For the Hub City Times

MARSHFIELD – During the week of Nov. 12-18, the Marshfield Area Community Foundation will join more than 780 community foundations across America for Community Foundation Week to tell the stories of lives changed, jobs created, and communities transformed through philanthropy’s partnership with private and public community leaders and organizations.

The Marshfield Area Community Foundation works every day to help address the most pressing issues facing our community. These problems include poverty, education, and creating an environment for civil communication. Community foundations impact lives, solve problems, and improve futures,” said Amber Kiggens-Leifheit.

Community foundations are independent, public entities that steward philanthropic resources from institutional and individual donors to local nonprofits that are the heart of strong, vibrant communities. This year we have worked to bring Speak Your Peace to our community as well as the second edition of Vital Signs. We have collaborated with the schools to help insure all of our students have warm clothes, underwear, books; the things all students need to ensure their success.  We have given over $814,000 this year in grants to our community to make sure our mission, connecting people who care with the causes that matter to enrich the quality of life in the Marshfield area, is fulfilled.

Community foundations represent one of the fastest-growing forms of philanthropy. Every state in the United States is home to at least one community foundation—large and small, urban and rural—that is advancing solutions to a wide range of social issues. The Marshfield Area Community Foundation was established in 1993 and just celebrated its 25th anniversary.  We have grown to almost $17.2 million in assets and over 215 funds, each with its own identity and purpose.

Launched in 1989 through a proclamation by former president George H.W. Bush, the first Community Foundation Week included a congressional briefing about the work of community foundations throughout America and their collaborative approach to working with the public, private, and nonprofit sectors to address community problems.