The Morris Community Foundation has examined some of the workforce issues in our county as part of our CommunityWorks program. Local business and industry have told us that the problems are not as much skill-related as those of attitude, ethics, and character. The Foundation will be sponsoring programs that focus on “attitude for work” to …
December was a busy month for the Morris Community Foundation because of all of the year-end activity. Many members of our community remember our organization in their year-end charitable giving and we’d like to publicly thank all of them for their support. Last month was also a milestone for the Foundation for two reasons. …
The word “leverage” is quite the buzz word in most business and not-for-profit sectors. I looked it up and one definition of “leverage” is “the use of a small initial investment…to gain a very high return in relation to one’s investment…” One reason “leverage” is such a buzz word in the community foundation field …
Morris and Grundy County have always been a generous community. If there is a person, family, or agency in need, our residents open their hearts and their wallets to help. However, we’ve not always been philanthropic, and there is a difference. The difference between generosity and philanthropy is meeting the immediate need versus looking …
I just returned from “pahking my cah in Hahvah yahd.” I was in Boston last week for the Council on Foundations’ Community Foundations annual conference. The event is always jam-packed with seminars and workshops on all types of topics. Some topics are basic for all not-for-profit organizations, such as board governance, marketing, and fiscal …
Last week a group of us attended the “Dynamic Leadership Conference for Enterprising Nonprofits,” which was hosted by the Grand Victoria Foundation and held at Elgin Community College. The workshops for the day reviewed different aspects of leadership, including staff leadership, board leadership, the leadership of organizations in the community, and the leadership of …
The Morris Community Foundation has five main issues of concern for the Morris and Grundy County area that we are working on. One of these issues is planned growth, and the more we get involved with the topic of growth, the more we see that “water management” is and will be a major issue of …
Sometime in our life, each of us has thought, “have I done anything worthwhile?” As we get older, we think about this more and more. Most of us have dreamed about being an explorer, medical researcher, or astronaut – or perhaps dreamed of inventing something that will make millions of dollars. However, it is …