts. That number has grown to $1,150,458 as of the end of January.

The Emergency Response Fund is well positioned to continue to help families through the off-season, but it cannot also cover for a hobbled United Way campaign. Remember that your United Way gift is a contribution to 30 local charities because it’s shared with programs to assist victims of domestic violence, offer loans of free medical equipment, orchestrate activities for young people and support many other forms of charitable work.

Although United Way always plays a critical role in supporting human-service programming in our community, it’s important that the organization is successful now more than ever before because of the COVID-19 health and economic crisis.

I’m pleased to report that under the leadership of United Way volunteers and staff, the people of our community responded to the call during this time of crisis in an overwhelming and extraordinary way. Prior to this campaign, the most money United Way had ever raised was $563,578. This year, because of the generosity of people like you, our community simply blew past that old record by raising $752,541. That’s a whopping 34 percent increase over the previous all-time high!

This year’s campaign success was fueled almost equally by an increase in giving among current donors and a significant number of people who gave to United Way for the first time. A total of 1,078 donors contributed to the campaign. Of that number, 18 percent were new to United Way, and collectively, their gifts constituted 51 percent of the total increase in contributions. The other 49 percent of the increase came from existing donors who reached deeper into their pockets.

It’s hard for me to overstate how incredible this is.

“Most United Ways across the state have closed out their campaigns flat or down,” Kohnle said. Some of her counterparts have even extended their campaigns into 2021 in an effort to capture a few more dollars.

That our neighbors opened their wallets yet again to help United Way and its constituent charities – even after donating $1.1 million to the Emergency Response Fund – is a remarkable testament to the generosity of our year-round and seasonal residents.

With all this extraordinary generosity, two things immediately come to mind.

First, thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Your gifts to United Way will help make life easier for many of our neighbors who are struggling during these difficult times. Both individually and collectively, you are a reminder of what makes Door County such a wonderful place to live. Your generosity is heartwarming.

Second, and more practically, I couldn’t help but wonder what United Way is going to do with all that extra money.

“This is the first time in the 21 years that I have been here that we have surpassed a goal by enough to be able to go back and make increases,” Kohnle said. “We are putting these dollars to good use. We are investing in nearly 30 nonprofit program partners. These programs are working to help Door County residents achieve their full potential through education, financial stability and healthy lifestyles.”

Kohnle recently reconvened the United Way Community Investment Committee and said, “We are pleased to be able to invest 21 percent more into our community than last year. The committee members were thrilled to have more dollars and were all smiles during the meeting.” They are smiling because of people like you.

We are enduring the difficult challenges of this unprecedented time because we are supporting each other and remaining united as one community. You are an inspiration!

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

Community Foundation Awards Sustainability Grant to Door County Master Gardeners

The Door County Community Foundation recently awarded Door County Master Gardeners Association a Sustainability Grant from Green Fund and the Clifford and Clara Herlache Heritage Foundation for the Door County Seed Library (DCSL).

DCSL is a free seed lending program where participants can learn about gardening, grow a bounty of food and flowers, and save seeds for the next season.

“The Door County Seed Library is a repository of open-pollinated vegetable, herb, and flowering seeds that participants can ‘check out’ for free and grow at home.” said Kacie Mueller, Community Relations Officer of the Door County Community Foundation. “We are pleased to support a program and hope that the benefits of the Seed Library will ripple through our community as more and more residents become aware of the importance of eating wholesome food.”

From left to right, Kacie Mueller, Community Relations Officer of the Door County Community Foundation, Penne Wilson, Door County Seed Library Team Lead, and Jeanne Vogel Door County Master Gardeners President.

The Door County Master Gardeners Association, Inc., in partnership with UW-Extension, shall strive to make a positive impact on horticulture in our community through education, community outreach and stewardship of our environment. To learn more about the Door County Master Gardeners, please visit www.dcmg.org

The Door County Community Foundation’s Sustainability Grants program distributes grant dollars from funds such as the Arts Fund, Children & Youth Fund, Green Fund, Health & Human Needs Fund, Education Fund, Historic Preservation Fund, Healthy Water Fund, and Women’s Fund.

For more information about the Community Foundation’s services and various grant programs, please visit www.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 $22 million in assets, and distributes nearly $2 million to charities in Door County every year.

Community Foundation Awards Sustainability Grant to Altrusa

The Door County Community Foundation recently awarded Altrusa of Door County a Sustainability Grant from Carol Coryell Charitable Fund and the Door County Kairos Fund for the Back to School Fair.

Through the Back to School Fair, Altrusa supplies students with grade-level school supplies, backpack, shoes, toiletries, underwear. Socks, a school spirit shirt, and school registration fees.

“The Altrusa Back to School Fair provides 600 Door County students with the materials they need to thrive at school,” said Jeff Ottum, Treasure of the Door County Community Foundation. “The other component of the Back to School Fair is that the identity of the students receiving these supplies are kept confidential, so all students walk into school on the first day ready to learn, achieve, and maximize his/her potential.”

From left to right, Cheri Meyvis of Altrusa and Jeff Ottum, Treasurer of Door County Community Foundation.

Founded in 1917, Altrusa is relevant to many civic-minded people who are interested in creating better communities. Last year, Altrusans proudly gave over a million volunteer hours around the world, including clubs in the United States, Puerto Rico, Canada, England, Bermuda, Ireland, India, Scotland, New Zealand and Russia.

Several decades ago, Altrusa decided to institute literacy as an area of focus for the organization; since then, service areas have expanded to include HIV/AIDS and disaster relief. During our last biennium, Altrusans assisted in relief efforts for the Port-au-Prince, Haiti and Christchurch, New Zealand earthquakes, as well as the Tsunami in Japan. Most importantly, Altrusans give their time and resources in areas that are deemed most important in their local communities.

The Altrusa story is evolving every day through club accomplishments. When you visit any Altrusa club, you will see leadership and service in action. Please visit:  http://www.altrusa.org for more information.

The Door County Community Foundation’s Sustainability Grants program distributes grant dollars from funds such as the Arts Fund, Children & Youth Fund, Green Fund, Health & Human Needs Fund, Education Fund, Historic Preservation Fund, Healthy Water Fund, and Women’s Fund.

For more information about the Community Foundation’s services and various grant programs, please visit www.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 $22 million in assets, and distributes nearly $2 million to charities in Door County every year.