Community Foundation of Fox River Valley enjoys anniversary

For generations, the Community Foundation of the Fox River Valley has been a force for good in our back yards.

And for decades, this nonprofit has been mentioned in stories when those needs made headlines, including the pandemic, the Henry Pratt mass shooting in Aurora and a devastating flood in the late 1990s.

I’ve been around long enough to have covered all those stories. But I have to admit, it was not until I attended this group’s 75th anniversary Lasting Legacy Gala on Saturday that I realized just how big the “community” was in its name.

More than 500 people gathered at the Q Center in St. Charles to celebrate this milestone and to show their support for the foundation that had its genesis in 1943 when the publisher of The Beacon-News, Charles Hoefer, gathered a group of local leaders together to figure out ways the city of Aurora could improve.

Five years later, the first meeting of the Aurora Foundation was launched with a $5,000 fund, awarding its first scholarships of $150 to four students.

Today, Mr. Hoefer certainly would be proud of his brainchild, now known as the Community Foundation of the Fox River Valley, which has more than $120 million in assets, and has provided more than $103 million in student scholarships for students and grants to local nonprofits.

In the past year alone, $2.3 million in scholarships have gone to 450 local college and trade students, as well as 41 grants to nonprofits totaling more than $615,000.

All Impressive numbers which tell a valuable story. But so did those attending this gala, who filled a large banquet/convention room of like-minded people – politicians, corporate giants, business owners large and small, ordinary folks who started endowments in memory of a loved one or who believe wholeheartedly in philanthropy, as well as those who work in the trenches of nonprofits serving Kane and Kendall counties.

To many of those present, the gala felt more like a “reunion,” noted Community Foundation of the Fox River Valley President and CEO Julie Christman, as “it brought together those who interact with each other in one way or another” to help those in need.

Those guests included community stakeholders who have been tied through generations to the foundation, such as retired longtime West Aurora School District 129 Board President Neal Ormond, who grew up in the 1940s and ‘50s hearing first-hand stories around the kitchen table about the inception and early growth of the foundation, as his father was one of the early organizers.

Over the years both father and son served as president of the foundation board, and Neal’s wife Mary was on the board for 20 years.

“Together,” she said, ”we reminisced about how the simple and altruistic goals of what was then styled as ‘a channel of wise giving in the Fox Valley’ have led to what there is today.”

The beauty of this community foundation, one of about 800 across the country and among the oldest and largest in the state of Illinois, is that it enables people who are not Rockefellers or Carnegies to “be part of philanthropy” by combining their own efforts with other groups, said Sharon Stredde, who in the 30 years she served as the group’s CEO and president – from 1985 to 2015 – saw its individual funds jump substantially, from 63 to 467. There are now 660.

When a person or family begins a foundation in memory of someone, for example, it is hard to keep the momentum going after so many years, noted Christman, who understands that challenge on a personal level.

“We are able to bring groups together, including municipalities. And as we all know, so much more can be done together than if we stay in our own silos,” she told me later. “We can have such a bigger impact.”

Speaking of generations, a highlight of this event was an auction to directly benefit the foundation’s Youth Engagement in Philanthropy program, which was started four years ago to help local teens learn grant-making and fundraising skills. Working with adult mentors, YEP members not only identify critical needs but raise and distribute money to the nonprofits benefiting their chosen causes.

The students themselves, from 12 local high schools, introduced their current projects at this gala, and then watched from the stage as the room of over 500 adults, bidding signs in hand, raised tens of thousands of dollars for their causes, ranging from programs for eating disorders to supplies for homeless children.

I couldn’t help but wonder how inspired and motivated they must have been when they saw for themselves the power of a community coming together.

Christmas agreed. “They learned a lot just by being in that room and seeing how generous people can be,” she said, then added that these kids also had an impact on the adults at the gala, “who were introduced to this young generation ready and willing to to move the foundation forward.”

It is, she insisted, “a village effort.”

And this week a new effort was revealed with the release of an unprecedented Community Needs Assessment from the Dunham Foundation, which partnered with the Community Foundation of the Fox River Valley and a national consulting firm on the survey that was begun in 2021 in the wake of the pandemic.

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As we all are aware, COVID-19 changed many landscapes across the country, and that included amplifying and shifting the needs in Kane and Kendall counties. By using nine focus groups, as well as surveys from local nonprofits and over 1,000 respondents, this project identified funding gaps in the community.

While there were “no big surprises” – mental health remains a top concern, as are issues of homelessness, transportation to access services and safe affordable housing – this assessment pulled together “the data and context that puts justification behind these issues, and lets community partners know we value their insight,” said Christman.

“A lot of our grant-making is reactive when it should be more proactive to have more of an impact,” she added.

Like the assessment survey itself, the Lasting Legacy Gala was a great way to start the foundation’s next 75 years. Stredde described the event as “a home run,” praising her successor for taking the organization to “a whole new level to get the message out there.”

And she expressed equal gratitude for the people who believe in that message.

“It is so heartwarming,” the former CEO said, “to see folks step up and want to be part of their community.”

dcrosby@tribpub.com