News & Stories

What a Community Foundation Really Is — And Why It Matters

Young girl smiling and running toward the camera on a sandy beach, with waves in the background and three family members—two women and a man—standing and smiling in the distance under a cloudy sky.

Image description: A young girl joyfully runs toward the camera along a sandy beach with turquoise waves behind her. Three smiling family members stand in the background, enjoying the breezy, overcast day by the water.

This op-ed was originally published in the Traverse City Record-Eagle on March 13, 2025.

Nearly 20 years ago, while working for a daily newspaper in the Kalamazoo area, my partner John and I were contemplating a move home to Traverse City. Learning this, my mom began mailing me job listings from the Record-Eagle and that was how I first heard about our local Community Foundation.

If you’d asked me then what a community foundation was, I would have had to go looking for an answer and it probably wouldn’t have been particularly insightful or interesting. It would have sounded something like: “Community foundations are grantmaking public charities that are dedicated to improving the lives of people in a defined local geographic area.”

And if I’d dug a bit deeper, I would have found a few interesting tidbits, such as: community foundations were first established in Cleveland in 1914 and every county in Michigan is served by one. Internet search definitions and data points aside, what really is a community foundation? What really is our Grand Traverse Regional Community Foundation all about?

Our core purpose is to be a spark for positive change, investing in the people and places of our region and stewarding community assets for lasting impact. Our work is to strategically leverage all our resources in support of this purpose.

We’re often asked about how it all works. Though our model can feel big and complex, it also is simple—donor partners contribute, we pool and invest the resources entrusted to us, and then we use these resources to support the people and places of our region through grants, scholarships, and collaborative leadership efforts. But, what does this work actually look like in action?

We are a partner in giving. Annually, we receive 1,000 donations from hundreds of donors making gifts of all sizes. We see donations starting at $5, with many donors building their pattern of giving with recurring monthly gifts. We also see larger gifts, including through donor advised funds, private foundations, and estate gifts.
We are a strategic, long-term investment. We are designed to be sustainable and meet community needs, as those change over time. This includes investing in our communities through grants and scholarships—in 2024 alone, we made $3.7 million in awards.
We are a leader in matching dollars to our communities’ greatest needs. This includes stewardship of Community Funds, a collection of flexible, responsive assets that allow us to more deeply invest in areas of greatest need. In 2024, nearly 40% of these grants supported housing projects and solutions, and 25% supported youth or mental health services.
We are fiscally responsible, pooling gifts entrusted to us and efficiently managing our assets, including through a $2 million impact investment allocation, which provides a social and financial return and allows us to support local businesses and housing projects.
We are a trusted and collaborative community leader, leveraging strategic partnerships to bring partners together around complex community challenges, advancing our equity and inclusion value and goals, and engaging in advocacy and public policy.

What I’ve come to realize and value over nearly 20 years with the Community Foundation is this: in our region, we benefit from many, many great organizations doing meaningful work. But I can’t work at them all, and I can’t donate to them all. But what I can do personally and professionally goes further because of the broad scope of the Community Foundation. Together, we’re a force for good for the people and places across our communities.

About the Author

Alison Metiva grew up in Northern Michigan and is a graduate of Northwestern Michigan College and Western Michigan University. She joined the staff of the Community Foundation in 2005. As Chief Operating Officer and incoming President & CEO, Alison enjoys working alongside her colleagues, donor partners, and the community to build long-term resources for our region and maximize the benefit of those assets today and for generations to come.