The Columbus Foundation

Tim Fulton 0:07Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to The Confluence Cast, presented by Columbus Underground. We are a weekly Columbus-centric podcast focusing on the civics, lifestyle, entertainment, and people of our city. I'm your host, Tim Fulton. This week we're pulling back the curtain on The Columbus Foundation. I sat down with Dan Sharpe, the foundation's Director of Community Leadership and Nonprofit Effectiveness. We give an overview of the foundation, talk about some of their upcoming initiatives, and take a deep dive into how they are bettering the Columbus community with the help of their generous donors. You can get more information on what we discussed today in the show notes for this episode at theconfluencecast.com. Enjoy the interview. Sitting down here with Dan Sharpe, Director of Community Leadership and Nonprofit Effectiveness with The Columbus Foundation. Dan, how are you?

Dan Sharpe 1:02I'm well, Tim. Yourself?

Tim Fulton 1:03I'm doing well, thank you. First of all, tell us about the foundation and sort of just the high level what does The Columbus Foundation do?

Dan Sharpe 1:10The Columbus Foundation is a community foundation, so we're extremely interested in, in improving the community and helping our donors and nonprofit organizations and members of the public align around that goal to strengthen and improve our community. We are a 501[c][3] nonprofit charity, and so a lot of folks use us for their charitable giving, but lean on us. Uh, corporations, individuals, and everything in between lean on us for our community knowledge to help them think about philanthropy and where to make their charitable investments.

Tim Fulton 1:40And to be clear, you guys sort of guide people's giving in that you take in funds from individuals and corporations and then identify other causes or other organizations for those funds.

Dan Sharpe 1:53And there's a huge misnomer that The Columbus Foundation is only for high net worth individuals, and that's absolutely not the case. And hopefully we'll be able to talk about-

Tim Fulton 2:01Yeah

Dan Sharpe 2:01... many of our, our public-facing efforts that a- anybody can engage in. Uh, but we do think of ourselves as a philanthropic advisor. So as those individuals might know that they wanna give to their house of worship, their alma mater, and maybe something broad, uh, animals.

Tim Fulton 2:17Mm-hmm.

Dan Sharpe 2:18Um, and we are able to help those donors achieve that goal very specifically following their intent. And then there are many donors that want to learn more about the emerging needs in our community, and so they come to us and we're happy to educate and help guide them to organizations and causes that they already feel passionate about or can become impassioned around.

Tim Fulton 2:39How many funds do you guys currently manage?

Dan Sharpe 2:41We have over, uh, 2,500 funds and assets just under $2 billion, which makes The Columbus Foundation a top 10 community foundation in the country based on asset size, so that's obviously the, due to the generosity of our donors.

Tim Fulton 2:56And this is a model that does not exist in every large municipality. This is not unique, but is rare.

Dan Sharpe 3:03The community foundation model is a growing model, so you're right, not every community has one. Ohio happens to have about 10% of the community foundations across the country.

Tim Fulton 3:14Really?

Dan Sharpe 3:14So the, the force is strong here, if you will. Uh, The Columbus Foundation has been around for, for more than 70 years. The Cleveland Foundation just celebrated their centennial, so there is a, a storied history in the community foundation movement. Um, and we see donors in more than half of Ohio's counties and in 35 states. And so while we're focused on central Ohio, we are able to provide service to anybody anywhere.

Tim Fulton 3:39Okay. Walk me through how giving works. Someone comes and s- so what's the minimum amount to start a fund?

Dan Sharpe 3:45To start a fund the minimum is 10,000.

Tim Fulton 3:47Okay.

Dan Sharpe 3:47And it's been that way for a long time. So if you think about even inflation, effectively it has become cheaper to open a, a fund.

Tim Fulton 3:54Mm-hmm.

Dan Sharpe 3:54Um, we do take gifts as small as $20 online. So if there's a cause, uh, that an individual uses their credit card to, to give to, members of the public are able to participate through The Columbus Foundation for their philanthropy and-

Tim Fulton 4:07And we'll talk about it in a minute, 'cause you guys are known for The Big Give, but can anybody contribute to any of those funds? Like, is, is the information about those funds available? Like, I personally know of one individual who has a fund there. I probably know of more, but at, they just don't talk about it. Can I give to, you know, John Smith's fund that is very specifically set aside for animals?

Dan Sharpe 4:31Effectively, yes.

Tim Fulton 4:32Okay.

Dan Sharpe 4:32And then when you give to The Columbus Foundation, you would receive your tax benefit, and we would give you the tax, uh, notification letter and thank you. And then the donor would be notified, and then they would be able to certainly make the gift to the, the charitable entity-

Tim Fulton 4:47Okay

Dan Sharpe 4:47... th- that they care about.

Tim Fulton 4:48And so how does the process of starting a fund work?

Dan Sharpe 4:51So we have a, a exceptionally talented team called Donor Services and Development, and they work with folks to answer that exact question. And so there is, uh, an administrative process to it certainly, uh, for opening a fund is how we would think about that. So there would be a transfer of assets, whether that's cash or you could think of it in terms of stocks. Sometimes even there can be complex deals that include real estate.

Tim Fulton 5:13Okay.

Dan Sharpe 5:13Um, but we're then taking that asset, investing it, very much like an individual might be investing their retirement plan.

Tim Fulton 5:21Mm-hmm.

Dan Sharpe 5:21But instead of having that retirement plan to live on when you retire, we're investing and growing it in perpetuity for charitable distribution.

Tim Fulton 5:29So you are investing it, you are making-

Dan Sharpe 5:31Absolutely

Tim Fulton 5:32... you are growing that, that egg.

Dan Sharpe 5:33Yep. And so that's where then the relationship with the donor is so important because we honor their intent. So depending upon whatever- Uh, their interest level or risk tolerance from an investment standpoint. We can work with them. We can work with their professional advisor, whether that's their estate attorney, uh, or even their wealth manager, to make sure that we're growing those funds to the highest rate of return. So that-

Tim Fulton 5:54Can you talk about the general rate of return that you guys are experiencing?

Dan Sharpe 5:57So private foundations, uh, have to pay out 5%.

Tim Fulton 6:01Okay.

Dan Sharpe 6:01Um, a- and they're mandated, and there's giant penalties if a private foundation does not make that distribution.

Tim Fulton 6:07And that is how you guys are defined?

Dan Sharpe 6:09We are not defined as a private foundation.

Tim Fulton 6:10Okay.

Dan Sharpe 6:11We're a public charity.

Tim Fulton 6:12Okay.

Dan Sharpe 6:12Uh, The Community Foundation. And the, and the IRS regulations, we could have a whole other conversation a- about the details and nuance of that. But as a community foundation, we don't have a mandatory percentage.

Tim Fulton 6:23Okay.

Dan Sharpe 6:24You know, donor-advised fund is a specific vehicle that many of our donors choose to use. That also does not currently have a defined-

Tim Fulton 6:31Okay

Dan Sharpe 6:31... percentage. But we as a, a guide can suggest to our donors that about 4.5 to 5% would be a safe payout-

Tim Fulton 6:39Mm-hmm

Dan Sharpe 6:39... from, to a charitable entity, and then that would help over the years ride out any volatility that their investments may have experienced from the marketplace.

Tim Fulton 6:47So you are seeing a return over 5%?

Dan Sharpe 6:50Typically, yeah. We have fa- uh, fantastic-

Tim Fulton 6:52Okay

Dan Sharpe 6:52... um, but again, as a whole, a donor could come to us and, and say they just want it in cash.

Tim Fulton 6:58Okay.

Dan Sharpe 6:58We, right, we can manage that cash for them.

Tim Fulton 7:00Basically, I just want it to sit here until it's done going away.

Dan Sharpe 7:04That's an option, right?

Tim Fulton 7:05Okay.

Dan Sharpe 7:05And they could sp- and the term we use is spend down.

Tim Fulton 7:07Mm-hmm.

Dan Sharpe 7:07So they could open the fund at whatever dollar amount over 10,000, and they could, you know, spend that out.

Tim Fulton 7:13Okay.

Dan Sharpe 7:13And we would like for them to think about the long-term game and even maybe a charitable legacy. So we work with many of our donors while, certainly while they're alive, but also thinking about what that charitable legacy will be for them, uh, after they pass on. And we can manage their dollars in perpetuity. Much of the grant-making that we do... So I'll, I'll pause for a moment there. In 2015, $176 million came out of The Columbus Foundation-

Tim Fulton 7:37Okay

Dan Sharpe 7:38... from grants. That went to 3,200 nonprofit organizations. About 10 million of that is managed through our application process that local charities can apply for.

Tim Fulton 7:49Okay.

Dan Sharpe 7:49That 10 million is made up of many specific funds that care about, like broadly, health.

Tim Fulton 7:55Okay.

Dan Sharpe 7:55And so it's our job-

Tim Fulton 7:56And I'm sorry. Again, that's 10 million out of the 177 million-

Dan Sharpe 8:00Correct

Tim Fulton 8:00... that you distributed.

Dan Sharpe 8:01Yeah.

Tim Fulton 8:01Okay.

Dan Sharpe 8:01So then our donors did 160-some million, and many-

Tim Fulton 8:06And that was dictated from the moment they set out the fund, or maybe they amended it, but those are not dollars that can be applied for.

Dan Sharpe 8:13Not typically applied for, right.

Tim Fulton 8:14Okay.

Dan Sharpe 8:15But what's great is those do- those donors, because it's their money-

Tim Fulton 8:18Mm-hmm

Dan Sharpe 8:18... uh, and, and they're working with us, that we honor their intent, they can be dynamic. So we could have a donor that loves furry, fuzzy creatures, and that's what they started their fund for, but they may then learn about the, uh, infant mortality statistics-

Tim Fulton 8:34Mm-hmm

Dan Sharpe 8:34... and, and, and plight that our community is experiencing, and they may be, they may feel so called to make a contribution to programs that are working on improving infant mortality as a challenge within our community. And so likely they may have learned about infant mortality, as an example, through our donor education-

Tim Fulton 8:52Okay

Dan Sharpe 8:52... or other grants The Columbus Foundation has made, and we're very happy to work with our donors to help them broaden their areas of interest and their charitable investments.

Tim Fulton 9:00You've talked about sort of the donor services that you guys offer. Talk about that nonprofit side, how you guys work with external organizations to yourself.

Dan Sharpe 9:08Absolutely. And, uh, many of our nonprofit organizations in central Ohio are even donors. And what do I mean by that? An organization might have an endowment fund.

Tim Fulton 9:17Okay.

Dan Sharpe 9:17And we might serve their endowment fund and just as we explained to the donors-

Tim Fulton 9:20And is that just a logistical ease for them?

Dan Sharpe 9:23It's an additional fundraising tool-

Tim Fulton 9:25Okay

Dan Sharpe 9:25... for them. Uh, an endowment fund can provide stability for the nonprofit organization in times of instability.

Tim Fulton 9:32Mm-hmm.

Dan Sharpe 9:33And organizations at the board's direction all have different spending policies. So maybe every year an organization receives a d- uh, distribution from the endowment fund, and it could be unrestricted. It could go to a specific program.

Tim Fulton 9:46Well, but what I'm asking is why wouldn't they manage it themselves?

Dan Sharpe 9:49Oh, so the, the benefit of any donor working with The Columbus Foundation can, can be many. It could be from the expertise in the investment side. An organization may not have that in-house, or it may not be something that their board is overly confident in.

Tim Fulton 10:04Mm-hmm.

Dan Sharpe 10:05By being then an independent entity such as The Columbus Foundation is, as leadership changes at the organization, uh, we can help kind of stabilize so that an endowment fund or even any funds aren't then somebody's pet project.

Tim Fulton 10:18Mm-hmm.

Dan Sharpe 10:19Um, also for donors of that organization to see kind of as a stamp of approval-

Tim Fulton 10:24Mm-hmm

Dan Sharpe 10:24... the organiza- that that nonprofit organization is thinking about long-term stability-

Tim Fulton 10:29Mm-hmm

Dan Sharpe 10:29... via an endowment fund at a well-respected philanthropic entity like The Columbus Foundation.

Tim Fulton 10:36How often-

Dan Sharpe 10:36So there's tangible and intangible benefits to working with The Columbus Foundation.

Tim Fulton 10:39Right. Well, and you, you keep sort of referencing, like, stability and leadership and the goals of the organization, whether that's endowment funds become a pet project for new leadership. Is politics playing into this a lot?

Dan Sharpe 10:51So I think every organization probably has their, their politics.

Tim Fulton 10:54Mm-hmm.

Dan Sharpe 10:54So we're not talking about electoral politics, or we're, we're not necessarily talking about policy at the national level.

Tim Fulton 11:00Right.

Dan Sharpe 11:00Although we certainly are when it comes to tax policy.

Tim Fulton 11:03Uh-huh.

Dan Sharpe 11:03Uh, and that's the case with any administration.

Tim Fulton 11:05Well, what I mean is internal politics-

Dan Sharpe 11:07Right

Tim Fulton 11:07... to organizations.

Dan Sharpe 11:08Right.

Tim Fulton 11:08Right.

Dan Sharpe 11:08So absolutely, pol- politics are a part of kind of, uh, any organization.

Tim Fulton 11:13And do you guys have to sort of mitigate that sometimes?

Dan Sharpe 11:16I wouldn't say have to mitigate-

Tim Fulton 11:18Okay

Dan Sharpe 11:18... but we're seen as an, a neutral entity. One of the most powerful roles that a community foundation can play is that of convener.

Tim Fulton 11:26Okay.

Dan Sharpe 11:26So we obviously can give monetary support, and we're talking about grant-making, but we can do non-monetary support, and that might come through leadership or through trainings or through education opportunities. But convening is also a very important role, um, that we get to have the benefit of being neutral to, to any issue, that we're not beholden to one cause or one organization. So even within the community, pick any topic, it's likely that we've hosted a conversation and brought leaders that are passionate about that and working on those issues together, uh, around our table to have a dialogue.

Tim Fulton 12:00Well, and as you've stated, it is all donor advised in the end. So when someone comes in and sets up the endowment, that's the structure that it's going to be unless the board of any given organization is willing to change that.

Dan Sharpe 12:12Correct.

Tim Fulton 12:12Okay. Let's talk about some of the initiatives that you guys have. You are doing this year another Big Give.

Dan Sharpe 12:18There will be a Big Give in 2017.

Tim Fulton 12:20Time of year?

Dan Sharpe 12:21Not disclosed.

Tim Fulton 12:22Okay. Okay.

Dan Sharpe 12:23Um, but so a little background. The, The Big Give is a 24-hour giving day that is intended to stimulate giving for nonprofit organizations in central Ohio. The most recent one was done in 2015, and there were more than 19,000 transactions, again, from $20 all the way up to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Tim Fulton 12:43Mm-hmm.

Dan Sharpe 12:43And in that 24-hour period, m- More than $15 million was leveraged for more than 500 organizations locally. Um-

Tim Fulton 12:51That's fantastic.

Dan Sharpe 12:52Tremendous. And organizations and donors, the, the energy around it is, is just something else, and so we're excited to bring that back bigger than ever.

Tim Fulton 13:00And to put a finer point on it, those are also donor advised funds. Those funds are matched to an extent, correct?

Dan Sharpe 13:06They're not matched.

Tim Fulton 13:07Okay.

Dan Sharpe 13:08Um, there is an amplification.

Tim Fulton 13:10Okay.

Dan Sharpe 13:10So we have a bonus pool.

Tim Fulton 13:12Got it.

Dan Sharpe 13:12For 2015, there was $1.4 million available-

Tim Fulton 13:16Okay

Dan Sharpe 13:16... in the bonus pool. So that meant that really, uh, 13 million and some change was raised, so that was dollars in the door, and then the amplification for each dollar was about 10% from that bonus pool that then got us to that $15 million amount.

Tim Fulton 13:32So someone goes in, spends $20, gets $22 that then goes to whatever organization-

Dan Sharpe 13:38Whatever charity they chose

Tim Fulton 13:40... they define.

Dan Sharpe 13:40Correct.

Tim Fulton 13:41Great, great.

Dan Sharpe 13:41And we've had promotional partners in the past where then the members of the public who have made a gift have been able to take their receipt and go to, uh, the past partners, Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream, Homage, and Piata and receive a good-

Tim Fulton 13:55Mm-hmm

Dan Sharpe 13:56... a delicious, a, and a, a great, um, Columbus-centric a- apparel piece from-

Tim Fulton 14:01Yeah

Dan Sharpe 14:01... Homage.

Tim Fulton 14:02Absolutely. Any idea what the bonus pool will be for this year?

Dan Sharpe 14:05Well, anything with this year's Big Give, we're striving for it to be bigger and better than, than even in years past.

Tim Fulton 14:11Excellent. Talk about some of the other initiatives that you guys have going on. Uh, Gifts of Kindness is something that you mentioned when you came in today.

Dan Sharpe 14:18So Gifts of Kindness is, uh, another effort of The Columbus Foundation that is benefiting our community as a whole. So obviously, Tim, we've talked a lot about this morning, donor focused-

Tim Fulton 14:28Mm-hmm

Dan Sharpe 14:28... and then also nonprofit focused opportunities, but we do have a lot of public focused opportunities.

Tim Fulton 14:33Okay.

Dan Sharpe 14:33So the Gifts of Kindness is a fantastic example where The Columbus Foundation in partnership with more than 20 social service organizations is helping individuals at a, at a tipping point. The individual is experiencing something that could throw them further into poverty, could really destabil their lives. W- what am I talking about? Housing, car repair, uh, rent, utilities-

Tim Fulton 14:57Mm-hmm

Dan Sharpe 14:57... uh, food insecurity. So these individuals are receiving case management from our partner organizations and, uh-

Tim Fulton 15:03What are those organizations?

Dan Sharpe 15:05So everything from YMCA, YWCA, Salvation Army-

Tim Fulton 15:08Okay

Dan Sharpe 15:09... Clintonville Beachwold Resource, Community Resource Center.

Tim Fulton 15:10These are people that have reached out for help.

Dan Sharpe 15:13Yes.

Tim Fulton 15:13Got it.

Dan Sharpe 15:13And, and are receiving help in another way. Maybe they've been visiting a pantry-

Tim Fulton 15:17Mm-hmm

Dan Sharpe 15:17... uh, to, to access food for their family, and the alternator in their car breaks, and that's going to keep them from getting to their hourly job. And if they miss one shift, they're jobless.

Tim Fulton 15:27Right.

Dan Sharpe 15:27But if that alternator's working in their car, they can continue working to im- improve their lives through work and, and-

Tim Fulton 15:33Mm-hmm

Dan Sharpe 15:33... provide for their family. So it's very important that our partner organizations are vetting these individuals, that they're receiving case management. And our donors, our generous donors are coming together around Gifts of Kindness. The fund accepts gifts from the public-

Tim Fulton 15:45Mm-hmm

Dan Sharpe 15:46... uh, to-

Tim Fulton 15:46So it is an individual fund. It is not something that was started, but it is something that was started by the foundation.

Dan Sharpe 15:52And our donors. Yeah, we have-

Tim Fulton 15:53Okay

Dan Sharpe 15:53... we have a, a donor who's extremely passionate about this and, and the notion of kindness. We want it to be contagious in the community, and so through Gifts of Kindness, being kind, uh, in this case through monetary support, but again, stabilizing an individual. So we're committed to making one of those gifts a day. The need is certainly much larger than that.

Tim Fulton 16:12Mm-hmm.

Dan Sharpe 16:12And, and when the fund, when the balance in the fund allows and when contributions from the public allow, we wanna be able to have as great of an impact as possible. But, um, to know that an individual's life is being stabilized through the kindness of others, at least once a day and so to have-

Tim Fulton 16:27Who's tasked with doing that?

Dan Sharpe 16:29Okay.

Tim Fulton 16:29How do you logistically handle, like, you know, one a day?

Dan Sharpe 16:32Uh, so we have a wonderful staff member a- at The Columbus Foundation who is the interface with the organizations. Um-

Tim Fulton 16:39You can give them a shout-out if you like.

Dan Sharpe 16:41So Barbara Fant and, and prior to that, Anne Dodson.

Tim Fulton 16:44Mm-hmm.

Dan Sharpe 16:44Um, and so Kelly Griesemer as well. Gifts of Kindness are in, in their, their wheelhouse, uh, and working with the donor to make sure that we logistically do this on a daily basis, and that's where the, the partner agencies are so very important.

Tim Fulton 16:58And those are amounts anywhere from...

Dan Sharpe 17:01We see it in a, in a couple hundred dollar range.

Tim Fulton 17:04Okay.

Dan Sharpe 17:04Um, and that's just because that's the nature of maybe the first month's rent, then maybe that's the food's instability issue.

Tim Fulton 17:11Mm-hmm.

Dan Sharpe 17:11Uh, the fund was seeded in September of 2014 with half a million dollars.

Tim Fulton 17:16Okay.

Dan Sharpe 17:16And, and so we're, we're working from that. The largest portion does go to housing, then utilities for electric, gas, water, and phones. And so the average was $1,700 in 2014.

Tim Fulton 17:27Oh, wow, okay. Let's talk about Spirit of Columbus. I think people have seen it. They've certainly seen it on The Columbus Underground website featuring an image a day of things that are happening in and around Columbus. Talk about sort of the general philosophy behind it.

Dan Sharpe 17:40Yeah, so the philosophy is really twofold. We are so fortunate to live in a community that i- embodies just a fantastic spirit. F- great things are going on. Do we- we have our challenges? Absolutely, as a community, but I think working together to address those challenges really embodies the spirit of Columbus. So The Columbus Foundation tries to do an image a day that, in a snapshot, captures something that embodies that spirit of Columbus. But the name Spirit of Columbus comes from a fantastic story over 50 years ago. Uh, Jerrie Mock was a Bexley housewife who, uh, piloted a single-engine Cessna more than 20,000 miles around the world. Most people give Amelia Earhart credit for successfully doing that, but, uh, Jerrie Mock was successful, thankfully landed and took off Port Columbus International Airport. That plane, Spirit of Columbus, now hangs in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. And so what a fantastic story, untold for many years. And again, I think Amelia Earhart was stealing some of that, that stage, but now there's a bronze statue at the airport. Jerrie Mock was inducted into, essentially, the Wright Brothers', uh, Aeronautical Hall of Fame. Um, that's not the right term for it. There's a formal name- ... that's eluding me at the moment, but for us to carry Jerrie's story and that spirit of Columbus to our citizens every day is something we take great pride in.

Tim Fulton 19:00And it is sort of that can-do spirit, and these are the, the things that we can do to better our community and the world.

Dan Sharpe 19:06Absolutely. Through perseverance, determination, collaboration, all of those aspects were what got her around in the plane around the world even though she was flying herself, but all of those attributes are something that make Columbus as, as great as it is.

Tim Fulton 19:19And I apologize for not knowing this. Is there a website just for Spirit of Columbus? How do you get that image out there?

Dan Sharpe 19:25Uh, primarily through social media-

Tim Fulton 19:27Okay

Dan Sharpe 19:27... but they are aggregated at columbusfoundation.org, and there's even, uh, an archival-

Tim Fulton 19:32Okay

Dan Sharpe 19:33... uh, uh, with the context to all of those photos. And we, uh, on an annual basis, have now been making Spirit of Columbus Awards. We call them the Jerrie, uh-

Tim Fulton 19:42Jerrie Mock

Dan Sharpe 19:43... right, for Jerrie, and try to honor an individual in our community that has had the perseverance, the determination, uh, and has brought distinction to Central Ohio. So past award winners are David Brown of the Harmony Project-

Tim Fulton 19:55Mm-hmm

Dan Sharpe 19:55... Jenny Britton Bauer of Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams, the late Denny Griffith-

Tim Fulton 19:59Mm-hmm

Dan Sharpe 20:00... and, uh, former Mayor Michael B. Coleman.

Tim Fulton 20:01Got it. One of the things I'm always impressed by The Columbus Foundation is that sort of convening that you were talking about earlier, both in actual meetings of people talking about issues that affect Columbus and the region, but also distributing studies and things like Spirit of Columbus. Can you talk about sort of the philosophy that's behind that? You guys are very actively public.

Dan Sharpe 20:24Absolutely. So we would see that as the importance of community knowledge, but that knowledge-

Tim Fulton 20:29Okay

Dan Sharpe 20:29... doesn't do our community any good if we just keep it to ourselves. So publishing and partnering on reports is extremely important so that we are better informed as a community, and then can pivot and have programs to address those challenges, but then have programs can, that can address the strengths.

Tim Fulton 20:46And are those reports... I- is that something that is also donor advised, or is that much more the philosophy of the institution?

Dan Sharpe 20:52Both-

Tim Fulton 20:53Okay

Dan Sharpe 20:53... in the sense that people gravitate to The Columbus Foundation because they see the value in how we use that community knowledge.

Tim Fulton 20:59Right.

Dan Sharpe 21:00Um, many of the reports that we might do, uh, you know, could be funded in collaboration with donors. They may come together and say, "This topic is of great importance, and I would like to partner with you." So, um, the best example of that, while not necessarily a report-

Tim Fulton 21:17Mm-hmm

Dan Sharpe 21:17... it's a direct response to a report, they would be our critical need alerts.

Tim Fulton 21:21Okay.

Dan Sharpe 21:22So right now in our community, the opioid epidemic is a, an immense challenge.

Tim Fulton 21:26Mm-hmm.

Dan Sharpe 21:26And so, uh, many of our donors were unaware of that. There was some report through a collaboration, uh, of organizations that have, has brought quantitative data to that. And so in direct response, The Columbus Foundation and our donors h- held a critical need alert where donors could then make gifts that then would go towards the immediate response, whether it's the naloxone kits, maybe it's prevention education, or just overall treatment.

Tim Fulton 21:52So what does that look like? Do you guys just send out an email to donors that have identified themselves as, "I wanna be aware of problems in the community"?

Dan Sharpe 21:59Donors do opt in-

Tim Fulton 22:00Okay

Dan Sharpe 22:01... uh, and share that they are open to learning about those needs. So past critical need alerts have been around school supply drives, when we realize how woefully unprepared many of our, our kids in our community are, and we need to truly think of our community's children as our kids, so we have a vested interest in them. And so while school supplies do seem mundane, it's a huge barrier. There's also an embarrassment factor for the child if they come to school and their family doesn't have the resources to pull those together, but then it's also a, a drain on the districts and even teachers' personal resources to-

Tim Fulton 22:32Right

Dan Sharpe 22:32... to purchase that. So a wide range of, of critical needs that we go to our donors and say, "Because there's this acute need in the community, we want you to be engaged and come alongside of us and co-invest." And-

Tim Fulton 22:43But is something like school supplies something that, like, every fall you're gonna send out an email?

Dan Sharpe 22:47No.

Tim Fulton 22:47Okay.

Dan Sharpe 22:47Nope. And so that was done a couple years ago.

Tim Fulton 22:49Okay.

Dan Sharpe 22:50And there was something that we became acutely aware of that, that elevated it to that status.

Tim Fulton 22:56Okay.

Dan Sharpe 22:56Uh, so oftentimes it might be around basic needs. You know, the recession had a huge role to play in, in how we would elevate critical needs. But the most recent opiate epidemic critical need leveraged $475,000 from our donors to immediately act on improving the lives of individuals that are experiencing addiction.

Tim Fulton 23:14Can you talk about some of the other reports that you guys have commissioned or at least been involved in commissioning?

Dan Sharpe 23:18Yep. So going back to probably 2005, there was an immigrant and refugee report and a collaborative that came together. So that was a point in time where our community was just starting to see an increase in immigrants and refugees, and organizations were beginning to form serving specific communities. But there really wasn't a collaboration-

Tim Fulton 23:38Mm-hmm

Dan Sharpe 23:39... while many organizations and cultures were experiencing similar hurdles to moving and resettling to Columbus. So there was a report done to d- To try to figure out the population, population of specific cultures, um, but then building an infrastructure was a result o- of that, and many of those organizations have persisted, and certainly we've, have benefited as a community from the increase of presence of immigrants and refugees, either primary migration or even secondary migration. Most recently, The Columbus Foundation released a benchmarking report that we've done since 2007, and the report started benchmarking Columbus to 15 peer cities.

Tim Fulton 24:20Okay.

Dan Sharpe 24:20Peer cities, cities of aspiration that we may want to grow into.

Tim Fulton 24:24Name a couple.

Dan Sharpe 24:25And, um, so we've grown to 22 benchmark cities now.

Tim Fulton 24:29Okay.

Dan Sharpe 24:29Um, so Austin's on the list, uh, the Twin Cities, Portland, uh, Las Vegas, Orlando, uh, and Columbus in that cohort is excelling ahead of many of them in areas of g- growth-

Tim Fulton 24:42Mm-hmm

Dan Sharpe 24:42... uh, income, in wages, employment, uh, and even minority businesses. But then we are struggling and are behind many of those, those cities within the benchmark sector, uh, for poverty is higher, pre-K enrollment is lower-

Tim Fulton 24:56Okay

Dan Sharpe 24:57... in Columbus.

Tim Fulton 24:57And this is, these are per capita numbers, I assume.

Dan Sharpe 25:00I, I believe, yeah.

Tim Fulton 25:00Okay.

Dan Sharpe 25:01Uh, small business incubator and public transit. And so that benchmarking report is available on The Columbus Foundation site. Uh, Community Research Partners was the, the partner of, and, and it's-

Tim Fulton 25:10I was gonna ask that, and we will link to that report, to the benchmarking report in the show notes for this episode at theconfluencecast.com. You are a money organization. That's, that's-

Dan Sharpe 25:20A financial services institution.

Tim Fulton 25:22That

Dan Sharpe 25:23Yeah.

Tim Fulton 25:23You're a money business.

Dan Sharpe 25:24Yeah.

Tim Fulton 25:24No, we're a financial services-

Dan Sharpe 25:26Services

Tim Fulton 25:26... institution.

Dan Sharpe 25:27Yeah.

Tim Fulton 25:27When you see needs for organizations that those organizations may not exist, let's take a very specific example, the school supply issue, where you identified school supplies need to be purchased. Are you guys able to take your checkbook and go to a place to buy school supplies and then distribute them, or are you bound to find another organization to do it? Follow-up, do you guys put yourself in the business of creating other organizations or helping to create them?

Dan Sharpe 25:58So I'll, I'll start with the transaction-

Tim Fulton 26:00Okay

Dan Sharpe 26:00... uh, that was at the root of your question. The IRS only a- allows us to make grants to 501[c][3] nonprofit organizations.

Tim Fulton 26:08Okay. So you can't go to Target and buy-

Dan Sharpe 26:10Correct.

Tim Fulton 26:11Got it.

Dan Sharpe 26:11But a, a grant could be made to an organization that is already serving that population, and it could be done i- in that way. So that's where partnering with existing organizations is so very important-

Tim Fulton 26:22Mm-hmm

Dan Sharpe 26:22... uh, for us to have a great relationship, to know their work intimately, so that we can have the right alliances for specific programs like that. We are not in the business of creating nonprofit organizations. Our resources are finite enough as it is. In Franklin County, there are more than 5,000 501[c][3] organizations, and they're all, you know, vying for similar dollars. So we, when we do have a donor services and development arm, and it's important for us to have charitable dollars come to us, we don't see ourselves in competition with those organizations that have fantastic development directors and development staff-

Tim Fulton 26:57Mm-hmm

Dan Sharpe 26:57... that are on the pavement every day raising money for those organizations' missions. We see ourselves, and on behalf of our donors, trying to be helpful to that cause so that those organizations can be as strong as possible.

Tim Fulton 27:09And while that may not be within your organization, let's say someone listening wants to start a nonprofit organization. Are there resources in Columbus for them to be able to sort of formalize that?

Dan Sharpe 27:20There are some resources. Um, I think overall from a capacity building is what we would call that.

Tim Fulton 27:26Mm-hmm.

Dan Sharpe 27:26Um, we, we could be stronger as a community, but we're so fortunate to have the regional universities i- in the area. Uh, our library system is so strong. You know, United Way of Central Ohio also has a neighborhood resource center that has been helpful to folks. But what I would challenge somebody to think about that is passionate about going in a direction is to not be redundant-

Tim Fulton 27:48Okay

Dan Sharpe 27:48... to make sure that whatever they're thinking about may not exist already, to do their due diligence. Because if somebody wakes up, rolls out of bed, decides to file the proper paperwork at the state and the federal level, and creates a nonprofit organization, it is a hustle.

Tim Fulton 28:05Right.

Dan Sharpe 28:05Because the, the dollars in the community, even from individuals, I mean, think of your own wallet or your own pocketbook, we're constantly asked by so many causes that are of great merit to contribute. And so how does a young organization truly break through?

Tim Fulton 28:19Right.

Dan Sharpe 28:19Can a young organization instill confidence for that donor that they are investment grade? And then how are they delivering the program? Are they delivering their program and their mission to the, the highest level, uh, possible, or are they replicating and kind of being redundant when then my dollar could go three different places and have-

Tim Fulton 28:38Right

Dan Sharpe 28:38... the same impact? They wanna be the best in, in breed.

Tim Fulton 28:41Well, and if it's some sort of very specific program, could it align with an organization that's already in front of that audience?

Dan Sharpe 28:49Absolutely, and that's really what some of our advice would be to make sure that you're not being redundant, but then try to align yourself with an organization, and either from a volunteer status or even a board member, make that organization and that area of focus be the best that it absolutely can be.

Tim Fulton 29:06One thing we've sort of walked around a little bit, do you guys specifically evaluate nonprofits and their efficacy?

Dan Sharpe 29:12So we do have a substantial research and due diligence process-

Tim Fulton 29:16Okay

Dan Sharpe 29:16... that would go into our grant-making. And so we are trying to get to the end decision about which organization is best in breed, and what we do say internally is investment grade, because we have to, you know, instill confidence in our donors that our investments are going where they should-

Tim Fulton 29:34Right

Dan Sharpe 29:34... and to organizations that have the greatest impact. So to your point, we don't have a, a specific rubric that percentage of overhead has to be this-

Tim Fulton 29:42Okay

Dan Sharpe 29:42... or they have to have staff under this or serve X number of people

Tim Fulton 29:47Mm-hmm

Dan Sharpe 29:47And those are the hoops. I mean, it's, it's also about leadership. Are they going to do what they say they're going to do?

Tim Fulton 29:53Right.

Dan Sharpe 29:53Do they have the capacity to pull it off financially in the context of that grant and that program? Are they sound? Are they operating too far? Or a mission creep?

Tim Fulton 30:03Mm-hmm.

Dan Sharpe 30:04Or are they laser-focused and, and actually going to have the impact that they want to have? So there's a, a lot of layers that go into our de- decision making.

Tim Fulton 30:10And those decisions are made both for people that are applying for d- grants directly from you and also in those donor-advised funds, I imagine, because the donor-advised funds, sometimes they're gonna name specific organizations, but a lot of times, to go back to the example we keep using, they just want fuzzy animals to get the benefit of their funds.

Dan Sharpe 30:28Right. And so that is a service that we offer to our donors, corporate individuals, that if they have questions, maybe they have seen an organization in the headlines and don't know what they're doing, or maybe they received a communication from an organization, and they want us to vet that organization to, to give them some sense of confidence-

Tim Fulton 30:46Mm-hmm

Dan Sharpe 30:46... in their investment, we're happy to do that. Uh, and many donors, again, know what they wanna give to, and some do adhere s- exclusively to an overhead percentage.

Tim Fulton 30:54Okay.

Dan Sharpe 30:54And, and-

Tim Fulton 30:55And that's just what they said. That's-

Dan Sharpe 30:56Right.

Tim Fulton 30:57They, they-

Dan Sharpe 30:57Yep

Tim Fulton 30:57... they believe that's what makes an organization effective, and so...

Dan Sharpe 31:00And so by all means, they can make a gift, you know, however. It's, again, their money, and we're, we're happy to help them. But it also gets, knowing that I mentioned the number of organizations in central Ohio, it can get blurry because many organizations, either especially smaller or upstart or even those that are operating with ill intentions, and they're, those are very few and far between-

Tim Fulton 31:19But they do exist

Dan Sharpe 31:20... but you often hear of a senior citizen being duped out of money, and the name of the organization that was doing the duping was so similar to a mainstream, well-intended organization-

Tim Fulton 31:30Right

Dan Sharpe 31:31... that, you know, we don't let our donors get caught up in that.

Tim Fulton 31:34Okay. Just one finer point on the evaluation of the organizations that you're distributing funds to, is that information public? Again, you don't have a rubric that sort of says, "This, this is what these organizations do" and holding them up against each other. That's not one of the reports you've generated, correct?

Dan Sharpe 31:50Correct. But we absolutely do evaluate organizations to come to the grant-making decision.

Tim Fulton 31:55Got it. And you talk to donors about how you made those decisions. Another initiative I wanna go over, let's talk about The Big Table.

Dan Sharpe 32:01Wonderful. So again, in the spirit of Columbus and in the spirit of community, we hosted August 30th of 2016-

Tim Fulton 32:08Mm-hmm

Dan Sharpe 32:09... um, The Big Table, which was intended to inspire community engagement, community dialogue, and we heard from a lot of folks that they wanted specific action. They were so amped up after the conversation-

Tim Fulton 32:21Mm-hmm

Dan Sharpe 32:21... and so, uh, we were so excited to see the, the participants, and there were more than 5,000 participants at more than 500 hosted conversations, so engaged and energized to improve our community. And, uh, oftentimes the topics that were talked about were the same no matter what your, your zip code, uh, and we did have a substantial amount of folks participate, I think from 70-some zip codes.

Tim Fulton 32:45Okay.

Dan Sharpe 32:46So it was broad representation across our community, underserved parts of our community, affluent parts of our community, and most importantly, at any one Big Table, there were people that did not know each other.

Tim Fulton 33:00Mm-hmm.

Dan Sharpe 33:00And that was so important so that we had like-minded folks be able to have conversations and be able to hear from folks that think differently, look differently, live in different parts of our community.

Tim Fulton 33:11How did you guys train the people that were the hosts for those individual conversations?

Dan Sharpe 33:16We provided the toolkit, and we had host trainings. So we wanted people to be informed on how to facilitate the conversation. If conversation had somewhat of a lull, there were prompts. Um, if a host wanted to have a subject-specific conversation, that was allowed, right? But we were also really hoping for a very light agenda, uh, and so that ambiguity felt uncomfortable for folks. We got a-

Tim Fulton 33:41Well, and that's the thing I wanna get to later, like what's the point? To ask in a very, like, blunt way, like why do this?

Dan Sharpe 33:49Absolutely bring people together-

Tim Fulton 33:50Okay

Dan Sharpe 33:50... because conversations like this, without that impetus or without that Big Table to come around-

Tim Fulton 33:55Mm-hmm

Dan Sharpe 33:55... aren't happening.

Tim Fulton 33:56Okay.

Dan Sharpe 33:57And so it was so important to have people come together to just even spark that dialogue. Uh, in the survey that we did, there were more than seven, 1, 97% said they had a positive experience. 97% also said that they would recommend it to somebody else.

Tim Fulton 34:11Okay.

Dan Sharpe 34:11It was in the high 70s of people that said they learned something new. It was also in the high 70% of people that were at Big Tables with folks that they didn't know.

Tim Fulton 34:21Okay.

Dan Sharpe 34:21And that wouldn't have happened unle- unless there was the venue, if you will, for these conversations to take place.

Tim Fulton 34:27Was there a specific thing that inspired the idea for it?

Dan Sharpe 34:30So kind of the community knowledge piece-

Tim Fulton 34:32Okay

Dan Sharpe 34:32... but that sense of spirit of Columbus. Um, and we did it intentionally in, in August. We had had a, you know, difficult summer of, of events-

Tim Fulton 34:42Mm-hmm

Dan Sharpe 34:42... uh, no less the, the loss of Tamir Rice.

Tim Fulton 34:44Mm-hmm.

Dan Sharpe 34:45Um, but also ahead of the election-

Tim Fulton 34:47Mm-hmm

Dan Sharpe 34:48... uh, we wanted people to come together to be able to just have that forum to have an open dialogue. But also this concept was done in Chicago with their community foundation-

Tim Fulton 34:59Okay

Dan Sharpe 34:59... The Chicago Community Trust. And so we were very intrigued by kind of their best practices and, and, uh, actually had a representative of that organization here-

Tim Fulton 35:08Okay

Dan Sharpe 35:08... to see how we were improving upon things, so a lot of information sharing. And I know we're looking forward to doing The Big Table again. Uh, no specific date yet-

Tim Fulton 35:17Okay

Dan Sharpe 35:17... but also finding ways to animate it in, in the meantime because there was such energy. Many folks are still meeting-

Tim Fulton 35:25Okay

Dan Sharpe 35:26... from their Big Table, and we're happy to hear that. Again, the ambiguity, we didn't prescribe how they had to have a conversation or when or where they could meet. It was, it was all open sourced, if you will.

Tim Fulton 35:36And are you challenging them to follow up? What do you hope to come out of it in the end?

Dan Sharpe 35:41So we did communicate with the hosts and tried to learn from them what areas were talked about, um, and to, you know, it has surprised some people, but I, I think we, it was something that was affirming for us to see that the needs And the priorities that were pressing in Linden were the same needs and priorities that were also talked about in Clintonville.

Tim Fulton 36:04Okay.

Dan Sharpe 36:04And so whatever zip code, there was a lot of common themes. That's helpful for us to know as we look at all our grant-making priorities or areas to focus either in education for our donors or even connecting donors to existing programs that might be able to serve or address or work towards the mission of any of those topics.

Tim Fulton 36:23Is there something that came out of it that can be pointed to other than 90% of the people met somebody new and 70% learned something new? Is there a report of these are the issues that were discussed the most, and these are the opportunities for growth that we have in this community?

Dan Sharpe 36:38And so, a- again, and affirming, what you just asked about is available in that report.

Tim Fulton 36:43Okay.

Dan Sharpe 36:44And so I'm pretty sure that's housed on our, our website in the report section.

Tim Fulton 36:47We will link to that.

Dan Sharpe 36:48Um, and so community engagement, education, poverty, and community development and children-

Tim Fulton 36:55Okay

Dan Sharpe 36:55... were broadly the areas that, that were talked about. And so, you know, poverty, I mentioned, especially amongst our benchmark cities, that's an area that we're not doing as well in, meaning we have a higher poverty rate.

Tim Fulton 37:06Mm-hmm.

Dan Sharpe 37:06So there's a lot of symptoms to poverty. There's a lot of barriers for individuals that are in poverty. Maybe an aspect of it is eviction rates.

Tim Fulton 37:14Okay.

Dan Sharpe 37:14Maybe it's homelessness. Is it certainly wages. Um, so very multifaceted issues, but to know that that was talked about across the board is affirming to then the work that The Columbus Foundation and, and many, many, many nonprofit organizations, uh, in town are, are working towards.

Tim Fulton 37:32Great. One final initiative I wanted to talk on, your current giving platform on your website is called Power Philanthropy. You're moving to a new site. I think you called it The Giving Store. Is that right?

Dan Sharpe 37:44Correct.

Tim Fulton 37:44Okay. Talk about sort of what that will be.

Dan Sharpe 37:47So Power Philanthropy has been a fantastic tool for our donors and our application process. You know, o- organizations, nonprofit organizations create, uh, what has been called their Power Philanthropy portrait.

Tim Fulton 37:59Mm-hmm.

Dan Sharpe 37:59And it's a snapshot of organizational finances, programs, uh, who's on the board, what their leadership looks like, and donors have been able to make gifts directly from their funds. Members of the public have been able to make credit card gifts directly to the organization.

Tim Fulton 38:13Mm-hmm.

Dan Sharpe 38:13So it's been a charitable database that's been able to be searchable, uh, and that will remain with The Giving Store. Uh, we're going to be packaging the information differently. A portrait is, uh, uh, and should be a large amount of work for the organization-

Tim Fulton 38:27Mm-hmm

Dan Sharpe 38:27... right? Because they're being vetted for an investment from individuals or foundations. But our donors also want to lean more towards i- immediate action.

Tim Fulton 38:35Okay.

Dan Sharpe 38:35So we're going to have more digestible, uh, bite-sized snapshots within The Giving Store. So the functions of investing in the organization, the functions of learning more about an organization will be there. Uh, and instead of the library database look and feel-

Tim Fulton 38:51Okay

Dan Sharpe 38:51... um, we'll have a, a friendlier interface, uh, on the digital platform, and we'll even be moving towards opportunities for the organizations to, uh, lift up and elevate acute needs that they might have.

Tim Fulton 39:03Okay.

Dan Sharpe 39:03And so there will be a finite dollar amount identified. Donors can give to it, very similar to a crowd-

Tim Fulton 39:09Yeah

Dan Sharpe 39:09... crowdfunding platform.

Tim Fulton 39:10Okay.

Dan Sharpe 39:11So it's an additional tool for nonprofit organizations to use to raise money, but it's within The Columbus Foundation family, if you will. So our donors would think to go there first rather than a donor thinking to go to a Kickstarter or a GoFundMe-

Tim Fulton 39:24Right

Dan Sharpe 39:24... to benefit the organization of, of their choice.

Tim Fulton 39:27But again, they would need to be 501[c][3] organizations-

Dan Sharpe 39:30Absolutely

Tim Fulton 39:30... that you guys approve to get to have those, you know, profiles in there. And it seems to me that they'd also be able to do sort of, you know, their annual campaigns that, that way and, and work within it that way.

Dan Sharpe 39:40Certainly could, yep.

Tim Fulton 39:41Great. Just one final note. Can you talk about sort of what are the bigger funds that you guys have, and where are you guys seeing the most giving, and what are the organizations that you're giving the most money to?

Dan Sharpe 39:52So our donor family is phenomenal.

Tim Fulton 39:54Mm-hmm.

Dan Sharpe 39:54Um, we have individuals, uh, that, that work with us that may not have the assets while they're alive, but they also may not have the family to pass on any assets to when they pass away.

Tim Fulton 40:06Okay.

Dan Sharpe 40:06And so they aren't necessarily doing a lot of current giving, but they're being very intentional and planful about their estate when they pass away and, and making a charitable legacy that way.

Tim Fulton 40:18So, like, rather than giving to the alumni association with your estate, people are setting it up through you.

Dan Sharpe 40:25Right.

Tim Fulton 40:25Okay.

Dan Sharpe 40:25And then through us, they're telling us the organizations and the causes that they wanna care about.

Tim Fulton 40:29Okay.

Dan Sharpe 40:30And so when they're, long after they're gone, we're going to still be able to honor their intent and their, their legacy, and sometimes that's easy for folks if maybe the house is their greatest asset.

Tim Fulton 40:39Mm-hmm.

Dan Sharpe 40:39So when they're no longer living in it and it sells, that becomes the, the impetus for their, their charitable giving. Then on the other end of the spectrum, we are very fortunate to work with many corporations that, that folks know, and they're extremely generous, uh, through their giving, and they see the value in working with The Columbus Foundation. So L Brands, um, is a, is a notable one that people see, uh, working with us. Uh, Big Lots Corporation as well.

Tim Fulton 41:04Mm-hmm.

Dan Sharpe 41:04And then there's room at the table for everybody in between.

Tim Fulton 41:07Okay.

Dan Sharpe 41:08And that's often the misnomer that you have to be that large corporation. No. Some of what we're seeing is with small businesses, that it's important for their employees to be able to give back to the community, and it makes sense sometimes from a tax perspective for that small business to create a fund rather than just write a check-

Tim Fulton 41:26Right

Dan Sharpe 41:26... um, you know, at a whatever frequency to-

Tim Fulton 41:28And you guys-

Dan Sharpe 41:29... to a benefit organization.

Tim Fulton 41:30And you guys will assist businesses in sort of setting that up. Let's say they wanted it to be, like, a payroll deduction thing. You guys can guide them in how to do that.

Dan Sharpe 41:38There's a lot of different options-

Tim Fulton 41:39Okay

Dan Sharpe 41:40... that we can work with, and, and we really do tailor it to whatever that donor's need is, and that's a, the beauty of our team, our donor services and development team, but it's also a beauty of, uh, the community foundation platform. So we've talked a lot about the donor-advised funds, but we also have scholarship funds-

Tim Fulton 41:55Okay

Dan Sharpe 41:55... uh, that grant about $2 million a year to dozens of children.

Tim Fulton 42:00And you guys manage that application process?

Dan Sharpe 42:02For our donors, yeah. So you could-

Tim Fulton 42:03Wow

Dan Sharpe 42:03... you could have a scholarship in your name, and maybe you and your family in honor of a, a loved one come together around a table and choose the scholarship recipient, but we're happy to manage the application process. Our colleague, A- Alicia Sembruck, goes out to schools and is pitching to make sure that students are applying for these scholarships.

Tim Fulton 42:24Yeah.

Dan Sharpe 42:24We also have a fantastic tool-

Tim Fulton 42:25We haven't even, and we won't get into it today, but there's this whole other side of things of how do you get people to actually apply?

Dan Sharpe 42:31Right.

Tim Fulton 42:31'Cause you have money you have to give away.

Dan Sharpe 42:33And we're honored to give it away, and on behalf of our donors. And we have, uh, ScholarLink, which is a great online platform that a student can click what their areas of interest are, what high school they're from, and then it does the back-end sorting and then serves up to the student, "You might be eligible for this scholarship."

Tim Fulton 42:49That's great.

Dan Sharpe 42:50So anybody listening to Confluence Cast today, uh, having, you know, a young person thinking about going on to post-secondary, absolutely check out The Columbus Foundation for our scholarships.

Tim Fulton 42:59Yeah.

Dan Sharpe 43:00But then there's field of interest funds, which are more broad. That might just be hunger or housing.

Tim Fulton 43:04Okay.

Dan Sharpe 43:05Uh, and so we're able to serve our donors in many ways. But you also asked about kind of our larger-

Tim Fulton 43:09Yeah

Dan Sharpe 43:10... donors. There's an interesting story from a couple of years ago. The largest gift to a community foundation went to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook, part of the IPO went to seed charitable g- good at the Silicon Valley Community Foundation.

Tim Fulton 43:26Mm-hmm.

Dan Sharpe 43:27The second-largest gift that year came to The Columbus Foundation, second-largest gift nationally.

Tim Fulton 43:32Okay.

Dan Sharpe 43:33Um, an anonymous donor, and their professional advisor searched, uh, started with a list of the top 25 community foundations, kind of vetted each one, and then made their decision based on a myriad of criterion, right? But even in our case, we found out it was our, our great colleague who answers the phone, and just that sense of service and, and duty to the organization was felt throughout every touchpoint that that professional advisor had. And so we're honored to work with that donor and help them with their charitable interests.

Tim Fulton 44:03And so this is not even necessarily somebody who lives in Columbus or has-

Dan Sharpe 44:05Correct. I can tell you they do not live in Ohio and likely have minimal ties to central Ohio other than working a professional relationship with The Columbus Foundation.

Tim Fulton 44:15Wow, that's fantastic.

Dan Sharpe 44:16So it's a, that, I mean, we have-

Tim Fulton 44:17That's certainly a feather in you guys' cap.

Dan Sharpe 44:20Absolutely, but we're, we're also, we look for those feathers in every single interaction with every nonprofit organization, with every member of the public, and with every donor. And so it, that donor received no different service-

Tim Fulton 44:33Right

Dan Sharpe 44:33... just because they had a few more zeros.

Tim Fulton 44:36Right.

Dan Sharpe 44:36Than-

Tim Fulton 44:36Well, you didn't know that they had a few more zeros.

Dan Sharpe 44:39Very true.

Tim Fulton 44:39Right.

Dan Sharpe 44:40Right, and so that was a big surprise.

Tim Fulton 44:42Last point, what are the large areas of distribution that you guys are doing?

Dan Sharpe 44:46So in 2015, that $176 million number that I mentioned, uh, the largest category of that was education, and that large- likely would include some of the scholarship-

Tim Fulton 44:57Okay

Dan Sharpe 44:57... dollars as, as well. And then social services, so the basic, the food, shelter, clothing, the nonprofit organizations that are doing such an important job in our community, uh, all throughout. And as the face of poverty changes and creeps more into the suburbs where people think everything might still be hunky-dory, many of our families are, are still experiencing poverty. Um, and then behind that, arts is a very large category of funding for us, from operating support to, uh, large presenting arts organizations, uh, to operating support to even volunteer-run grassroots presenting arts organizations.

Tim Fulton 45:33And I know I already said lastly, but what are the challenges that The Columbus Foundation faces that people should be aware of?

Dan Sharpe 45:40Um, I think w- from a donor side is the challenge and the misconception that, that there's not a place at the table for you.

Tim Fulton 45:47Okay.

Dan Sharpe 45:47Um, there absolutely is, and we want to work with you. Then some of the other challenges that the needs are ever-present in our community, and we're work- we are working with great partners, the organizations that are in the trenches and the boots that are on the ground. But all too often, those needs exceed the resources that are available. Even though we're a top 10 community foundation by assets, uh, we unfortunately have to say no to a lot of really great and good proposals from great and good organizations. But staying on top of the needs within our community that are often unseen, so I think of human trafficking, which is a, a tremendous issue in central Ohio, partly because of our geography, partly because of our population makeup in terms of age, but also economic levels. But then infant mortality I mentioned. These are often unseen, uh, and more so un- not talked about topics-

Tim Fulton 46:39Mm-hmm

Dan Sharpe 46:39... that very much have merit to be addressed, whether from the survivors of human trafficking finding gainful employment that's legal.

Tim Fulton 46:47Mm-hmm.

Dan Sharpe 46:47Whether it's addiction that, that they might be experiencing, or the, the variable factors to the infant mortality. Some of it is prenatal care. Some of it is just education-

Tim Fulton 46:57Right

Dan Sharpe 46:57... um, about the, the challenges of parenting and the health risks, uh, and some of it is economic, so ensuring that people are working in, you know, livable wages so that they can sustain and provide for their family. And so that's a challenge because these issues are so very complex that we can't often just go to a donor and say, "Give to X and y- you will bring-"

Tim Fulton 47:17And you will solve this problem.

Dan Sharpe 47:19Right.

Tim Fulton 47:19Right.

Dan Sharpe 47:19And, and there are many on-ramps for people to be engaged. So those would be the two challenges that I think are ever-present in our work.

Tim Fulton 47:27Great. Dan, thank you so much for your time today.

Dan Sharpe 47:29Tim, thank you for this opportunity.

Tim Fulton 47:41Thank you for listening to the Confluence Cast presented by Columbus Underground. Again, you can get more information on what we discussed today in the show notes for this episode at theconfluencecast.com. Please rate, subscribe, share this episode of the Confluence Cast with your friends, family, contacts, enemies, your most generous donor. If you're interested in sponsoring the Confluence Cast, get in touch with us. We can be reached by email at info@theconfluencecast.com. Our theme music was composed by Benji Robinson. I'm your host, Tim Fulton. Have a good week.