Funders Forum

The Evanston Funders Forum was first convened by the Evanston Community Foundation in spring of 2003 to begin a discussion of common interests, needs and issues. Organizations represented at the initial meeting included the Foundation, the Woman's Club of Evanston, Evanston Arts Council, the Delta Foundation, Lighthouse Rotary Club, and Evanston United Way. Other organizations that have since joined are LINKS and Zonta Foundation.

The funders meet at the Foundation office for a brown-bag lunch to discuss grant making, the community's needs and collaboration. The common objective is to share information about each other's philanthropic programs in order to serve Evanston better. The Foundation's goal is for all participants to gain an improved understanding of how best to use grant dollars to have a significant impact on the community. The Forum already is reporting positive outcomes from these lunch-time discussions:

• One organization changed its grant award announcements to a more public and celebratory “Contributions Breakfast”, with photos and material from previous years' grantees. Previously they simply mailed checks to recipients.
• Another organization added an evaluation component to its grants process, as a result of feedback gained at the Funders Forum discussion.
• An organization representative has turned to ECF as a resource for information about their concerns about 501©3 status.

Each meeting has seen additional new attendees and all have expressed appreciation and support for a forum of this type. The analogy that seems to fit is “A rising tide raises all boats.” The Forum brings together considerable Evanston philanthropic resources. To learn more about an individual organization, please click on the summaries below.

Delta Foundation
Vickie Horn, President

• Young foundation of Delta Sigma Theta sorority
• Contributes $25-35,000 annually
• Two main programs currently: educational awards program (primarily to Evanston ) and GRACE mentoring project

Evanston Arts Council
Angela Allyn, Associate Director

• Grants $37,000 from city and $16,000 from state annually
• Three types of grants: individual artists, program, and stability

Evanston Community Foundation
Sara Schastok, Executive Director;
Marybeth Schroeder, Director, Community Programs

• Total grants and agency fund payouts totaled approximately $355,000 in 2003
• Contributes approximately $170,000 in competitive grants (funded by unrestricted endowment, the Mammel Foundation, and Dance Marathon)
• Builds endowment and holds donor advised funds, agency funds and field of interest funds
• Provides programming to support leadership development, community conversation, local philanthropy, and non-profit community

Evanston United Way
Chuck Bartling, board member

• Raises $500,000 annually in Evanston
• Contributes operating funds to 29 local United Way agencies

Foundation 65
Janet Fischer, Administrator

LINKS
Marsha Belcher

Rotary Club of Evanston
Linda Lutz, President & Dick Peach, Charitable Fund

Rotary Lighthouse Club
Sidney Doolittle, President

• Contributes $30,000 annually
• Gives through ongoing vocational service committee (vocational training scholarships for ETHS graduates), international service committee and community service committee

Woman's Club of Evanston
Wendy Irwin, President & Tammy McKnight, Contributions Chair

• Contributes over $100,000 annually
• Grantmaking through contributions committee, which chooses 2-3 major recipients to benefit from annual show and annual dinner dance and $20-$25,000 in smaller grants