Philanthropy411 is currently covering the Fall Conference for Community Foundations with the help of a blog team. This is a guest post by Mike Batchelor, President of The Erie Community Foundation.
By: Mike Batchelor
O.K., I really do get it. This is a new era, the world is flat and technology reigns. While I was impressed with our morning plenary, I also found myself asking “is this a community foundation conference?” Now don’t get me wrong, I understand the trends and our community foundation is doing its best to remain relevant in a changing world. But as our world evolves, community foundations must also honor our traditional values of permanence and trust. Our challenge, it seems, is to keep both the babies and the bathwater. Let’s use technology to meet the changing needs of our increasingly mobile donors. Let’s use maximum creativity when we connect our increasingly mobile donors to the causes they care about. Let’s measure, partner and leverage like never before to maximize our community impact. But let’s also value that traditional donor who wants to create a permanent legacy to meet the communities changing needs. That’s our sweet spot and that’s what got many of us to where we are.
