Kol Medina has been on both sides of Kitsap Community Foundation‘s
philanthropic endeavors. Medina, who took over as KCF’s executive
director a year-and-a-half ago, formerly was executive director of
the West Sound Wildlife Shelter. In that role, he wrote and
received grants from the foundation on behalf of the shelter.
Medina felt the process of awarding grants could be made more
“transparent” and interactive by putting applicants’ profiles
online and directly inviting the
public to support the cause of their choice. This variation on
crowdfunding is a supplement to money the foundation will award
through its competitive grant program.
The foundation has supported worthy organizations in Kitsap
County and vicinity since 1999 through traditional methods of
soliciting applicants and awarding grants. In years past, a small
committee that included some board members would evaluate
applications and make recommendations to the board for disbursing
funds from the foundation’s endowment. “It was a fairly subjective
review process,” Medina said.
Last year, the foundation disbursed $80,000 in funds through the
competitive grant program. Another $800,000 was disbursed through
endowments that donors have designated for specific causes or
organizations. The foundation manages $4.5 million in endowed funds
(money invested for the purpose of generating annual grants). The
board’s goal is to grow the endowment to $10 million. The
foundation’s operating budget this year is $170,000.
New this year, the competitive grant program selection committee
is much larger and is made up largely of people with no connection
to the foundation. Each applicant was scored on a scale of 1 to
100, based on responses to application questions about mission,
community need, budget, track record of the organization and
viability of planned programs.
The committee will make recommendations to the board based on
the applicants’ scores but not until after the online crowdfunding
campaign, which runs through April 7. The committee’s
recommendations could be adjusted based on how and where needs are
filled.
The public can’t see numeric scores, but the applicants in each
category are listed in order with the highest scoring groups at the
top. The categories are: Arts, Culture & Humanities; Education;
Environment & Animals; Health; Human Services; and Public/Community
Benefit. The public can see an abridged version of each application
and determine for themselves whether and where to donate.
“Because we are a community foundation, I feel that it’s
important to try to make the process as transparent as we can and
to try to involve the community in the process as much as
possible,” Medina said. “Our job is to take the community’s money
and use it in the best way possible and the most transparent way
possible, because it’s not our money; it’s the community’s
money.”
That, says Medina, is the difference between a community
foundation and a private foundation, like the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation.
Medina and the KCF board were inspired to try the crowdfunding
approach by the Orcas Island Community
Foundation, which launched an online funding model last year
and distributed $120,000 to its local organizations. Surprisingly,
no other community foundations that Medina knows of have leveraged
the power of online solicitations. A foundation in Renton recently
made inquiries about Kitsap’s model.
So how has it gone on Orcas Island? “It’s been a little bit of a
learning process both on our end and our donors’ end,” said staff
member Kate Long. “But for the most part, we have increased our
donor base and we’re really happy with the results.”
Toward the end of the year, OICF placed online a “holiday
catalog,” where donations could be made in someone’s name. They
raised $6,000 for causes this way.
The Kitsap Community Foundation offers donors several methods:
donate directly to your organization of choice, send a check via
KCF or donate online through KCF, which doesn’t collect a fee. KCF
prefers the last two methods because it allows them to track
whether a group’s needs have been met and to evaluate overall
community needs.
For more information on Kitsap Community Foundation, visit
http://www.kitsapfoundation.org, email kcf@kitsapfoundation.org, or
call 360.698.3622.
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