In this year’s annual report you’ll find pictures of beautiful windows from buildings around our community. In many cases, these windows provide distinguishing marks of identity for the landmark institutions the buildings represent, and the people that look in and out of their panes. Peering through a building’s windows can reveal a lot about the internal structure and the work transpiring within.
Looking into the windows of the Community Foundation, one can access a lot of information about the philanthropic pulse of this generous community we call home. After a challenging yet successful year in 2009, 2010 demonstrated that commitment to philanthropy in the Greater Fort Wayne area continues to grow stronger.
We have focused on developing new strategies for growing our assets this year. Asset growth ensures that endowment funds entrusted to us continue to provide annual income for local charities well into the future. This growth also allows us to provide scholarships to some of our most promising students, further ensuring the future prosperity of our residents and community. Our Gifts from the Heart program provided a 20% match for gifts to our agency endowment funds during 2010. This year was the best year since the program began in 2001 in the number of donors, number of gifts received, and the amount of dollars contributed. Thanks to the generous response from the community, we were able to grow over eighty different agency endowment funds through this program.
As needs increase in the community, the decisions made by our grantmaking committee grow more difficult. This year, we better defined our strategy to link funding priorities to our grantmaking by promoting cooperation and collaboration among area agencies. This increased collaboration and cooperation has allowed us to better support the many needs of the community. We awarded almost four million dollars to 60 different local agencies whose missions range from health and human services to arts and culture, thus improving the quality of life for everyone here in Allen County.
All of what we do as a Community Foundation is so that we can better meet and serve the needs of our community. The good we’ve done is only possible because of you – our donors, our volunteers, our investment advisors, our friends, our families, our community. You have placed your trust in us and we are ever-mindful of protecting and preserving that trust. When you look through the windows of the Community Foundation, we want your view to be transparent - providing access to information about who we are, how we function, who our community is and what it needs. And we are here for you. For good. For ever.
Sincerely,
Tracy Shellabarger David J. Bennett
Board President Executive Director
Program 
