Whatcom Community Foundation brings together people, ideas and resources
By the community, for the community
As we enter the giving season, people nationwide will be looking to give back to the communities that have supported them. They’ll also look to ensure that their heartfelt giving — however they choose to give — will have the most influence. That’s why so many will choose their community foundation.
Community foundations are created through gifts from people and organizations who care about a particular place. There are more than 1,000 across the United States. Anyone can contribute any amount of money to a community foundation, which builds and deploys assets — and more — to meet local needs and opportunities.
This week, the Whatcom Community Foundation has been focused on helping the people in our community who are suffering as a result of the devastating floods — local dollars are the fastest, most flexible funding available for disaster response.
The foundation has been raising funds for support — more than $350,000 Friday, Nov. 29 — and more importantly, working with local leaders and trusted partners to do three things: identify needs, determine the groups on the ground best suited to meet them, and then getting funding to those organizations as quickly as possible. Every dollar it raises here stays here. The foundation made its first grant within two days of the flood. The goal is to meet the people’s needs in the hardest-hit areas through organizations that know them best.
The Whatcom Community Foundation not only steps up when disaster strikes. Its mission is to ensure everyone who lives here thrives. It’s like Whatcom County’s very own Swiss Army knife: helping to tackle our region’s biggest challenges and leverage its best opportunities with whatever tool makes the most sense.
For example, earlier this fall, five proud new homeowners moved into the first of more than 50 permanently affordable townhomes being built on Telegraph Road in Bellingham, part of a unique partnership between Habitat for Humanity and Kulshan Community Land Trust.
Earlier this year, we received a county-wide “fiscal map” of childcare services, undertaken to identify gaps in funding and better understand how to create sustainable income streams that will expand the availability of affordable childcare in our county, which is considered a “childcare desert.”
Last year, the “Farm to Freezer” pilot project processed, prepared and distributed nearly 42,000 quarts of delicious soups, stews and sauces made in Bellingham School District’s central kitchen from fresh produce from local farmers who lost traditional markets (e.g., restaurants) during the pandemic. For some farmers, it was the difference between making it through the year or closing. The vision is to continue this creative program, which supports local farmers and hunger relief, beyond the pandemic.
These efforts — and dozens more like them — have three things in common: they address pressing needs in our community, they involve a variety of committed partners, and the Whatcom Community Foundation played a key role in making them happen. Which is another way of saying: local donors like you make progress possible.
Projects like these demonstrate the importance — and the versatility — of community foundations, which are uniquely situated to improve their regions through supporting innovative solutions and creating powerful partnerships. Whatcom Community Foundation is a connector, bringing together people, ideas and resources to make Whatcom County better for everyone. For example, it connects:
▪ Organizations to grants: Since March 2020, Whatcom Community Foundation made more than 100 grants to dozens of local nonprofits, totaling more than $2 million in response to the COVID-19 crisis — thanks to hundreds of donors to the Whatcom Community Foundation Resilience Fund, the same fund being used to aid flood recovery efforts.
▪ Donors to possibilities: An artist whose 5th-grade art class changed her life and wanted other kids to have the same chance to explore and develop their talents; a family focused on improving mental health; high school students who want to protect Whatcom’s wild spaces and species. It’s up to you!
▪ Ideas to investments: Whatcom Community Foundation is spearheading the Millworks, a project on the Bellingham waterfront designed to bolster our local food system while providing workforce housing and childcare in our county’s main population center.
▪ Neighbors to neighbors: Project Neighborly Grants fund ideas that help bring people together: an inter-generational pen pal program on Lummi Island; community forums in the South Fork Valley featuring viewpoints from teens, farmers, commuters and others; Bellingham’s block party trailer; the Happy Valley YIMBY (“Yes, in my backyard!”) project.
Through connections like these, the Whatcom Community Foundation has invested nearly $52 million toward Whatcom health, happiness and prosperity over the last 25 years. Last year alone, the foundation deployed $7.3 million toward making Whatcom County a place where everyone thrives. Our gratitude for the gifts, ideas and collaborations of the multitudes of community members that make this work possible is immeasurable.
Whatcom Community Foundation is just getting started — so many possibilities! Here are ways to join forces with your community foundation: Sign up for Whatcom Community Foundation’s THRIVE newsletter, follow on social media, give to a fund, establish a fund of your own or explore how to serve on a local board. It doesn’t matter how — when you connect with the Whatcom Community Foundation, you’re strengthening the ties that help all of Whatcom County prosper.
— Satpal Sidhu, Whatcom County executive
— Seth Fleetwood, mayor, city of Bellingham
— Mauri Ingram, president and CEO of the Whatcom Community Foundation